2min snip

In The Trenches cover image

Jeff Stevens & A.J. Wasserstein on The Future of Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition

In The Trenches

NOTE

Risks and Opportunities in Revenue Multiples for Business Valuation

The speaker discusses the risks and potential sustainability of buying businesses on revenue multiples, highlighting the unpredictability of multiple expansion and the potential for multiple compression through a market cycle. They acknowledge the significant gains achieved by paying six times the entry multiple for businesses and eventually exiting at an average of 13.8 times. However, they caution that such high exit valuations may not be sustainable through a market cycle. The speaker emphasizes the uncertainty around maintaining revenue multiples and the real risk of multiple compression, especially in businesses with five to eight times annual recurring revenue (ARR) multiples. They also warn about the potential disastrous outcome of getting flipped into an EBITDA multiple and highlight the high risk of expecting expansion on an ARR multiple business.

00:00

Get the Snipd
podcast app

Unlock the knowledge in podcasts with the podcast player of the future.
App store bannerPlay store banner

AI-powered
podcast player

Listen to all your favourite podcasts with AI-powered features

Discover
highlights

Listen to the best highlights from the podcasts you love and dive into the full episode

Save any
moment

Hear something you like? Tap your headphones to save it with AI-generated key takeaways

Share
& Export

Send highlights to Twitter, WhatsApp or export them to Notion, Readwise & more

AI-powered
podcast player

Listen to all your favourite podcasts with AI-powered features

Discover
highlights

Listen to the best highlights from the podcasts you love and dive into the full episode