Market cycles have a predictable, almost rhythmic cruelty. They tend to reward the loudest voices during the ascent and abandon them first during the correction. For Pavitra Walvekar, the most expensive mistake an investor can make is mistaking a "venture-subsidised" hockey stick for a sustainable business model.

In the frenzy of the last decade, we saw a decoupling of valuation from the cold, unyielding physics of cash flow. We began to value the "theatre" of the startup, the massive rounds, the headcount expansion, the aggressive land grabs, rather than the structural integrity of the asset itself.