The sky-high valuations for startups and the rapid pace that venture capital was deployed throughout 2021 were always accompanied by the question, how long can it last? Record inflation and rising interest rates answered it loud and clear as tech stocks have tumbled recently, Wailin Wong and Adrian Ma report for NPR. In a nine-minute segment for “Planet Money,” Wong and Ma discuss how VC firms get their funding from limited partners, or LPs, and as LPs invest less, so do VC firms. Nicole DeTomasso, a senior associate at Harlan Capital, said the advice is for startups to have 18 to 24 months of cash on hand to make up for the funding that won’t be available through venture capital, and if that isn’t an option, it’s time to start looking at the company’s budget. DeTomasso notes this likely means layoffs for some startups as “human capital” is their biggest cost. Start the segment at the two-minute mark to jump to the heart of the story.