
Jeff Bezos has amplified the warning to investors of Bill Gurley, a general partner from Benchmark Capital. MarketWatch reports:
Onto ourย call of the day, which comes from Bill Gurley, general partner at Benchmark Capital and a venture capitalistย who made a $11 million betย in Uberย UBER,ย -4.37%ย in 2011. Several of his more than a half million followers on Twitter sat bolt upright after thisย Twitter thread:
โAn entire generation of entrepreneurs & tech investors build their entire perspectives on valuations during the second half of a 13-year amazing bull run. The โunlearningโ process could be painful, surprising and & unsettling to many. I anticipate denial,โ tweets Hurley, who adds three points to this:
- Previous โall-timeโ highs are completely irrelevant. Itโs not โcheapโ because it is down 70%. Forget those prices happened.
- Valuation multiples are always a hack proxy. Dangerous to use. If you insist, 10X should be considered AMAZING and an upper limit. Over that silly.
- You may be shocked to learn that people want to value your company on FCF [free cashflow] and earnings. Facebook trades at 14X GAAP & is growing 23%. What earnings multiples are you assuming?
- Revenue & earnings QUALITY matter.
Gurleyย linked to his blog from 2011, where he explained that discounted cash flows โare the true drivers of value for any financial asset, companies included,โ and that price/revenue is a โdangerous technique because all revenues are not created equal.โ
Among those reacting to Gurley was Amazonย AMZN,ย -3.04%ย CEO Jeff Bezos, whose stock is facing its worst year since 2008, after the companyโsย first loss in seven years:
Bill is without doubt one of the smartest people I know and always worth listening to. Most people dramatically underestimate the remarkableness of this bull run. Such things are unstoppable โฆ until they arenโt. Markets teach. The lessons can be painful. https://t.co/4DjgEvr0tg
โ Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) April 30, 2022
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