There is nothing wrong with staying private. If the company can remain profitable and sustainable there's no reason it can't be the family business for generations. LMG doesn't have to be as big as the Mars Inc for that to happen.
I think you missed the major point in the video though. He wants/needs cash to invest in real estate for LMG to grow into. Real estate in Vancouver is insanely expensive and only getting more so. Linus doesn't want to be stuck leasing a place for LMG and I don't blame him
@@Prowler1000 Thinking about it logically, there is going to be a point in the near future when the Vancouver real estate market crashes. Houses are already $1 million+ on average, not only in Vancouver but the surrounding areas. The average household brings in less than $100k before taxes. Property tax on these expensive houses is also going to be a lot. At its current rate, the growth is not sustainable. The Canadian government also needs to step in and stop both corporations and foreign Chinese buyers from scooping up properties.
LInus, unless you get bored with the business you have decades to go. As a 66 year old technologist that has been at the sharp end my whole life I can tell you that there's more to do and more to see. Do not go public unless you are cashing out, feeding the shareholder monster is a soul crushing experience not to mention the associated phalanx of corporate lawyers and consultants. Keep your company organic, operate with your excellent ethics and only grow it to the size you want it to be. I built my first computer in 83 and my latest a week ago (12600 on a Z690 Motherboard).
@@theguyswhotryf9166 Thanks for the comment. Trust me, nobody ever wants to be 66 (unless they're 76) It's just better than the alternative. My first PC was a Plessey MFB (Made for Business). There were 10 prototypes built before management pulled the plug (I was a young lowly systems programmer) and they were going to bin them, so I took one home (I'm sure I asked permission). The Z80 based 'microcomputer' was housed in a 5U rackmount and storage was twin 8-inch Shugart floppies. OS was eventually CPM 3.0 and the system unit was so loud I kept it in the bedroom of my little flat. It's RS232 VT100 emulating Olivetti terminal was in the living room on the dining table. A verrrry early home computer. My 21 year old son thinks I'm cool. I just asked him. "Hey Son, do you think I'm cool?". "Sure Dad, you're cool". To quote Clint Eastwood, "Don't let the old in."
@@pezimore I've had a great life so far and I'm grateful for the fact that I can look up at the sky and the larder has plenty of food and I have a roof over my head. I'm grateful for my wife of 37 years and my beautiful son. Hopefully there are years to live and I want to see where life takes us. You are just starting on your journey and it's going to be a lot harder for you than it was for me. Stay strong and actively look for things to be happy about. Have a dream and always work towards it. You have time. Best of luck Drewdy and stay strong.
@@florinpandele5205 if you read that as anything other than a joke, I’d suggest you take a test. More of an English test though. Accusing others of mental illness is generally in poor taste.
as someone who works in PE, it's hard to say LMG is an attractive target for going public. Private investments, possibly. But he is correct in creating sustainability (scalability and longer-term growth) past his involvement. Unless they go the direction of verge, there is a question of going concern.
yep, was about to say the same thing. Personally, I would definitely invest a bit fo money but I definitely see problems going forward for the growth of the company long term.
"I want LTT success to be based on superior quality and not just by desire to support" You guys make some really great comfortable merch, I've bought 2 shirts, 3 water bottles, and both the "swacket" and aqua indoor hoodie (favorite so far!) and they've all been great quality. You guys truly make some of the best merch around!
I don’t think Linus Media Group should go public because then the company has a Legal Fiduciary Duty to maximize profits. And maximizing profits means, don’t speak badly of hardware manufacturers, don’t call out the bad actors in the industry, take as many sponsored videos as possible, cut staff. Even if that’s not what happens the incentives will always push for that. Eventually someone would come along and decide to make decisions under those incentives.
I'm pretty sure that three no actual legal requirement that you have to maximize profits, it's just one of several priorities that executives of a company must juggle. It would be beyond stupid for any country to pass something like that into corporate law.
@@SirVer51 You're correct, but I don't think that's particularly meaningful. You have a duty of care and you can quickly open yourself to legal action if you fail to pursue obvious avenues for profit. Now, you can declare a long term strategy that goes against this, like how Jeff Bezos made it clear to investors that Amazon is going to work at a loss for many years in attempt to destroy the market and ultimately monopolize it. But that's very specific and isn't really applicable to, say, reacting ethically to whatever random events happen, say refusing Newegg sponsorship deals.
Wait, is there any legal law that businesses HAVE to make more money all the time and take every chance to grow? Can't they do what they want when they hold >50% of the shares?
Going public has nothing to do with "good conscience". The main problem with current-day public corporations is the responsibility to make profits for your shareholders. That leads to Facebook, as well as other socially-irresponsible behavior. PLEASE DON'T DO IT.
I fucking hate 50% of the general public and TH-cam community is no saint either and if you look at the toxicity of people wanting to see their investment grow and nothing else company becomes crap.
(This is mostly a problem with alienation between labour and ownership. Linus is the unalienated example, as he wholly owns the product of his (and his staff’s) labour and works at the means of production he owns, which keeps him accountable for the social responsibility of the business. But, if he took it public suddenly there would be lots of people who own it who don’t labour for it and are alienated from the consequences of making socially irresponsible decisions so would easily be able to shift the business in more profitable less responsible directions to help their lines go up)
You forgot to mention that one reason to go public is to satisfy early investors. Sometimes you can only get private investment if you plan to go public afterwards. Going public then allows the early investors to close their position and make real liquid earnings from their investment.
As we’ve seen with the recent debacle his viewers are mostly cheap and would rather Adblock than pay for Floatplane/TH-cam Premium. You can’t scale up a paid platform with a demographic like that.
@@OKNathan not 100% sure if that’s fair, people hate advertisements, but LMG sells so much merch and people sub to floatplane even if the offer isn’t that great because they love the company
Having been a financial statement auditor for KPMG, and having taken a company public, it’s not something casually done. There are filing and reporting requirements, and internal processes around auditing, that need to be met. It’s a lot of work. Get a good CFO!
Yeah, somewhat surprised by why this is even a discussion.. Their company is nowhere close to a scale where it would make sense (nor is there any value proposition to justify it imo).. Maybe Linus doesn't know?
