Uber ‘got lucky’ and some unicorns will die this year predicts venture capitalist Bill Gurley

Bill Gurley (l) with Malcolm Gladwell at SXSW today

Prominent US tech investor Bill Gurley has said Uber “got lucky” because millenials “don’t give a shit about cars” and said a “complete absence of fear” in Silicon Valley would lead to some prominent startups failing this year.

Speaking at SXSW overnight in an interview with New York Times journalist Malcolm Gladwell, Gurley, whose  investments include Stitch Fix and Vessel, said another of his companies Snapchat, was transitioning to be a media company.

On issues in Silicon Valley and the startup market he said it was in a “risk bubble” with companies paying above the odds for startups, predicting there would be “a lot of dead unicorns this year” referring to companies whose valuation have soared after fundraising rounds.