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What Aswath Damodaran thinks about startups

@aswath-damodaran · 15 positions · 0 changes of mind

Professor of finance at NYU’s Stern School of Business, known for his work on valuation. Publishes his valuations, spreadsheets and data openly at Musings on Markets, and revises them in public when the numbers move against him.

Everything they publish, on ppll ↗

Aswath Damodaran did not write this page.

We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.

5 dated positions, 2025 to 2026, in their own words. Our reading of what Aswath Damodaran has said — not written or endorsed by them.

5 positions so far — this page is not yet offered to search engines.

  1. Our readingApplying scale-first, profit-later to every business is a cookbook that turns small failures into big ones.

    Their wordsAny investor or founder who blindly follows the pathway of scaling first and profiting later for every business is using a cookbook approach to business building, and runs the risk of making small failures into big ones.

    ↗The Scaling and Profitability Trade off: Venture Capital’s Weakest Link!aswathdamodaran.blogspot.com 1st of 5 in this piece

    investing

    Interesting

  3. Our readingVenture capitalists are judged on the price they entered and exited at, not on the quality of the business they built.

    Their wordsVC success is measured based on price at entry and price at exit on an investment, rather than the quality of the business built

    ↗The Scaling and Profitability Trade off: Venture Capital’s Weakest Link!aswathdamodaran.blogspot.com 2nd of 5 in this piece

    Interesting

  5. Our readingThe median venture capitalist has produced no more excess return than the median mutual-fund or private-equity manager.

    Their wordsthe median venture capitalist has not been much better at harvesting alpha than the median mutual fund manager or PE investor

    ↗The Scaling and Profitability Trade off: Venture Capital’s Weakest Link!aswathdamodaran.blogspot.com 3rd of 5 in this piece

    investing

    Interesting

  7. Our readingCompanies now go public later, bigger and unprofitable: fewer than a quarter of the last decade’s IPOs were making money.

    Their wordsWhile it was routine for companies going public in the 1980s to be profitable (>80% were), less that a quarter of the companies that have gone public in the last decade have been profitable.

    ↗The Scaling and Profitability Trade off: Venture Capital’s Weakest Link!aswathdamodaran.blogspot.com 5th of 5 in this piece

    Interesting
  8. 9 months earlier

  9. Our readingInvestors in the largest tech companies have voluntarily surrendered their governance rights, leaving founders with unchecked power.

    Their wordsinvestors at many tech companies, including most on the large cap list, have given up their corporate governance rights, often voluntarily (through the acceptance of shares with different voting rights), to founders and top management in these companies

    ↗Trillion Dollar Market Caps: Fairy Tale Pricing or Business Marvels?aswathdamodaran.blogspot.com 2nd of 4 in this piece

    investing

    Interesting