Napkin Math

Business breakdowns, by the numbers.

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Napkin Math

Meet Your New Finance Intern: GPT-4

How AI will reshape what finance professionals do

96 May 18, 2023 by Evan Armstrong

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Death of a Flywheel

How Amazon and Berkshire got too big

95 Apr 27, 2023 by Evan Armstrong

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The Inventor of the iPhone Has Some Thoughts

Build by Tony Fadell: A Review

94 Jun 2, 2022 by Evan Armstrong

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The Meditations of Vinyl Jesus

Music producer Rick Rubin explores the creative process

94 Feb 9, 2023 by Evan Armstrong

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What You Need To Know About The Ant Financial IPO

The largest IPO in history is happening in China with Ant Financial. In this post, we discuss all the services Ant Financial provides and what to expect in the future from Ant.

94 Oct 30, 2020 by Adam Keesling

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How Technology Giants Die

GE, Amazon, and the flywheel of death

93 Jan 26, 2023 by Evan Armstrong

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The Empire Stripes Back

A $100B Bet on Two Brothers

91 🔒 May 5, 2022 by Evan Armstrong

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How AB 5 Will Break Uber’s Business

The difference between a contractor and an employee, what Uber's existing business looks like and how AB5 will impact their financials.

90 Aug 20, 2020 by Adam Keesling

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A Dearth of Secrets, an Excess of Capital: SVB’s Explosion

We may be entering a more ruthless era in tech

90 Mar 13, 2023 by Evan Armstrong

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Why Culture Eats Strategy

The Search For the Winning Formula

89 Sep 29, 2022 by Evan Armstrong

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Should you invest in Wish? An S-1 Analysis

A look inside the S-1 of Wish. Included is the background of Wish, a look at their margins, how the universal postal union is changing their cost structure, how their CAC is rising and if they are viable long-term.

85 Dec 1, 2020 by Adam Keesling

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Twitter’s Probably Screwed

The Rugged Landscape of Digital Advertising

78 🔒 Mar 30, 2022 by Evan Armstrong

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Should I Quit and Start a Franchise?

I’m wondering if I can deep-fry my way out of the apocalypse

77 Mar 2, 2023 by Evan Armstrong

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Technology Is Good Actually

Startups screw up sometimes, but making things cheaper is a moral necessity

76 Mar 16, 2023 by Evan Armstrong

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Who Wins the AI Value Chain?

It's A Brave New World

76 Oct 14, 2022 by Evan Armstrong

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Selective Optimism

People who promise high returns forever are liars

73 🔒 Jun 16, 2022 by Evan Armstrong

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The Futility of Utility

A personal essay

72 🔒 Apr 8, 2022 by Evan Armstrong

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How AI Changes the Media Business

Why community and social network effects will be key to winning the future

71 Mar 23, 2023 by Evan Armstrong

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Why Are Republicans Better at Making Money on the Internet?

What consumer tech and media got wrong

70 May 11, 2023 by Evan Armstrong

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It Is Always Time to Build

Interest rates do not equal innovation rates

70 Jan 5, 2023 by Evan Armstrong

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The Quest for Monopoly

A history of stock market exchanges: from fragmentation to monopoly, monopoly to fragmentation and back again.

69 Aug 25, 2020 by Adam Keesling

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The Meh-taverse

A Book Review

66 Aug 4, 2022 by Evan Armstrong

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How Chegg Grew Their Share Price 20x In Four Years

Chegg grew their stock price from under $10 to over $85. They did it by changing their business model from the ground up and investing in digital media content.

64 Sep 18, 2020 by Adam Keesling

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How Startups Can Survive the Creator Economy Winter

The Race for Revenue Share

64 May 19, 2022 by Evan Armstrong

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When Content Creation Goes to Zero

AI is making a world where it costs nothing to produce anything. What happens next?

63 Feb 23, 2023 by Evan Armstrong