4 Comments

Thanks! Good stuff! I directionally agree w/everything you’ve posted. Curious: What’s your take on how badly Will & team whiffed on their previous projections and why does this not diminish your trust in the team? I think the ability they showed in the early days getting the business from 0 to 1 warrants patience as he and the squad figure out how to get from 1 to 10 (and digesting the stumbles to get there in stride).

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I agree with your last sentence. I put more emphasis on trust in the vision and plan of execution than any specific timelines, given the long-term opportunity more than compensates for additional time building out the market. Realistically, those projections were BS, but served the company well in the end by providing enough capital to invest behind the opportunity without concern for raising additional funds.

Really it comes down to, at this stage, I'm much more interested in the qualitative (culture, product development, platform build out) than what's reflected in the numbers.

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fwiw, i believe leadership’s forecasting & articulation of the quantitative provide me with/the context to handicap the qualitative. how much i trust leadership is a huge factor in my willinginess to be patient and make something a core holding. will seems like a very earnest and good human with integrity (obvi smart), so again, i want to trust. at this valuation, with what they’ve accomplished to date, it seems great.

also: the news today that kevin weil is joining openai as head of product is great news. i can take that as a sign that he was not fleeing, but instead rather running towards something. when he left, that gave me pause as he is an excellent operator who i have a number of mutuals with. he’s very well thought of and liked

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Agree completely - for me, I think it comes down to conviction in the idea that they will accomplish what they set out to do, but it will take longer than anyone expects. The business is less risky than it's been over a reasonably long history, and the balance sheet is clean as a whistle.

Agree re: Kevin - definitely some room for collaboration there in the future, and he's still an advisor at Planet. Think the Sinergise acquisition accelerated the timing of the platform build out, and he built up the product and sales team while he was there. He did what he came to do ultimately.

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