Sacks predicted that in 2H 2023 and through 2024 many startups that had delayed fundraising would hit low cash levels and be forced to raise into a much tougher funding environment than in prior years.

Global and regional data show a pronounced, prolonged funding crunch over exactly that window. Crunchbase data indicate global startup funding in 2023 fell to about $285B, down 38% from 2022 and the lowest since 2018, with early‑stage, late‑stage, and seed all dropping 30–40%; Q4 2023 was the weakest quarter in years, confirming a harsh fundraising backdrop as the second half of 2023 unfolded. (news.crunchbase.com) A CB Insights–based review similarly notes 2023 venture funding at its lowest since 2017, with late‑stage deal sizes halved vs. 2021 and IPOs at decade‑low levels, setting up a weak environment going into 2024. (foley.com)

Conditions did not normalize in 2024; they remained tight outside a small number of AI winners. Barron’s reports global VC investments in 2024 at $314B—only ~3% above 2023 and still about 55% below the 2021 peak, with a disproportionate share going to a handful of AI companies rather than the broader startup base. (barrons.com) In multiple ecosystems, this was explicitly described as a continuing “funding winter” and cash crunch: Indian startup funding fell 62% in 2023 to a six‑year low, helping drive tens of thousands of shutdowns and a very subdued 2024; analyses speak of a “relentless and prolonged funding winter” and deep cash shortages. (business-standard.com) Pakistan saw 2024 Q1 startup funding drop to zero deals, with commentary tying this to the weakest global tech funding since at least 2018. (brecorder.com) Reuters and others describe Europe and Indonesia facing similar 2023–24 funding collapses and explicit “funding crunch” conditions. (reuters.com)

Evidence also supports the mechanics Sacks described—companies that had extended runway after 2021 finding themselves forced back to market in 2H 2023–2024 and confronting harsher terms. A Silicon Valley Bank H2 2023 outlook estimated that U.S. VC‑backed tech startups collectively burned tens of billions per month and modeled a large share running out of runway by 2024, predicting outcomes like valuation capitulations, soft‑landing M&A, and outright failures if they couldn’t raise. (scribd.com) A separate fintech analysis forecast roughly a quarter of U.S. fintechs would be out of cash by Q3 2024 without new funding. (scribd.com) Empirical markers of this crunch show up in the surge of down rounds and alternative structures: Indian data show down rounds nearly quadrupling by early 2023 vs. a year prior, with commentators saying startups can no longer demand 2021‑style valuations. (hindustantimes.com) In Israel, a 2025 report finds that 43% of 1,530 startups surveyed needed to raise soon and 26% of 2024 later‑stage rounds were down rounds, reflecting widespread forced fundraising into reset valuations. (israeliinvestments.com) Across Europe, VC funding fell by more than half from 2021 to 2023, and startups increasingly relied on complex convertible‑debt structures to obtain cash while avoiding explicit valuation cuts, another sign of limited equity appetite on investor‑friendly terms. (reuters.com) Meanwhile, venture‑debt volumes hit record levels in 2024 as companies sought nondilutive capital in a “constrained equity market,” per the Wall Street Journal. (wsj.com)

Finally, industry observers explicitly anchored the timing of the reckoning to the same 2H 2023–2024 window. Elad Gil’s widely read "Startup Decoupling & Reckoning" essay argued that many companies which raised large 2021 rounds with 2–4 years of runway would hit a “hard reckoning” starting at the end of 2023 and accelerating through the end of 2024 as their cash ran out, closely matching Sacks’ timeline and logic. (blog.eladgil.com) Taken together—sharp and sustained global funding declines, a very tough 2H 2023 and 2024 environment outside a narrow AI boom, widespread down rounds and valuation resets, large numbers of startups facing or hitting cash‑out, and contemporaneous analyses pegging the crunch to exactly that period—the prediction that there would be a major funding crunch for startups in the second half of 2023 and throughout 2024, forcing many delayed fundraisers to raise under much tougher conditions, is well supported by the data.