Entrepreneurs and investors have been enamored with consumer internet startups for the last few years. But there are signs this is ending.

Some observations:

- Thousands of early-stage consumer web/mobile companies were started and funded in last 24 months.

- There are only a few dozen VCs who actively write consumer Series A checks, and those VCs will only do a few deals a year.

- Facebook’s market cap is about half of what most tech investors expected before the IPO.

- A few breakout early-stage consumer hits (Instagram, Pinterest) have reached tens of millions of users in record time.

- Internet users have tens of thousands of services/apps to choose from but limited time and attention.

Some consequences:

- For consumer startups with non-transactional models (ad-based or unknown business models), you need something closer to 10 million users versus 1 million users to get Series A funded.

- For consumer startups with transactional ...