Are investors tired of the grand visions and lofty rhetoric that have done so much to fuel the tech boom?

When stocks soared, it seemed like every tech start-up wanted to change the world. Big claims have been used to justify big bets. They were also used to get investors to look beyond the loss-making present – ​​where often there wasn’t even a plan to make a profit – and instead focus on the sunny highlands in the distant future.

These days, only cryptocurrency startups still seem to cling wholeheartedly to the revolutionary rhetoric – although after the market meltdown that happened late last year, even emails in the name of new crypto projects arrive in the inbox with an almost apologetic shrug.

It’s unclear to what extent this simply represents a change in style to fit the times and to what extent it’s a real step back from the kind of risk-taking that characterized the long tech boom. . The language that floated over a thousand start-ups is being reshaped. Finding a new rhetoric – and a new approach to investing – to match the new mood is a work in progress.

One of the most striking signs of this change was the surprising retirement of Masayoshi Son, the chief executive of SoftBank who has long spearheaded the visionary style. Son has played on his reputation as a tech seer to justify some of his biggest bets, even when his explanations have slipped into nebula.

Last week, a humble son declared himself “ashamed” of the joy he had felt over SoftBank’s past investment gains – many of which existed only on paper. It was unclear whether he was setting the stage for a complete reversal that would see one of the tech boom’s biggest risk takers now adopt a purely defensive strategy, or whether the new humility was primarily for public consumption as SoftBank licks his wounds and prepares for his next iteration.

Some other investors who fueled the boom — albeit with less overt cheerleaders than Son — also lined up their mea culpas. Tiger Global, the US investment firm that has placed more bets than any other firm on late-stage tech start-ups, revealed its latest losses earlier this month, including that its long-only fund fell more than 60% this year. In a letter to investors, he admitted to overestimating the power of technology to keep inflationary forces in the economy at bay. Apparently, it was a case of believing too much in the supposedly transformative nature of the very companies he supported.

If this new tone of grief is on the agenda, it has not been unanimous.

When venture capitalist Marc Andreessen unveiled a big investment in WeWork founder Adam Neumann’s latest startup this week, he brought together two figures who epitomized the expansive style of the tech boom. For their fans, they have a clearer view than many of the big opportunities offered by today’s technological changes – and are willing to place bigger bets accordingly. For their detractors, their sweeping statements represent the apotheosis of media hype.

Details about the new company, which will be involved in residential real estate, are scarce. But in a blog post, Andreessen said what was needed was “seismic change” and “rethinking the entire value chain” in “the largest asset class in the world”.

Silicon Valley has not always relied on such language to promote ideas that could change the world. Take Google’s announcement in 1999 that it had raised $25 million in its only venture capital round. He took advantage of the news to declare what, in retrospect, seems a relatively modest ambition: to build “the best search experience on the web”.

Certainly, co-founder Sergey Brin added that a “perfect” search engine – which Google hoped one day to be – would be able to “process and understand all the information in the world”. But the focus was on a single technological goal: improving research.

Despite the pullback in tech stocks, the long-term investment opportunities in the rise of the digital economy have not changed. But the appetite for high claims has waned as backers focus on short-term questions such as whether there is demonstrable demand for a new idea and whether it has a solid economic base.

The winners in a less overheated investment climate will be companies that keep the long-term opportunity in their sights, but also find a new way to convey how they plan to get there.

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