And just like that, the VC community can breathe a collective sigh of relief upon the return of the IPO market after a long hiatus. After the IPO filing of the Softbank-owned chipmaker Arm two weeks ago, Instacart and Klaviyo have since earned the esteemed titles as the first venture-backed companies to file for IPO since December 2021. What sets this cohort of companies apart from the cohort of money-losing companies that IPO’ed in the frenzy of 2020 and 2021 is their profitability. Apparently time-tested standards like demonstrable growth and earnings have made it back into back into vogue—something I reckon is a pretty good thing after that all that pandemic-era irrational exuberance.