@@itscaptainterry I'd say LMG is at a scale where they need to take a better approach to business and finance than they currently take, as Linus may be a good content creator, but his YOLO approach to running the businss is terrible, and he needs people who understand what they are doing in CIO and CFO roles to avoid a major disaster in future - I've noticed several things in their content that could result in serious fines due to failing to meet regulatory compliance requirements that an experienced CIO/CFO would stop dead in their tracks (the recent OCCT mishap being just one example). Also, fidicuary duty requirements would probably result in Linus being pushed out of a management position due to his wasteful spending if they went public.
@@marcimon1642 LTT had asome unlicensed benchmark software shown in a video that was only free for personal use; the dev of the software kicked up some drama about it, and Linus made comments on the LTT forum about it not being a major deal, that he shouldn't be expected to know what software is installed on his systems and other things that are questionable from a legal standpoint.
I'm curious what your thoughts would be on opening a satellite office in a different location that works on different projects than the regular office does or something. I'm guessing since Linus is so hands on he wouldn't like that but I think it could be interesting
Thing is, most of the business is integrated, they need to be in the same building. The editors and writers need to be in the same building. Perhaps merchandise, HR, engineering could be in different buildings. That frees up space in their main building to expand their main building.
I like where Linus is thinking of his future with LMG and quantifying it versus a tangible object. Supporters buying items merch for value and profit. Even LTX if that would ever come back… There has to be value to give back. Linus understands the value of the dollar and that every dollar is worth a lot to him, his company, and the person that had that dollar. I do agree there has to be something else tangible or not that people can buy. LMG, LTT, LTX. First started making money not off merch but experiences, knowledge, and community. To think how far they've already come. If they were back in the past: in your wildest dreams would you have gone “Gee I'm gonna have this much in the future”.
this is the only point for Going public refers to a private company's initial public offering (IPO), thus becoming a publicly-traded and owned entity. Going public increases prestige and helps a company raise capital to invest in future operations, expansion, or acquisitions. So expanding would be the main reason why you would go public 100%
You can’t just toss a building on a building. You have to consider foundation, structure and land compatibility. It’s usually impossible to stack a building on a pre-existing one
Steve Jobs didn't come back to Apple until he was 42, in 1997. Imagine if at 36, Steve Jobs would have thought he was past his prime. Linus, you've got decades of prime to come.
Going public would be a terrible idea, it just opens you up to all your shareholders constantly pushing you to milk more money out of your content at the expense of quality.
Couple reasons for going public: A) Existing investors get to liquidate. In todays environment, there's a usually a lot of investors on your cap table(if you are a company the size of ARM), and the company itself can't buy all the investors off most of the times. B) End of the the day, the stock is a derivative. It's a banking product more than it's the company's product. Banks are the ones that take the companies public, hold off a lot of shares, and profit off of them in the first few months. Companies get cash infusion, and banks get a new whale to ride on. C) The public listing comes with a lot of buying power like you mentioned - can borrow against the shares, go out and acquire companies, etc. Shares are also used to supplement the liquidity within the co. - made part of the comp structure, etc.
Going public means the company is no longer yours. You will have to reveal how you spend company’s money and what not. Also you can be fired. Don’t know about Canada, but you cannot own 51% of the company when you go public by law in Hong Kong, you will have you put you shares in others hand… and often people cannot be trusted. (I think the limit is 30-something% don’t remember, hence the you can be fired)
I love the videos on the financing and the business side of LMG. Keep them coming. Maybe another channel for videos like this one with the business people of the team?
One of the benefits of being a public company is reputation, public companies have to meet certain standards which require them to make periodic filings. This looks good generally to other companies that you might want to work out deals with
From what he's said in the past, I'd wager it's too much of a risk. He takes a lot of pride in his employees doing well (like his desire for the original six to all be able to afford a house after working for him for a few years) and hiring a bunch of staff for a risky move dangles the possibility of having to lay them all off.
1:55 "Why would you do that" Because we really believe in the future of both you and LMG as a whole. Going public is usually a way to satisfy early investors, but if I were to be one of them I'd personally fine with it staying private and being part of something I think does both help and entertain people.
I work in financial markets and can get you hooked up with the right people or explain it to you once your net income is around 8m annually. I started writing this comment before you got to the SPAC conversation but it's funny you mentioned it because I've been in the SPAC market since 2012. You don't need to issue new shares (raise money) when you IPO. You can pledge your shares as collateral for personal loans, and raise cheaper debt. You can use your shares as currency to make acquisitions of any kind (preferably for something accretive to earnings). Also holy crap I never thought about the fact that you're 36. I'm 32. Wow. Congrats on your success man. You and Yvonne have built something truly incredible and operated it so effectively.
Going public mainly just gives you access to significantly more capital. Yes you get paid a little from the IPO but your real payment comes from continued growth of the share price (think Bezos, Musk, Gates). Issuing new shares gives you easy access to new capital you can invest, which if you have positive NPV projects can be great. Cheap debt is also a benefit but usually isn't a reason to go public. The reason most companies go public is because Venture Capital got involved and that's how VC's get paid, plus investors will increase their return significantly once the public is able to invest. Cons: the market can be vicious and demand short term gains at the expense of the long term performance of the firm. Quarterly reporting and compliance can be a huge pain in the ass for inexperienced firms.
Possible path would be to bring LMG products to a mid size retail store chain, thus allowing access to the item to a much bigger market. Customers would buy the item for the design and quality of the product. Most would not have found it otherwise since, currently, they are mostly presented to computer enthusiasts, a small percentage of the population.
I think it would be interesting to keep the LMG headquarters in its current location, but acquire a small location in the US, which would technically make LMG an international company. Nothing crazy huge in the US, but something small and manageable with a focus / speciality like drone usage in media (commercials, real estate fly-throughs, etc...) Or something of the like. Then go public if more cash is needed once LMGs portfolio gains a name for itself and becomes more sustainable. I would imagine being an international company looks pretty good to an investor. Quality control of a satellite location could be an obstacle though, And I have no idea if doing any of that makes any financial sense whatsoever. I'm only a IT professional and tech enthusiast.
A branch office in the USA seems like something mostly interesting for one simple reasons: Review of stuff, you cannot (yet) get in Canada. May it be, because a startup only ships nationally at first or the laws in Canada prevent the actual use of a product (like the strange wheel thing, that isn't street legal outside America or something like that)
Law Student here. Private Companies go public nowadays to provide a *cash out* to the original promoters and investors of the organization once they've racked up private equity fundings. There are other purposes that going public serves, but one thing to mention here is that going public is nowhere near normal everyday people buying shares. The majority of investment comes from *institutional investors* and it's also regulated (who?) can buy (how much?) of (what kind?) of shares. Also when a company posts a meteoric rise and the market is skeptical of the company's tactics, going public serves as a proof of innocence to the market, as they need to go through rounds of detailed investigation and audits for financial and accounting practices compliance. Weeds out shady businesses like Nikola and some such...
