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  3. In recent weeks, Ben Silbermann, a co-founder of the digital pinboard service Pinterest, resigned as chief executive; Joe Gebbia

In recent weeks, Ben Silbermann, a co-founder of the digital pinboard service Pinterest, resigned as chief executive; Joe Gebbia

admin2022-12-09  95
问题     In recent weeks, Ben Silbermann, a co-founder of the digital pinboard service Pinterest, resigned as chief executive; Joe Gebbia, a co-founder of the home rental company Airbnb, announced his departure from the company’s leadership; and Apoorva Mehta, the founder of the grocery delivery app Instacart, said he would end his run as executive chairman when the company went public, as soon as this year.
    The resignations signify the end of an era at these companies, which are among the most valuable and well-known to emerge from Silicon Valley in the past decade, and of the era they represent. In recent years, investors have dumped increasingly large sums of money into a group of highly valued start-ups known as unicorns, worth $1 billion or more, and their founders have been treated as visionary heroes. Those founders fought for special ownership rights that kept them in control of their companies—a change from the past, when entrepreneurs were often replaced by more experienced executives or pressured to sell.
    But when the stock market fell dramatically this year, hitting money-losing tech companies especially hard, this approach began to change. Venture capitalists pulled back on their deal-making and urged Silicon Valley’s prized young companies to cut costs and proceed cautiously. The industry began to talk of "wartime C.E.O.s" who can do more with less, while bragging about lessons learned from previous downturns.
    Patience for visionaries wore thin. Founder-led companies started to seem like liabilities, not assets. "All of that changed in the last 90 days, and it’s not coming back anytime soon," said Wil Schroter, the founder of Startups.com, an accelerator program for young companies. The "we’ll figure it out later" story is no longer attractive to investors, he added.
    They’re not leaving on a high note. Shares of Pinterest are down 60 percent from a year ago. Elliott Management, an activist shareholder known for pressuring companies to make big changes, recently took a stake in the company. Airbnb shares are down 25 percent from a year ago. And Instacart lowered its internal valuation almost 40 percent in March, as it prepares to go public in a hostile market.
    "It’s surely less fun being a C.E.O. when markets are down, the economy is trending negative and regulation is increasing," said Kevin Werbach, a professor of business at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. "If you’re as already rich, famous and successful as these guys, there usually comes a point where staying in the saddle is less appealing than riding off into the sunset."
What can be concluded about co-founders from the last two paragraphs?
选项 A、They undergo losses even before the stock market loses ground.
B、They manage to push companies to go public in an unfavorable environment.
C、They feel free to tackle economic recession and increased oversight.
D、They had better withdraw from their posts given the current situation.
答案D
解析 推断题。根据题干可定位至第五段和第六段。D项对应第六段最后一句If you’re as already rich，famous and successful as these guys，there usually comes a point where staying in the saddle is less appealing than riding off into the sunset(如果你已经像这些人一样有钱，有名，也很成功，那么通常在某一个时刻，适时离开比留在原地更具有吸引力)，该项属于合理转述，故正确。A项属于时态混淆，由原文可推知，在股市失利后创始人纷纷出走，故排除该项。B项与第五段最后一句And Instacart lowered its internal valuation almost 40 percent in March，as it prepares to go public in a hostile market (Instacart准备在市场行情不好时上市，今年3月将其内部估值降低了近40％)相悖，原文只说市场行情不好，并未提及创始人设法推动公司上市，该项属于主观臆断，故排除。C项与第六段第一句It’s surely less fun being a C.E.O. when markets are down, the economy is trending negative and regulation is increasing (在市场低迷、经济趋于下行、监管不断加强之际，担任首席执行官肯定没那么有趣了)相悖，该项属于是非混淆，故排除。故本题答案为D项。
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