The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
00:42:14 · Harry Stebbings, Rory O'Driscoll
[00:42:14] S2: Jason, speaking about multiples and how public markets think about multiples where they're appreciated, where they're not, A fascinating one for me was actually Berkshire doubling down on Bending Spoons. Obviously, bought $330,000,000 of new shares, caused a massive bump in the stock price. And the assets that these... That Bending Spoons is buying are traditionally slightly challenged assets, slowing growth rates, not the darlings. And then the price premium that's being placed on Bending Spoons, the holding company right now in public markets is enormous. I'm just intrigued, boys. How did we think about this? [00:42:48] S1: Did not expect us.
00:42:48 · Rory O'Driscoll, Jason Lemkin
[00:42:48] S1: Did not expect us. [00:42:49] S0: I think it makes sense. I think I think Bending Spoons is like the Berkshire version of software, right? It's like C's candy or Coke. Like they're trusting that the boys have... This is not... They're not flipping them. These are holding companies. Warren Buffett wanted to hold C's forever, right? And Bending Spoons is saying, listen, we're going to be diligent. We look at a thousand deals a year or whatever you have. What is it Harry? 5,000 deals a year. We're to do five or six. And we're going to find enduring software assets that we're going to hold for as long as we can hold them. And if you actually step back for a minute, the quality assets is improving. Vimeo, kind of a dog that they kept. I mean, Evernote, kind of a dog. Now they made them work with price increases, right? They're gonna make money off both those deals, right? Eventbrite, kind of a dog. Like Mira on Airtable, I'm gonna argue better. And so I think Berkshire is saying, listen, you're gonna make these into a bunch of C's candies and Coca Colas, and folks think you can't make them enduring, but you're gonna make these endure for a decade or longer. Maybe I'm wrong, but I think they ultimately probably see some similar attributes that they can make these long lasting assets. [00:43:49] S1: Yes. It's [00:43:49] S0: just like See's candy.
00:43:49 · Jason Lemkin, Rory O'Driscoll, Harry Stebbings
[00:43:49] S0: just like See's candy. [00:43:50] S1: Get a See's candy from the 1960s and get a See's candy from today and you look at them side by side, they pretty much look like the same thing. I don't think that'll be the case for the Evernote product of 2080. [00:44:02] S0: No, but my point is it may be as close as you get in software, the bending spoons model, because they're going to keep these and keep these assets, and invest them. I'm not saying it's the same as a Seas candy. [00:44:11] S1: I describe it as it's conceptually the same idea as Berkshire Hathaway, but perhaps in an industry where the idea doesn't apply. [00:44:18] S0: Or maybe you let... It's like Jane Street putting all the money into whatever his his name, Leo Apuchol. Like Berkshire's like this is close to what we're doing it's not our core we're going to let the Italian guys do it and we'll take a meaningful position and we think they have something that we think that they're going to be able to maintain this incredible growth level because they will have a thousand assets to look at it a year, and we'll be able to maintain them in a way Vista can't. [00:44:42] S2: Guys, you can also guide. We we can do General Atlantic set to IPO. We can do Tesla, the new Roadster, Unbelievable videos of cars that literally elevate themselves with thrusters. We can do benchmark on stage conceding that competition. It's a bit of a flimsy term in Venture these days. Any predilection as to where you wanna go? [00:45:03] S0: You know, I wanted to do the 37 signals one, but We
00:45:03 · Jason Lemkin, Harry Stebbings, Rory O'Driscoll
[00:45:03] S0: You know, I wanted to do the 37 signals one, but We [00:45:06] S2: can do 37 signals. David Harnema Hansen, who is an incredible race car driver, has the most extensive library of race cars. 37 signals made 370,000,000 in profit since 2020. Bootstrapping ain't all that bad. Hey? [00:45:22] S1: I was... Yeah. I was gonna say all... I mean, you know, going back to the conversation at the start, all these software companies, none of the VCs cares. Well, if you hold onto it yourself and pull out $370,000,000 I think you'll be fine. That was a great result. I did not... I knew it was good. [00:45:35] S0: I don't think... I think that was wrong for what it's worth. I think it's directionally correct. I think the point that was making, which is interesting is they say they do 10% profit sharing. Right? So if you do 37,000,000 of profit sharing, it's 10%. Rory can help me with the math. I think that would suggest overall profits for $3.70. I don't think it could make that much money. I'm guessing it does 60 to $70.60 ish million a year. Right. And even if it's, even if 40,000,000 can go to the bottom line, [00:45:58] S1: it's times six. You are two
00:45:58 · Rory O'Driscoll, Jason Lemkin
[00:45:58] S1: it's times six. You are two [00:46:00] S0: forty. It may be in the zone. Right? It may be a little high. But when you look at the fleets of cars and all that, obviously, you know, they've been making this kind of money. I'll tell you a couple of thoughts. One is it's something to reflect on in the era. I don't think we're gonna have a lot of one person billion dollar startups but we could have much smaller teams, right? The one I kind of the one I thought about for the AI era is man Zapier should have been this. People throw out Zapier or Zapier as the one and done example in venture. Like, and for VCs, it's great, right? You raise one round of whatever out of YC. I think there was a quiet secondary round from Bessemer, but really one venture round and you get up to, they're at 300,000,000 in revenue today. Growth has probably slowed, probably not going to IPO as its current company, but a great company that did something generational. What if they raised nothing and the three of us just split 200 of the 300? Like you could do worse. [00:46:48] S1: Yeah, think you could go I [00:46:49] S0: mean, GA guys may make more, but you could do worse, right? So I almost wondered if this one and done, which I used to be a fan of is going to be a trap in the new age. None and done is much better because it's tough to do dividends, And one and done, you can do them right. And one and done, but it's, it's tougher. It's tougher to do dividends with the benchmark team. Right? They're not really that interested in the dividends, are they?
00:46:49 · Jason Lemkin, Harry Stebbings
[00:46:49] S0: mean, GA guys may make more, but you could do worse, right? So I almost wondered if this one and done, which I used to be a fan of is going to be a trap in the new age. None and done is much better because it's tough to do dividends, And one and done, you can do them right. And one and done, but it's, it's tougher. It's tougher to do dividends with the benchmark team. Right? They're not really that interested in the dividends, are they? [00:47:09] S2: Can you not just buy out investors? If you're a Zappier, you just go, listen, guys. Say a five x multiple will will buy you out at a 1,500,000,000 price. You want the liquidity. [00:47:19] S0: It can. It gets... I mean, it doesn't happen that... Maybe we're working up with some examples. It does happen, but it gets expensive to do it from free cash flow. Even if you have a lot of it, it's not that simple. Right? It's not... It can be done. Right? Buffer did it. Expensify did it, but they all did it at pretty mediocre outcomes to the investors. Think Redpoint made like nothing unexpensify, but probably more than if they'd held IPO. It's tough. I like none and done better than one and done.