Why not have a sub office in Kamloops? Or indeed a different province even? I'm sure there are some parts of operations that don't need to specifically be in Surrey, especially with good TelePresence it could be a viable route rather than having everything under one roof.
A subscription service that offers exclusive, limited print type stuff could walk that line. A company called FMF has a subscription called "The Drop". It's always has a shirt, long sleeve or short. Which comes with other cool items from other companies involved in the same industry. Sometimes collaborations with over people in the industry in terms of design. They do a great job with the program. I have yet to be disappointed with a single Drop box that I have received
What!?! Prime years? I was part of a layoff at 38. Still laughing at you and late 30’s being prime. 8 years later and better off than I could have imagined then and room to improve still.
Look into forming a Real Estate partnership with other mid-sized BC companies that know they will have to expand in say the next ten years. Maybe some of your commercial neighbors are in the same boat. Find someone to manage the venture (your wife maybe). Find land (something dry). Get a design (who designed the commercial development you're in now?). Borrow money (don't ever use your own). Buy land. Hire a contractor (who built the commercial development you're in now?). Build. Lease out the space you don't need right now. As Will Rogers once noted, "Land is the only thing they ain't making any more of".
I think maybe expanding with a leased place that doesn’t house the most important things would be a good idea. Maybe moving a couple of the sets to another smaller place.
There are a couple of justifications given for why firms desire to go public. 1) there stock is now a currency. 2) employees (and vendors) can get paid in that currency (many desire this) 3) If the market cap and revenue are significant, the company is required to "grow up" and on board significant internal controls (in the US, basically COSO compliance) and 4) bragging rights (no joke)
Normally, they take it public or IPO because they need more investment very quickly to expand faster, or there is some funding that you need it right away. Some that went public, eventually becomes private since the stock price goes down leading to the capital technically shrinks, and therefore stopping further leaking.
You're in no need for the kind of hypergrowth cash infusion of a public offering (unless you want to "Exit" and make serious cheddar personally). And you could easily raise on private markets for very acceptable terms. PS: "Dividends" are old fashioned - many many stocks do not do Dividends, in fact preference is usually to do stock buybacks (the company buys it's own equity, reducing the amount of equity on the market and thus having a deflationary increase effect on the price)
Going public is just one path you can take to sell off equity. If you want to get out, get rich, or bring in management partners that have skin in the game, a private sale is just as viable and a lot easier. Going public introduces a lot of compliance mandates that would place an unnecessary burden on your business that does not contribute to the quality of the product. Going public forces you into a fiduciary role for your stockholders where you are OBLIGATED to make decisions that result in returns. It reduces your freedom as a leader, and you'll likely find yourself making decisions for financial gain that you would have never been able to ethically justify when you were the sole proprietor. When you're private, you probably only have 1 or 2 dozen investors. It's a lot easier to convince a small group of known investors that know and trust you if you want to take the company in a different direction than the public at large.
Honestly, besides being an influx of cash, I think the point of taking a company public, be it immediate or eventual, is to exit. For someone who has taken their garage start-up and turned it into multi-million, hell maybe even a billion-dollar company .. you can cash out, take your 8-9+ figure sum of cash, have you, your kids and your grandkids all retire tomorrow, or maybe start on something new. Especially if the going is good and you think the company might turn stagnant and not have anymore growth (JD leaving Twitter, anyone?). Going public wouldn't be a suitable thing for LMG though. It would take creative control away, it would become something else, Linus would eventually leave or be pushed out and then it would just implode.
It’s also sometimes a smart thing to do from a personal finance perspective. Especially when you’re becoming wealthy, remaining that is also a matter of diversification. You may currently have the vast majority of your wealth locked in LMG which puts you at risk in case things go south. That’s why at a certain point in time it may be handy to be able to relatively easily sell portions of your stock to buy in other assets. Share transactions in general become easier when publicly traded. But make to mistake turning public is a huge undertaking and usually takes years of planning and hard work. Just the reporting obligations alone are staggering.
I hope you read this but i fkn love how you handle employees. Maybe its a canadian mentality but where i live companies handle people like disposable resource what they can easily throw everywhere.
Seems like if you want to expand without getting investment from somewhere, the best way might be to just open branch offices in the middle of nowhere (=small towns or even villages). The question then would be, what could be reasonably outsourced to another building in a another city. My best guess would be, that the stocking and shipping of merchandise doesn't need to be in the same building anyways. As long as you and/or the designer can reach the branch easily enough via train or highway, that seems feasible enough. Maybe you could also create another office for a few editors. With zoom etc you can talk about any issues and questions and moving project files between two branches via fiber internet shouldn't be too slow. At least those are my thoughts, on how you could continue to expand, when you cannot get any more real estate close to your current HQ.
Much of the time, I really don't know what you guys are talking about (especially the gaming and the deep tech stuff; or, even, some of the shallower stuff). And yet, I enjoy listening to you guys talk about... whatever it is you're talking about.
You will never be past your prime, you’ll always be the perfect idol for technology. One day you’ll hand the company face over to someone else, but you’re name will always be what brings me back. Knowing that you know who and what will succeed you is all the trust I need to keep my support going for you forever.
you can sell a small percentage when you go public to get extra money. That's what happened with the rocket squeeze. The company only sold 5% to the public and it was shorted.
You can also issue bonds. So if you want some money, but don't want to go to a bank, you can issue fixed interest rates bonds that can be bought on the open market. You can also raise money from splitting stock.
I can answer this directly: in addition to traditional markers of success and long-term viability, it's a (big) payday for the shareholders. It's a way for the owners to take a few tens of millions off the table, and a life-changing moment for employees who can now buy a house and get a new car. I don't think LMG is a good candidate for IPO, but private equity is a real possibility. Except for the fact that Warren Buffett is likely not a regular LTT watcher, LMG would be the sort of company PE such as Berkshire Hathaway would buy. Buffett does not invest in things he does not understand, but there are other companies like BH that have less name recognition who would likely write you a cheque.
