It’s a difficult time for everyone especially for the companies that seek funding. If you run a startup and can survive with self-funding for six more months, it’s better not to seek funding from Venture Capitalists (VC) now.

For the first time since 1978, no VC-backed companies conducted an initial public offering this past quarter, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers, and the time it takes to exit an investment has doubled from 10 years ago. As a result, VCs are more cautious about where their money is going and companies looking for some seed or expansion funding might have to work a bit harder to get it.

It’s not only going to be harder, you need to give up more equity stake to VCs to get the required funding. There are some areas like iPhone app development still attract the VCs Silicon Valley. For everyone else, it’s a tough world out there.