Howard Buffett Is Getting His Hands Dirty [H/T Linc] (LINK)
Related book: 40 ChancesThe Light-Beam Rider - by Walter Isaacson (LINK)
Related book: Einstein: His Life and UniverseAmazon Killed the Bookstore. So It’s Opening a Bookstore (LINK)
Sam Altman: The Tech Bust of 2015 (LINK)
So where is the problem? Late-stage private valuations. But perhaps the answer is that these “investments” aren’t really equity—they’re much more like debt. [1] I saw terms recently that had a 2x liquidation preference (i.e. the investors got the first 2x their money out of the company when it exited) and a 3x liquidation cap (i.e. after they made 3x their money, they didn’t get any more of the proceeds).
This is hardly an equity instrument at all. [2] The example here is an extreme case, but not wildly so. Investors are buying debt but dressing it up close enough to equity to maintain their venture capital fund exemption status. In a world of 0 percent interest rates, people become pretty focused on finding new sources for fixed income.