Perhaps little out of the box but something like Mainvest which essentially crowdfunds loans, you then pay back investors over time. Similar to going public without losing any control
When it comes to the integrity of the company and your brand, staying private is the best way to go. Right now you're priority is with what makes the viewer happy. But when you're public the viewer, AKA the customer, is second. You'd be forced to make decisions that might go against what you personally or the viewer want. In which case the quality can go down. And oh boy. Once quality is on a downward spiral, especially when the quality has been so high all this time, it's very hard to get out of it.
Ask your employees who wants to head up the secondary office in X location. Solved. Saying this having seen it as a consultant countless times, stop letting the ego & need of control get in front of letting your employees step up and grow the future of the company.
Very roughly: Things that prevent you from going public are not legal, but the associated costs. There are very costly accounting standards to follow and similar administrative costs associated with it. The advantage in your case would essentially be the additional capital.
Sounds to me like you need to start selling consumables. Maybe TechieJuice, or even a physical magazine which to become a collectible item or piece of history. Here's an idea, release a monthly pocket-book which to include the best PC configs and laptops for different price points. Have laptop and PC setups for $200, $500, $750, $1000, $1500, and $2000, released quarterly (every 3 months). Or maybe start producting your own things (even if made-in-China), like your own deck-like-conversion kits for smartphones and tablets, or other things for the Steam Deck. A keyboard for the Steam Deck would be nice, especially if it came with something to protect the joysticks when traveling without the case, which could also double as a stand for the Deck for when you're consuming content. You already have the Deck, so you could probably start making them now and be one of the first on the market to sell them. Or a casing with airflow for adding a laptop-size SSD/HDD to the back of the Deck, while also not negatively affecting the Deck's cooling capabilities.
What about a merch subscription that's just an in-store credit with a small discount on top that prompts the user to shop on the store and buy the stuff that they like? And if they don't buy it rolls over to the next month.
Instead of going public, you could basically issue a bond - a one time loan from whoever wants to invest, with terms you dictate at the outset. That way you can maintain control, get the capital infusion for growth, and still let fans/subscribers feel literally invested in LMG
You do it if you want to release the money who have in the company. Right now it would be difficult for Linus to sell any of his stake, but if the company were public he could sell any amount of his ownership to free up cash at any time
Yeah, public listing for a small business like LMG doesn't really make sense. It creates a lot of extra overheads just running the business that you wouldn't have to deal with otherwise, like such as having a board of directors and dealing with them for the day to day stuff (not to mention paying them for the privilege); regular reports on the company's finances, performance, plans, projections, etc.; dealing with the share registry or a company that provides registry services, etc. All that stuff is almost certainly not worth the extra cost in the long term.
Going public also allows your employees a chance of ownership and ideally more invested in the success and growth of the company. Of course the downside of this is that now you have to grow or else. Growth is the reason for everything you do instead of doing things you are enjoying that will pay the bills. Any joy you have in what you do will be extinguished.
How about instead of relocation, you expand to a more affordable landscape? Do you need the team to be so close to one another? maybe the new employees come from a new location? This is where companies who start to grow like this begin to have multiple locations across different states, with most locations being very favorable to them tax and investment wise. Uploading content to the internet and communicating would be no different no matter the location (as long as the internet connection is good and time different not too extreme) u don't need a big city to guarantee a good internet connection
There's another reason for not locating to some place else other than cities. Talented people are always available in cities and suburbs. And to get the best talent you need the huge pool of highly qualified individuals to be good at what you do.
Technology has shown you do not need to be all in same roof. You could have branch offices to do specific functions. As long as the internet speed is good. You could have branch offices anywhere.. Hawaii, England, Mexico..
If real estate's immediate price tag is the problem, u can engage investment firms to procure investor that would be interested to invest in your company. The $$$ they would have to poney up to buy LMG's shares would be the real estate in question. How they finance that portion of their investment would be their problem , whether they would look for REIT/retirement funds/pension funds/sovereign wealth funds/old europe trust money/etc. I handle property development projects in SEA and a lot of big projects are funded this way multi-layered. Except that we have SPVs for it so the profit can be better apportioned or are easily transferable via sales of shares.
Totally not saying you should go public but to answer the question: company bonds. Also, it's not just a higher credit limit, it's corporate loans have far lower interest rates. Public companies often (not always) have access to not only more credit, but cheaper credit.
Hey Linus this is my two cents about LMG having an IP for whatever it's worth. I am the kind of investor who does not like dividends because whatever profits you make you should invest back into LMG. I am sure the community would support you, and when it comes to the future of LMG I see you more like a warren buffet. Your opinion will always matter. You could be the Oracle of Vancouver XD. - Long time Fan, Thanks for being you
If its a case of expansion due to relocation then , new people in a new place. Yeah its unleashing a head of the hydra to grow of its own but its free of roots.
Ended up buying the WAN Hoodie b/c of the design and all the claims of high quality and high comfort. Was very disappointed - the interior has no lining and the material is very rough and uncomfortable b/c of it. Only reason I didn't return it is just b/c at least it was a way to support y'all...
You can sell further shares once you’re public to raise more money, it’s not just at the beginning. That’s why market cap is helpful, if you have a trillion dollar company, you can dilute your shares by only 1% and raise $10B in cash
There is nothing wrong with staying private. If the company can remain profitable and sustainable there's no reason it can't be the family business for generations. LMG doesn't have to be as big as the Mars Inc for that to happen.
And if it does get big like Mars, it should go public or it risks becoming as bad as mars...
Two Words: German Mittelstand. He should at least try until Soros comes up and tries to buy his Multimedia Empire ;)
I actually don’t think companies going public is ever best for their employees or their customers in the long term.
I think you missed the major point in the video though. He wants/needs cash to invest in real estate for LMG to grow into. Real estate in Vancouver is insanely expensive and only getting more so. Linus doesn't want to be stuck leasing a place for LMG and I don't blame him
@@Prowler1000 Thinking about it logically, there is going to be a point in the near future when the Vancouver real estate market crashes. Houses are already $1 million+ on average, not only in Vancouver but the surrounding areas. The average household brings in less than $100k before taxes. Property tax on these expensive houses is also going to be a lot. At its current rate, the growth is not sustainable. The Canadian government also needs to step in and stop both corporations and foreign Chinese buyers from scooping up properties.
LInus, unless you get bored with the business you have decades to go. As a 66 year old technologist that has been at the sharp end my whole life I can tell you that there's more to do and more to see. Do not go public unless you are cashing out, feeding the shareholder monster is a soul crushing experience not to mention the associated phalanx of corporate lawyers and consultants. Keep your company organic, operate with your excellent ethics and only grow it to the size you want it to be.
