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Companies built on bare human essentials will mostly thrive through this crisis. Companies built on nice-to-haves will have a harder time.
It& #39;s time to talk about fairweather businesses.
It& #39;s time to talk about fairweather businesses.
Nothing against them, but I& #39;m very wary usually when engaging with them, either as an investor or as a provider.
Even before this crisis (I started working before the 2008 crisis, so I know a thing or two), I& #39;ve only engaged in sound businesses that will be around no matter what
Even before this crisis (I started working before the 2008 crisis, so I know a thing or two), I& #39;ve only engaged in sound businesses that will be around no matter what
In some cases, I did it without knowing it, but I& #39;ll call that instinct. Again, nothing against them: everyone should work on what they love the most. There are some fairweather businesses that will thrive too during the covid crisis...
... either because they& #39;ve fundraised recently, or because they& #39;re extremely profitable and even with a sales decrease they can still make it through. Or better: they can pivot to something of extreme value to someone else.
The fairweather businesses of today are the http://pets.com"> http://pets.com of the dotcom bubble. Things we don& #39;t really need but we pay for because it& #39;s trendy or give faux social status. WeWork is at the forefront of all these self-pumped fairweather businesses.
Growth-based investment will not disappear as such, but it& #39;ll become the exception, rather than the rule. Investment funds will be looking for companies "close to profitability" or extremely cash-efficient ones.
All this capital that will be freed-up from the market will allow profitable companies to raise insane amounts of money on even more benefitial conditions for them (like Automattic - Wordpress - or Buffer), which will allow them to take over entire markets.
Smaller & sinking companies will be forced to close shop or to sell at a bargain to bigger companies. The so-called market correction will propel bigger companies. We might even see the new Microsoft/Google/Facebook/Amazon coming up in the next five years.
As an investor, I have only been investing in B2B enterprise companies (with two B2C exceptions - they just don& #39;t know yet they& #39;ll have to turn into B2B 
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="😬" title="Grimacing face" aria-label="Emoji: Grimacing face">). Big enterprises always need services, come hell or high water.
If I had more capital, or knew more about things that are not SaaS/Software, I would invest in health, food and developing countries infrastructure, as I see those as essential investments that will always be there.
I really hope we can all survive this crisis, but come on, some companies were hanging by a thread with their endless pivots, iterations and "lean" business plans. We could also call them self-help startups https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🤣" title="Rolling on the floor laughing" aria-label="Emoji: Rolling on the floor laughing">
