> TechCrunch has obtained documents that show Pinterest has been forecasting $169 million in revenue this year and $2.8 billion in annual revenue by 2018.
So in three years, they'll have to grow revenues by 16.5X. These sort of outlandish growth assumptions necessary to substantiate their valuation is exhibit A as to why the a16z valuation is extremely suspect.
Of course, 16.5X growth is doable when you are starting from a low number, but $169MM ain't spit.
And all the being said, $169MM for 2015 is just a forecast, so if they miss on Q4 numbers, the 16.5X assumption can easily be 20-25X.
On the plus side, their revenues per active user target of $9.34 is relatively modest, and I think doable as FB does $4.18 per user per quarter in revenue.
Just some more data to support your point. Some research by Institutional Venture Partners in 2013 showed that in companies over $150M in revenue, around 30% revenue growth per year was the median, so 155% per year (16.5x growth over 3 years) is incredibly keen.
Advertising platforms can scale that fast. What if they are only monetizing 5% of pin boards at the moment? Going to 100% coverage would be 20x. Devil is in the details but order of magnitude growth isn't out of the question.
So in three years, they'll have to grow revenues by 16.5X. These sort of outlandish growth assumptions necessary to substantiate their valuation is exhibit A as to why the a16z valuation is extremely suspect.
Of course, 16.5X growth is doable when you are starting from a low number, but $169MM ain't spit.
And all the being said, $169MM for 2015 is just a forecast, so if they miss on Q4 numbers, the 16.5X assumption can easily be 20-25X.
On the plus side, their revenues per active user target of $9.34 is relatively modest, and I think doable as FB does $4.18 per user per quarter in revenue.