I built my first computer in 83 and my latest a week ago (12600 on a Z690 Motherboard).
if he really wanted to he could go PTY LTD and keep shares/ stocks within the LMG family ie staff etc
If you are really 66 then you are most likely the coolest guy of all your friends. Godspeed my friend.
@@theguyswhotryf9166 Thanks for the comment. Trust me, nobody ever wants to be 66 (unless they're 76) It's just better than the alternative. My first PC was a Plessey MFB (Made for Business). There were 10 prototypes built before management pulled the plug (I was a young lowly systems programmer) and they were going to bin them, so I took one home (I'm sure I asked permission). The Z80 based 'microcomputer' was housed in a 5U rackmount and storage was twin 8-inch Shugart floppies. OS was eventually CPM 3.0 and the system unit was so loud I kept it in the bedroom of my little flat. It's RS232 VT100 emulating Olivetti terminal was in the living room on the dining table. A verrrry early home computer. My 21 year old son thinks I'm cool. I just asked him. "Hey Son, do you think I'm cool?". "Sure Dad, you're cool".
To quote Clint Eastwood, "Don't let the old in."
@@PaulLemars01 Im 20. You seem like a rad guy, never let the flame go out, youll be happy until its all over
@@pezimore I've had a great life so far and I'm grateful for the fact that I can look up at the sky and the larder has plenty of food and I have a roof over my head. I'm grateful for my wife of 37 years and my beautiful son. Hopefully there are years to live and I want to see where life takes us. You are just starting on your journey and it's going to be a lot harder for you than it was for me. Stay strong and actively look for things to be happy about. Have a dream and always work towards it. You have time. Best of luck Drewdy and stay strong.
"we need more money"
what a coincidence, so do I
"Linus Media Group isn't a building, it's a people"
Linus be tempting Thanos fate
So is Soyent Green.
Atlas always stands
The heavier the load the stronger they are
lmao, immediately thought of the same thing
Get your head examined. Start with a Rorschach test...
@@florinpandele5205 if you read that as anything other than a joke, I’d suggest you take a test. More of an English test though. Accusing others of mental illness is generally in poor taste.
as someone who works in PE, it's hard to say LMG is an attractive target for going public. Private investments, possibly. But he is correct in creating sustainability (scalability and longer-term growth) past his involvement. Unless they go the direction of verge, there is a question of going concern.
yep, was about to say the same thing. Personally, I would definitely invest a bit fo money but I definitely see problems going forward for the growth of the company long term.
Also, youtube income is inherently uncertain due to the politics involved and algo changes.
Most investors would most likely be his subscribers anyways, so that doesn't seem to matter much
What did The Verge do? Are you talking about Vox and New York Media merging? (Wait is that even what exactly happened?)
@@-SP. I don’t think many of his subscribers have the tens of millions of dollars required to scale his business.
almost-36 year old Linus: “I’m past my prime” 🤡
95 year old Queen of England “Bet” 🤑
I get the joke, but she's well past her prime
@@AlfredoTaken yeah, but you _know_ she’s still making money
@@AlfredoTaken nah mate, the queen is in her prime working age
There is no Queen of England. There hasn't been one for over 300 years.
@@Locutus was going to type this in the most ackuallly manner, thanks!
"I want LTT success to be based on superior quality and not just by desire to support"
You guys make some really great comfortable merch, I've bought 2 shirts, 3 water bottles, and both the "swacket" and aqua indoor hoodie (favorite so far!) and they've all been great quality. You guys truly make some of the best merch around!
I don’t think Linus Media Group should go public because then the company has a Legal Fiduciary Duty to maximize profits. And maximizing profits means, don’t speak badly of hardware manufacturers, don’t call out the bad actors in the industry, take as many sponsored videos as possible, cut staff. Even if that’s not what happens the incentives will always push for that. Eventually someone would come along and decide to make decisions under those incentives.
Great points here
I'm pretty sure that three no actual legal requirement that you have to maximize profits, it's just one of several priorities that executives of a company must juggle. It would be beyond stupid for any country to pass something like that into corporate law.
@@SirVer51 You're correct, but I don't think that's particularly meaningful. You have a duty of care and you can quickly open yourself to legal action if you fail to pursue obvious avenues for profit.
Now, you can declare a long term strategy that goes against this, like how Jeff Bezos made it clear to investors that Amazon is going to work at a loss for many years in attempt to destroy the market and ultimately monopolize it. But that's very specific and isn't really applicable to, say, reacting ethically to whatever random events happen, say refusing Newegg sponsorship deals.
@@swapode I can already tell you know more about this than I do but also get the gist of what I was saying. Thank you.
Wait, is there any legal law that businesses HAVE to make more money all the time and take every chance to grow? Can't they do what they want when they hold >50% of the shares?
Going public has nothing to do with "good conscience".
The main problem with current-day public corporations is the responsibility to make profits for your shareholders. That leads to Facebook, as well as other socially-irresponsible behavior. PLEASE DON'T DO IT.
I fucking hate 50% of the general public and TH-cam community is no saint either and if you look at the toxicity of people wanting to see their investment grow and nothing else company becomes crap.
(This is mostly a problem with alienation between labour and ownership. Linus is the unalienated example, as he wholly owns the product of his (and his staff’s) labour and works at the means of production he owns, which keeps him accountable for the social responsibility of the business. But, if he took it public suddenly there would be lots of people who own it who don’t labour for it and are alienated from the consequences of making socially irresponsible decisions so would easily be able to shift the business in more profitable less responsible directions to help their lines go up)
Don't put it public. That's a good way to sink a creative entity.
Massive respect for Linus and team for not supporting crap merch subscriptions that people are never going to use. Thank you!
edited.
My Floatplane account feels personally attacked.
@@heretolevitateme *merch subscriptions 🤣
It’s not just LMG, I too need more money. Everyone’s got reasons.
Money needed™ gang also here 🤝
Yeah. Let me know if you find some money laying around. Sharing is caring! Haha!
Same. Would be nice to not be poor :/ .
I have enough now I think.
You forgot to mention that one reason to go public is to satisfy early investors.
Sometimes you can only get private investment if you plan to go public afterwards. Going public then allows the early investors to close their position and make real liquid earnings from their investment.
They didn't forget. They didn't realise... 🤦🏼♂️
They said that they didn’t understand the purpose of an IPO.
