Elon Musk vs Sam Altman | The Implosion of Thinking Machines | Can VC Survive Public Pricing?
Summary
Public markets are sifting and sorting, valuing high-growth at 70x sales while low-growth gets discarded. This reinforces the VC trend business - be in the 'hot stuff' even if the rest of the portfolio looks mediocre compared to market leaders like Figma.
Key Takeaways
- High-growth companies are getting absurdly high 70x forward revenue multiples, while low-growth gets low multiples.
- Even a great product like Figma, down 20% from IPO, can make a VC portfolio look underwhelming in comparison.
- The VC business is about being in the 'hot stuff', even if the rest of your portfolio lags market leaders.
Related topics
Transcript Excerpt
If Figma isn't good enough, what hope is there for the rest of us in software? I look at my portfolio. What the hell am I going to say at board meetings this week? Rory, >> but but hang on. I'm just going to say something. You know, this is 20BC with me, Harry Stabbings, and this week, my word, we have a lot to discuss. >> We've spoken about the breakup of teams. I have to jump to the ultimate breakup of breakups being Sam versus Elon. How do we see this playing out? >> It's going to be the gift that keeps on giving. If you're the kind of person who slows down at a traffic accident, in other words, if you're like 90% of humanity, you're going to be slowing down every time the depos come out. It's going to be great. >> In some ways, I feel like venture and tech is a bit of a scam. Our job i…
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