Elon Musk vs Sam Altman | The Implosion of Thinking Machines | Can VC Survive Public Pricing?

By 20VC

Categories: VC, Startup

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

1. High-growth companies are getting absurdly high 70x forward revenue multiples, while low-growth gets low multiples.
2. Even a great product like Figma, down 20% from IPO, can make a VC portfolio look underwhelming in comparison.
3. The VC business is about being in the 'hot stuff', even if the rest of your portfolio lags market leaders.

Topics

• Public Market Valuations
• VC Portfolio Management
• High-Growth vs Low-Growth Companies

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...