Keep up. 🤦🏼♂️
You could IPO Floatplane to allow for more hires, and make it its own building and own staff.
Yes, with floatplane as a service I’d be interested in that. But I don’t see why they would IPO itnoff
There's no value proposition to floatplane to investors when TH-cam, Viemo, Dailymotion, ect exist.
As we’ve seen with the recent debacle his viewers are mostly cheap and would rather Adblock than pay for Floatplane/TH-cam Premium. You can’t scale up a paid platform with a demographic like that.
idk. Floatplane hasn`t that many of "stars" or members at all.
@@OKNathan not 100% sure if that’s fair, people hate advertisements, but LMG sells so much merch and people sub to floatplane even if the offer isn’t that great because they love the company
Having been a financial statement auditor for KPMG, and having taken a company public, it’s not something casually done. There are filing and reporting requirements, and internal processes around auditing, that need to be met. It’s a lot of work. Get a good CFO!
Yeah, somewhat surprised by why this is even a discussion.. Their company is nowhere close to a scale where it would make sense (nor is there any value proposition to justify it imo).. Maybe Linus doesn't know?
@@itscaptainterry I'd say LMG is at a scale where they need to take a better approach to business and finance than they currently take, as Linus may be a good content creator, but his YOLO approach to running the businss is terrible, and he needs people who understand what they are doing in CIO and CFO roles to avoid a major disaster in future - I've noticed several things in their content that could result in serious fines due to failing to meet regulatory compliance requirements that an experienced CIO/CFO would stop dead in their tracks (the recent OCCT mishap being just one example).
Also, fidicuary duty requirements would probably result in Linus being pushed out of a management position due to his wasteful spending if they went public.
@@cynicaloutlook Could you elaborate what you mean by the "OCCT mishap"? I think I've missed it
@@marcimon1642 LTT had asome unlicensed benchmark software shown in a video that was only free for personal use; the dev of the software kicked up some drama about it, and Linus made comments on the LTT forum about it not being a major deal, that he shouldn't be expected to know what software is installed on his systems and other things that are questionable from a legal standpoint.
@@cynicaloutlook Got it, thanks a lot.
Luke casually saying "can buy or sell drugs" and then linus going "wait what" got me in tears 🤣
I'm curious what your thoughts would be on opening a satellite office in a different location that works on different projects than the regular office does or something. I'm guessing since Linus is so hands on he wouldn't like that but I think it could be interesting
Thing is, most of the business is integrated, they need to be in the same building. The editors and writers need to be in the same building.
Perhaps merchandise, HR, engineering could be in different buildings. That frees up space in their main building to expand their main building.
@@Locutus John is an off site writer
Mad respect for both pulling items from store that only remain in weird sizes or whatnot and doing your best not to waste them! Thank you!
I like how the video "Why LMG needs more money" was next to "Linus dropping things for 6 minutes (Linus Drop Tips)" in my recommended feed
I like where Linus is thinking of his future with LMG and quantifying it versus a tangible object. Supporters buying items merch for value and profit. Even LTX if that would ever come back… There has to be value to give back. Linus understands the value of the dollar and that every dollar is worth a lot to him, his company, and the person that had that dollar. I do agree there has to be something else tangible or not that people can buy. LMG, LTT, LTX. First started making money not off merch but experiences, knowledge, and community. To think how far they've already come. If they were back in the past: in your wildest dreams would you have gone “Gee I'm gonna have this much in the future”.
this is the only point for Going public refers to a private company's initial public offering (IPO), thus becoming a publicly-traded and owned entity. Going public increases prestige and helps a company raise capital to invest in future operations, expansion, or acquisitions. So expanding would be the main reason why you would go public 100%
Ever think of expanding vertically? Add one or two stories to your existing building. It might be a cheaper option than buying.
I think that might end up being expensive as well given how complex zoning and reconstruction permits and costs are
they probably already ran the numbers
@@_framedlife but probably still a much better option than relocation for them right now,
Or just open a satellite office/ new location. Might still have to relocate a few people but might be some are happy to do so.
You can’t just toss a building on a building. You have to consider foundation, structure and land compatibility. It’s usually impossible to stack a building on a pre-existing one
The fact that Linus cares about his employees so much makes me love him more
Steve Jobs didn't come back to Apple until he was 42, in 1997. Imagine if at 36, Steve Jobs would have thought he was past his prime. Linus, you've got decades of prime to come.
Going public would be a terrible idea, it just opens you up to all your shareholders constantly pushing you to milk more money out of your content at the expense of quality.
Couple reasons for going public: A) Existing investors get to liquidate. In todays environment, there's a usually a lot of investors on your cap table(if you are a company the size of ARM), and the company itself can't buy all the investors off most of the times. B) End of the the day, the stock is a derivative. It's a banking product more than it's the company's product. Banks are the ones that take the companies public, hold off a lot of shares, and profit off of them in the first few months. Companies get cash infusion, and banks get a new whale to ride on. C) The public listing comes with a lot of buying power like you mentioned - can borrow against the shares, go out and acquire companies, etc. Shares are also used to supplement the liquidity within the co. - made part of the comp structure, etc.
Going public means the company is no longer yours. You will have to reveal how you spend company’s money and what not. Also you can be fired. Don’t know about Canada, but you cannot own 51% of the company when you go public by law in Hong Kong, you will have you put you shares in others hand… and often people cannot be trusted. (I think the limit is 30-something% don’t remember, hence the you can be fired)
I love the videos on the financing and the business side of LMG. Keep them coming. Maybe another channel for videos like this one with the business people of the team?
One of the benefits of being a public company is reputation, public companies have to meet certain standards which require them to make periodic filings. This looks good generally to other companies that you might want to work out deals with
What's to stop lmg from going to multiple locations? Maybe get something crazy big for expansion, and you can be your own off site backup as well
From what he's said in the past, I'd wager it's too much of a risk. He takes a lot of pride in his employees doing well (like his desire for the original six to all be able to afford a house after working for him for a few years) and hiring a bunch of staff for a risky move dangles the possibility of having to lay them all off.
1:55 "Why would you do that" Because we really believe in the future of both you and LMG as a whole. Going public is usually a way to satisfy early investors, but if I were to be one of them I'd personally fine with it staying private and being part of something I think does both help and entertain people.
Having bean counters buy up most of the available shares would be one of the most destructive things that could happen to LMG.
