Jason M. LemkinCEO, SaaStr · Co-Founder of SaaStr AI, SaaStr Fund, Adobe Sign

The Challenging Reality of Stagnant Valuations: Is the Tech Industry Stuck?

28 Dec 2023 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

0:48

Short transcript excerpt from a December 28, 2023 YouTube conversation led by Jason M. Lemkin expressing concern about persistent low public-company valuation multiples ("6x world"). Lemkin notes this multiple regime hasn't prevailed since ~2017–2018, cites examples (Appfolio, Cloudflare, Mongo), and says prolonged low multiples would stress the system even if fastest-growing companies can still expand.

Chapters

My, my. I'm discouraged for the first time in my career at public multiples and I.
Am worried that.
If we stay in a 6x world that we haven't really learned to live in a world where companies are worth 6x, they get funding's.
Harder but.
We haven't lived in a 6x world for real since 2017. 28. Like if you look at Appfolio which I just wrote up today, if you look at Cloudflare, if you look at Mongo, it's almost the best it's not the best of times but it's darn close, right? That's a long time ago.
Right, so we don't, we, we, we're.
Not going right now. We actually haven't gone back to 1819. We've gone back further and I'm, I'm, I'm totally, I, I'm excited about how the fastest can grow but this multiple.
Thing, you.
Know, if it, if it, if we stay here forever, it just, it puts a lot of stress on.
The system and.
Maybe it's deserved.