• 2023 should curtail the current flow of bad startup ideas.

• Easy money and tech solutionism saw investors juicing everything from NFTs to dog-walking startups.

• The collapse of FTX and other startups, plus higher interest rates, should push them to be more disciplined.

Lately, few ideas have proven to be too dumb for venture capital money.

VCs are in the business of betting on speculative ideas. The way it roughly works is to bet millions across lots of startups in the hope one of them blows up and returns that cash.

But a blitz in capital and a perhaps misguided faith in technology have seen VCs juice up everything from robot pizza makers to NFTs to dog-walking apps over the past few years.

VC silliness peaked this year in the public consciousness. Elizabeth Holmes, the fraudulent founder of venture-backed Theranos, was sentenced to more than 11 years in prison. Her downfall was portrayed in ABC News series "The Dropout." VC-fueled founder hubris also hit the entertainment mainstream through "WeCrashed", the dramatization of the WeWork saga, and "SuperPumped", which centers on Uber's enfant terrible Travis Kalanick. None of this is a good look for an industry that prides itself on funding innovation.

Still, a combination of reputational damage and a tightening monetary environment should mean VCs pull back from startups that clearly have no chance in hell.

Why bad businesses got so much money

Some gory details around recent startup collapses might make even the most financially unsavvy spectator ask how on earth so many investment professionals were happy to overlook obvious problems.

Take FTX, the crypto exchange led by disgraced founder Sam Bankman-Fried that collapsed with an $8 billion hole. Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas and awaits possible extradition to the US. At its peak, the exchange won investment from blue-chip names such as SoftBank, Lightspeed, and Sequoia — the latter once crowing about being won over by Bankman-Fried as he played 'League of Legends' during a pitch meeting.