I work in financial markets and can get you hooked up with the right people or explain it to you once your net income is around 8m annually. I started writing this comment before you got to the SPAC conversation but it's funny you mentioned it because I've been in the SPAC market since 2012.
You don't need to issue new shares (raise money) when you IPO. You can pledge your shares as collateral for personal loans, and raise cheaper debt. You can use your shares as currency to make acquisitions of any kind (preferably for something accretive to earnings).
Also holy crap I never thought about the fact that you're 36. I'm 32. Wow. Congrats on your success man. You and Yvonne have built something truly incredible and operated it so effectively.
Going public mainly just gives you access to significantly more capital. Yes you get paid a little from the IPO but your real payment comes from continued growth of the share price (think Bezos, Musk, Gates). Issuing new shares gives you easy access to new capital you can invest, which if you have positive NPV projects can be great. Cheap debt is also a benefit but usually isn't a reason to go public. The reason most companies go public is because Venture Capital got involved and that's how VC's get paid, plus investors will increase their return significantly once the public is able to invest.
Cons: the market can be vicious and demand short term gains at the expense of the long term performance of the firm.
Quarterly reporting and compliance can be a huge pain in the ass for inexperienced firms.
Possible path would be to bring LMG products to a mid size retail store chain, thus allowing access to the item to a much bigger market. Customers would buy the item for the design and quality of the product. Most would not have found it otherwise since, currently, they are mostly presented to computer enthusiasts, a small percentage of the population.
I think it would be interesting to keep the LMG headquarters in its current location, but acquire a small location in the US, which would technically make LMG an international company. Nothing crazy huge in the US, but something small and manageable with a focus / speciality like drone usage in media (commercials, real estate fly-throughs, etc...) Or something of the like.
Then go public if more cash is needed once LMGs portfolio gains a name for itself and becomes more sustainable. I would imagine being an international company looks pretty good to an investor.
Quality control of a satellite location could be an obstacle though, And I have no idea if doing any of that makes any financial sense whatsoever. I'm only a IT professional and tech enthusiast.
A branch office in the USA seems like something mostly interesting for one simple reasons: Review of stuff, you cannot (yet) get in Canada. May it be, because a startup only ships nationally at first or the laws in Canada prevent the actual use of a product (like the strange wheel thing, that isn't street legal outside America or something like that)
Imagine Linus having to crawl back to the board to apologize every time he drops a GPU
I really like Linus' attitude towards viewers and customers. He seems very genuine and passionate about his business doing the right thing.
Law Student here.
Private Companies go public nowadays to provide a *cash out* to the original promoters and investors of the organization once they've racked up private equity fundings. There are other purposes that going public serves, but one thing to mention here is that going public is nowhere near normal everyday people buying shares. The majority of investment comes from *institutional investors* and it's also regulated (who?) can buy (how much?) of (what kind?) of shares.
Also when a company posts a meteoric rise and the market is skeptical of the company's tactics, going public serves as a proof of innocence to the market, as they need to go through rounds of detailed investigation and audits for financial and accounting practices compliance.
Weeds out shady businesses like Nikola and some such...
LMG would just be a meme stock. I think it would do well actually.
Why not have a sub office in Kamloops? Or indeed a different province even? I'm sure there are some parts of operations that don't need to specifically be in Surrey, especially with good TelePresence it could be a viable route rather than having everything under one roof.
A subscription service that offers exclusive, limited print type stuff could walk that line. A company called FMF has a subscription called "The Drop". It's always has a shirt, long sleeve or short. Which comes with other cool items from other companies involved in the same industry. Sometimes collaborations with over people in the industry in terms of design. They do a great job with the program. I have yet to be disappointed with a single Drop box that I have received
What!?! Prime years? I was part of a layoff at 38. Still laughing at you and late 30’s being prime. 8 years later and better off than I could have imagined then and room to improve still.
Look into forming a Real Estate partnership with other mid-sized BC companies that know they will have to expand in say the next ten years. Maybe some of your commercial neighbors are in the same boat. Find someone to manage the venture (your wife maybe). Find land (something dry). Get a design (who designed the commercial development you're in now?). Borrow money (don't ever use your own). Buy land. Hire a contractor (who built the commercial development you're in now?). Build. Lease out the space you don't need right now. As Will Rogers once noted, "Land is the only thing they ain't making any more of".
Hey must say super super loving the way you treat and think of your employees with every step that you make Linus a lot of respect for you
I think maybe expanding with a leased place that doesn’t house the most important things would be a good idea. Maybe moving a couple of the sets to another smaller place.
5:54:I think this also is a reason to go public. If you want to retire, you can sell of your shares and be done with the company.
There are a couple of justifications given for why firms desire to go public. 1) there stock is now a currency. 2) employees (and vendors) can get paid in that currency (many desire this) 3) If the market cap and revenue are significant, the company is required to "grow up" and on board significant internal controls (in the US, basically COSO compliance) and 4) bragging rights (no joke)
Normally, they take it public or IPO because they need more investment very quickly to expand faster, or there is some funding that you need it right away. Some that went public, eventually becomes private since the stock price goes down leading to the capital technically shrinks, and therefore stopping further leaking.
I'd buy a quarterly case cleanup kit with a couple pairs of gloves and wipes for handling TG panels, monitor wipes/spray etc.
I didn't watch the video yet, but based on the title, I assume Linus just screams CAPITALISM for 10:41?
Not at all
You're in no need for the kind of hypergrowth cash infusion of a public offering (unless you want to "Exit" and make serious cheddar personally). And you could easily raise on private markets for very acceptable terms.
PS: "Dividends" are old fashioned - many many stocks do not do Dividends, in fact preference is usually to do stock buybacks (the company buys it's own equity, reducing the amount of equity on the market and thus having a deflationary increase effect on the price)
8:59 I foresee the new LMG
cartridge printer
Going public is just one path you can take to sell off equity. If you want to get out, get rich, or bring in management partners that have skin in the game, a private sale is just as viable and a lot easier. Going public introduces a lot of compliance mandates that would place an unnecessary burden on your business that does not contribute to the quality of the product. Going public forces you into a fiduciary role for your stockholders where you are OBLIGATED to make decisions that result in returns. It reduces your freedom as a leader, and you'll likely find yourself making decisions for financial gain that you would have never been able to ethically justify when you were the sole proprietor. When you're private, you probably only have 1 or 2 dozen investors. It's a lot easier to convince a small group of known investors that know and trust you if you want to take the company in a different direction than the public at large.
