MORGAN STANLEY AT WORK
Investing in Private Companies From a venture capitalist perspective , the situation can be complicated . They want to maximize the valuations in their existing portfolio companies while entering new ones at what they deem as fair valuations . VCs carry out their own valuation models on what future valuations of certain companies will look like , generally built on revenue multiples , growth rates and unit economics . But , there is also an element of volatility in share prices , depending on competitive dynamics and the market ’ s climate .
Added to that is the current , ongoing economic downturn – though this will almost certainly self-correct at some point , with Swan explaining that “ the venture capital market is very cyclical ”.
“ Even compared to other financial markets , it has the highest highs and the lowest lows when it comes to valuations . For example , just over a year ago , secondary investors would pay a premium on the last round that a company raised .
“ Now , we ' re in a different macro environment and talking about the discounts on the round an investor would pay . What ' s interesting or unique is that it ' s been so long since we ' ve had one of these downturns . The market has been relatively stable for a decade . So there ' s a whole generation of people operating in this market that have never experienced a recession .
Also , 10 years ago , we didn ' t have these massive private companies , liquid secondary markets , and large amounts of private capital available ; it ' s uncharted territory for everyone . But , like any market , it ' ll figure itself out in the long-term .”