Acquisition Price: $44 billion
Revenue (Dec-21): $5.08 billion
Revenue Multiple: 8.7x
Revenue (Dec-22 Forecast): $5.87 billion
Forward Revenue Multiple: 7.5x
Gross Profit Margin: 65%
EBITDA (Dec-21): $818 million
Sales Growth (2020-21): 37%
EBITDA Margin: 16%
‘Rule of 40’ Therefore = 53%
“BUT” The one word I listen for when I speak with entrepreneurs.
It’s a sign that they don’t fully have the entrepreneur mindset yet.
It’s the mind protecting them from the ‘FEAR’ of Failure and/or Rejection.
These are learned fears. Humans are only born with two fears. The fear of loud noises and falling.
An example of what is possible if you lack the fear of failure or rejection.
You just need to be curious, experiment and reiterate to overcome these fears, one small step (or trade) at a time.
We need more positive stories like these to show that anything is possible if you have an idea, execute on it and build up a supportive community along the way.
Anything is really possible.
Even trading a paper clip into a free-standing house.
What is your ‘Red Paper Clip’ Idea and first step/sale/pitch?
Kyle’s brilliant TEDx talk below 👇
A parent? Watch it with your kids.
Be the 12,372,653 rd person to watch it…
Paper Unicorns < Liquid Unicorns*
*A privately held startup company with a value of over $1 billion. It is commonly used in the venture capital industry. The term was first popularized by venture capitalist Aileen Lee.
Interested to track which creates real liquidity in the #vc ecosystem?
(Origami Creator: Jo Nakashima)
What’s the difference between:
‘Working IN your business’ vs.
‘Working ON your business’?
IN
When: Daily. Usually during ‘office hours’ and week days
Who: With employees/customers/founder
Where: In your office, where you ‘usually’ work.
ON
When: Rarely. Usually after ‘office hours’ and weekends or planned sessions at conferences, travelling or at a workshop.
Who: With co-founders and other entrepreneurs. With industry experts who have a fresh and unique perspective.
Where: Away from your desk, with your customers, at an innovation space.
In your favourite coffee shop or alone in a quiet space or on a walk.
A space to think, plan and do.
IN, revolves around working in your business for the present.
ON, revolves around working on your business for the future.
Cofounder Courtship: How to Find the Right Mate for Your Startup.
Do you need a cofounder?
1️⃣ How could a cofounder balance your skills and experience?
2️⃣ Is domain expertise critical for your venture?
3️⃣ Most importantly, do you value partnership, shared risk, and collaboration with others?
The Cofounder Courtship:
1️⃣ Conduct a listening tour by meeting other startup cofounders.
2️⃣ Write a cofounder job description and include experience, skills, and the ideal softer characteristics you seek in this person.
3️⃣ Try to meet at least 6 people at once.
4️⃣ Test the relationship beyond coffee chats and dinners.
5️⃣ Have vulnerable conversations.
6️⃣ Meet each other’s partners/families/colleagues.
So the loss of a founder break-up would have bigger repercussions. They met as their girlfriends (now wives) were best friends.
Also I suggest doing personality assessments to see how your profiles match/mismatch.)
You can’t beat the smell of a bookshop and the serendipity of a book selection on a Sunday.
Looking forward to reading William Macaskill’s new book: ‘What we owe the future.’
Some glowing endorsements:
Sam Harris
“No living philosopher has had a greater impact upon my ethics…. Altogether thrilling and necessary.”
Joseph Gordon-Levitt
“An optimistic look at the future that moved me to tears.”
Back page reads:
“Humanity is in its infancy. Our future could last for millions of years – or it could end tomorrow. An astonishing number of people could lead lives of great happiness or unimaginable suffering, or never live at all, depending on what we choose today.
As we approach a critical junction in our history l, we can make profound moral decisions about how humanity’s course plays out.
We can create positive change on behalf of future generations, to prevent the use of catastrophic weapons and maintain peace between the world’s great powers. We can improve our moral values, navigating the rise of AI and climate change more fairly for generations to come.
The challenges we face are enormous. But so is the influence we have. If we choose wisely, our distant descendants will look back on us fondly, knowing we did everything we could to give them a world that is beautiful and just.”
More info on the book’s website 👇
Optimism and the ability to see the Opportunity.
Important traits to have as an entrepreneur and leader.
You can’t lead, sell or grow if you are pessimistic and only see the problems.
Surround yourself with positive, optimistic and realistic people.
You are the average of the 5 people you surround yourself with.
I always try to be the most positive and optimistic person in the room or on zoom.
Who is your tribe of 5 (influencers and colleagues)?
Feel free to acknowledge their positive impact to you in the comments.
I feel sorry for VC’s (Venture Capitalists) or should we call them Video Cassettes
📼 (maybe 1980’s VC’s?)
Engineers or should we call them Beavers 🦫?
No ‘Digital Nomad’
All ‘Remote Workers’ are ‘Developers and Designers’.
Not sure how many developers work on Apple Mac’s 💻😜
Just a bit of weekend fun.
Legendary Berkshire Hathaway investor Charlie Munger speaks strongly about the importance of “Multidisciplinary Competence”.
Broadly defined as having competence to find solutions to complex problems from several perspectives.
Through intentional curiosity, curating and engagement with your own networks.
You have the ability to increase your own competence and provide a value-adding perspective to all your future engagements and investments.
I’m grateful to follow, be connected, message, meet, collaborate and partner with a growing diverse network of the smartest and pioneering thinkers and builders in the innovation space globally.
From University and MBA students
👩🏻🎓👨🏿🎓👩🏽🎓👨🏽🎓👩🏿🎓👨🏼🎓
To Founders & Entrepreneurs
👩🏿💻👨🏼💻👩🏽💻🧑🏽💻👩🏻💻🧑🏿💻
To HNWI 🤑
To Angel investors 😇
To VC’s 💵
To Corporate Intrapreneurs 👩💼👨💼
To Ecosystem Builders 👷♀️ 👷♂️
To Partners 🌍
They say, “A picture paints a thousand words.”
These numbers paint billions. 😜
Apple:
AirPods still lumped in “Wearables”—a juggernaut that deserves its own line.
Meta’s watching as Vision Pro AR glasses near launch—hardware domination continues.
Services RUNDLE (Apple Card, App Store, iCloud, TV+): impressive growth. Could it become their AWS in 5-10 years?
Amazon:
Reinvesting as always—Rivian losses ($300M) fuel EV logistics expansion.
Scaling smaller EV fleets—Tesla Semi competitor or lighter focus?
Alphabet:
YouTube Ads ($9.9B) growing with Shorts monetization.
Cloud ($9.5B) climbing steadily.
Waymo is still deep in the red.
Growth by Colab 