004 – Profitability in Focus

As high-growth companies shift their narrative toward profitability, investors need to decide if they believe the new story. Also, SoftBank minces words around growth vs. profitability, Kalanick’s Cloud Kitchens receives a massive valuation, and we discuss using capital as a weapon and adding software to low-margin businesses.
Top 3 Takeaways:

* Profitability is now front and center for late-stage and growth investors. Unprofitable companies like Uber and Lyft are now changing the narrative to fast-tracking profitability, but investors may not believe it.
* Raising at a high valuation early is viewed as a success, but may create an issue for attracting investors later.
* Many inherently low-margin businesses are innovating by adding software (see Amazon, Uber, WeWork, etc.) which causes confusion among investors about the true long-term margin profile of a business.


Show Notes

* [0:28] SoftBank’s conflicting message around profitability and long-term growth.
* [2:58] Did the size of the Vision Fund leave SoftBank outside of their core competency?
* [4:30] Valuing free cash flow for venture investments and why WeWork’s peak valuation was too high.
* [8:00] Now that profitability is a priority for investors, every high growth company has a plan to fast track profitability, but will investors believe the narrative?
* [14:50] Travis Kalanick’s Cloud Kitchens raises $400M at a $5B valuation.
* [17:19] What type of businesses can use capital as a weapon and when is raising too much money a negative?
* [20:00] Building a software layer on an inherently low-margin business does not create software-like margins.

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