$1 Billion Dollar Business

Being an avid investor I read and listen to many business folks. You’ll often find CNBC or Bloomberg running on something around the house. Nonetheless I’ve been listening to many business folks recently in relation to startups and “the new generation” of companies and am continuously astounded at this obsession to build these gigantic and massive businesses worth billions of dollars. Now there is nothing wrong with that per se.

I don’t know what you think, but even though I’m a firm believer in capitalism, as well as being a very ambitious individual; I harbor no dream to build a bloated business that requires me to do more chaos management than strategizing (and all the other fun stuff related to running your own business). That may sound naive. Don’t we all want billion dollar valuations and a big safe like Scoorge McDuck to swim around in?

Taylor Davdison sums this up very nicely:

But should the goal really be bigger businesses? Are bigger businesses necessarily better businesses? Shouldn’t the goal be better businesses? And where are the metrics to measure that?

I’d also like to add that businesses should be about solving problems, having fun & being passionate about the things you do. If it’s not all that, it doesn’t matter how big your company is or even less or much it is worth.

There are so many companies out there that really are not just want they are made out to be and it took a while for the market to see that through…ie: Zynga & Groupon.

Either way have a look at this very cool graphic from the Wall Street Journal depicting the “Billion Dollar Club”. Make sure to click play at the top to see the past years and companies that have come and gone.