Is venture capital the fuel behind world-changing innovation…or just a glorified pyramid scheme where everyone’s pretending they’re building the next Uber while actually praying for a higher valuation before the money runs out?
In this spicy episode of UnicornPrn, Melissa and Lloyed expose how the game is played — founders chasing funding like junkies, markups for AI buzzwords duct-taped to a landing page, unicorn markdowns like it’s Black Friday, and accelerators slapping lipstick on broken products for Demo Day.

Highlights:

• Why VC math makes founders lie to themselves (and investors)
• The dark side of accelerators, demo days, and “investor theater”
• The billion-dollar valuation addiction—and who’s really winning
• The culture of secondary exits, fake wins, and quiet shutdowns
• What happens when the market corrects and the music stops

Hot Takes:

• “A startup that needs constant funding to survive isn’t building... It’s bleeding.”
• “More startups die of indigestion than starvation.”
  
  

If you’re tired of the startup smoke and mirrors, this episode is your wake-up call, and your laugh track.

Listen now. Laugh hard. Think twice. Build smart.

Contact UnicornPrn

• Find show notes of each episode on UnicornPrn.com - hit subscribe like it owes you money

About our hosts

• Melissa Kwan is Cofounder and CEO of eWebinar, and a 3X bootstrapper who has spent the last 14 years building companies without ever raising a cent of venture capital.
• Lloyed Lobo is a WSJ bestselling author, Cofounder of Boast.AI and Traction founder community, startup advisor, angel investor, board member, and LP in multiple VC funds — he’s seen startup chaos from both sides of the term sheet.
• LinkedIn: Melissa Kwan and Lloyed Lobo
• Instagram: @themelissakwan and @lloyedlobo⁠⁠
• YouTube: @themlissakwan and @StartupTraction
• Subscribe to 'your founder next door' at melissakwan.com, Melissa's bi-monthly newsletter on how to build a company without an abundance of resources and fr...