TechCrunch+ roundup: Normalizing down rounds, 2023 climate trends, term sheet basics

The “Pineapple Express” that dropped several inches of rain over the Bay Area last week left the ground saturated. The next storm front expected to arrive tomorrow is expected to bring disruption and destruction on a massive scale. It’s a decent metaphor for our startup ecosystem: Just as there aren’t enough sandbags in San Francisco to keep everyone’s house dry, rising interest rates, skittish…

Worry not: Down rounds are still rare by historical standards

If you thought that the recent venture capital market was tough, let me tell you about 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020. With the first week of December under our belts, we’re not too far away from the end of the year. And that means that 2022’s venture capital story has largely been written. It’s not a single narrative; instead, this year started on a high, with momentum from the monstrous 2021…