> Startup mergers and acquisitions are also trending downward.

That's not what the TechCrunch article actually says.

The article says that the big mergers and acquisitions are down. But the big M&A are the economic equivalent of luxury real estate deals. Do you really care that a Hollywood celebrity can't sell his or her mansion at a nice price?

Most people are interested in their segment. In fact, smaller M&A deals are on the rise: http://www.successfulacquisitions.net/ma-today-smaller-deals..., and the chances are, your startup, if it does not go belly up, will end up in this category.

Huge M&A are difficult to pull properly. The fact that there are fewer is a good thing. It will also make the evaluations more reality-based and not based on "but mommy, I wanna be a unicorn too".

Interesting. Thanks for sharing!

Doesn't matter if you vested everything or received refreshes, raises, etc. Your measly 10% raise every successful promotion once every 2 years is nothing compared to offers doubling for experienced engineers over the past 5-6 years (at least in SV).