A short excerpt from a YouTube conversation (Charles Hudson and another speaker) about spotting and investing in high-value startups (unicorns). The speakers discuss the challenge of valuing companies like Stripe and OpenAI, the outsized returns possible (e.g., ~300x cited), and the contrasting position of large funds versus emerging managers who face painful swings when entering at high prices.
Chapters
People got into Stripe at a billion people got into OpenAI at a billion still TBD but the data would suggest that you're up 300x not accounting for dilution and I think that's a different kind of bravery is the ability to see a company that's already valuable and be able to envision a world in which it becomes significantly more valuable And I think people like knock the big funds that I'm like I think it's very hard to see a company like Stripe and say I know it's at a billion today the ceiling is a hundred and you'd be like well do not have 100x from a billion unless you do.
I think that those are the outcomes that they need so it makes sense for them to jump into those companies Whereas I think think of, I don't know, emerging managers were on fund one and fund two. Those swings and misses are very painful because you come in at such a high price. We're seeing this divergence and the split out intensive deals that folks are looking at just given how big their firms are that.