Valley’s Venture Capitalists Are Souring on Uber-Style Startups
- Hurdles to profit are more onerous than originally advertised
- Death of Homejoy cleaning service was Bear Stearns ‘harbinger’
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A startup calling itself the Uber for x, y or z merited at least a look from a venture-capital firm a few months ago. Now VCs are more likely to roll their eyes and say: “Come on, not another one.”
Over the past five years, investors have poured billions of dollars into U.S. companies touting Uberesque services -- dog-walking, house-cleaning, waiting-in-line -- a sector known as the on-demand economy. Now they’re losing patience because many of these firms are taking longer than expected to become profitable.