Honestly, besides being an influx of cash, I think the point of taking a company public, be it immediate or eventual, is to exit. For someone who has taken their garage start-up and turned it into multi-million, hell maybe even a billion-dollar company .. you can cash out, take your 8-9+ figure sum of cash, have you, your kids and your grandkids all retire tomorrow, or maybe start on something new. Especially if the going is good and you think the company might turn stagnant and not have anymore growth (JD leaving Twitter, anyone?).
Going public wouldn't be a suitable thing for LMG though. It would take creative control away, it would become something else, Linus would eventually leave or be pushed out and then it would just implode.
2:50
Wouldn't mind trying out an LTT weed strain
Buy land and build tends to be the best option.
There are quite a few lenders who specialise in businesses building a new HQ.
It’s also sometimes a smart thing to do from a personal finance perspective. Especially when you’re becoming wealthy, remaining that is also a matter of diversification. You may currently have the vast majority of your wealth locked in LMG which puts you at risk in case things go south. That’s why at a certain point in time it may be handy to be able to relatively easily sell portions of your stock to buy in other assets. Share transactions in general become easier when publicly traded. But make to mistake turning public is a huge undertaking and usually takes years of planning and hard work. Just the reporting obligations alone are staggering.
i hope you will grow big you would actually deserve it
I hope you read this but i fkn love how you handle employees. Maybe its a canadian mentality but where i live companies handle people like disposable resource what they can easily throw everywhere.
It's all about the "credit" you mentioned tied to market cap. Toxic debt is a great way to make a few guys at the top very rich very quick.
Seems like if you want to expand without getting investment from somewhere, the best way might be to just open branch offices in the middle of nowhere (=small towns or even villages). The question then would be, what could be reasonably outsourced to another building in a another city.
My best guess would be, that the stocking and shipping of merchandise doesn't need to be in the same building anyways. As long as you and/or the designer can reach the branch easily enough via train or highway, that seems feasible enough.
Maybe you could also create another office for a few editors. With zoom etc you can talk about any issues and questions and moving project files between two branches via fiber internet shouldn't be too slow.
At least those are my thoughts, on how you could continue to expand, when you cannot get any more real estate close to your current HQ.
Much of the time, I really don't know what you guys are talking about (especially the gaming and the deep tech stuff; or, even, some of the shallower stuff). And yet, I enjoy listening to you guys talk about... whatever it is you're talking about.
You will never be past your prime, you’ll always be the perfect idol for technology. One day you’ll hand the company face over to someone else, but you’re name will always be what brings me back. Knowing that you know who and what will succeed you is all the trust I need to keep my support going for you forever.
LMG in Kamloops would be DOPE.
Honestly if LMG went public they'd lose faith in a lot of people.
Yes im sure
you can sell a small percentage when you go public to get extra money. That's what happened with the rocket squeeze. The company only sold 5% to the public and it was shorted.
You can also issue bonds. So if you want some money, but don't want to go to a bank, you can issue fixed interest rates bonds that can be bought on the open market. You can also raise money from splitting stock.
I can answer this directly: in addition to traditional markers of success and long-term viability, it's a (big) payday for the shareholders. It's a way for the owners to take a few tens of millions off the table, and a life-changing moment for employees who can now buy a house and get a new car.
I don't think LMG is a good candidate for IPO, but private equity is a real possibility. Except for the fact that Warren Buffett is likely not a regular LTT watcher, LMG would be the sort of company PE such as Berkshire Hathaway would buy. Buffett does not invest in things he does not understand, but there are other companies like BH that have less name recognition who would likely write you a cheque.
Reporting Requirements. You have to disclose A LOT of financial information and report to the Street (Wall or Bay Street) every quarter.
Perhaps little out of the box but something like Mainvest which essentially crowdfunds loans, you then pay back investors over time. Similar to going public without losing any control
When it comes to the integrity of the company and your brand, staying private is the best way to go. Right now you're priority is with what makes the viewer happy. But when you're public the viewer, AKA the customer, is second. You'd be forced to make decisions that might go against what you personally or the viewer want. In which case the quality can go down. And oh boy. Once quality is on a downward spiral, especially when the quality has been so high all this time, it's very hard to get out of it.
You could partner with Madrinas again to bring back the lambo roast as a way to make a consumable item.
Wow Mystery Shirt is such a smart idea! No waste
Um Linus, you literally sell water bottles. Where's my water subscription service to refill it?
Set up a DAO for your newest LTT venture and collect cash trough an initial coin offering. Then run
Build up! Extra floor! Or even down! Also - extra floor
Ask your employees who wants to head up the secondary office in X location. Solved. Saying this having seen it as a consultant countless times, stop letting the ego & need of control get in front of letting your employees step up and grow the future of the company.
Very roughly: Things that prevent you from going public are not legal, but the associated costs.
There are very costly accounting standards to follow and similar administrative costs associated with it.
The advantage in your case would essentially be the additional capital.
Sounds to me like you need to start selling consumables. Maybe TechieJuice, or even a physical magazine which to become a collectible item or piece of history. Here's an idea, release a monthly pocket-book which to include the best PC configs and laptops for different price points. Have laptop and PC setups for $200, $500, $750, $1000, $1500, and $2000, released quarterly (every 3 months). Or maybe start producting your own things (even if made-in-China), like your own deck-like-conversion kits for smartphones and tablets, or other things for the Steam Deck. A keyboard for the Steam Deck would be nice, especially if it came with something to protect the joysticks when traveling without the case, which could also double as a stand for the Deck for when you're consuming content. You already have the Deck, so you could probably start making them now and be one of the first on the market to sell them. Or a casing with airflow for adding a laptop-size SSD/HDD to the back of the Deck, while also not negatively affecting the Deck's cooling capabilities.
6:50 Asgard is not a place, it's a people!
The beauty is you can lease the current space if you find a larger one
Kickstarting new office, like Vldl did, seem to work nice, high bidders can get on wall of fame or a tour of the studio
What about a merch subscription that's just an in-store credit with a small discount on top that prompts the user to shop on the store and buy the stuff that they like? And if they don't buy it rolls over to the next month.
Instead of going public, you could basically issue a bond - a one time loan from whoever wants to invest, with terms you dictate at the outset. That way you can maintain control, get the capital infusion for growth, and still let fans/subscribers feel literally invested in LMG
You do it if you want to release the money who have in the company. Right now it would be difficult for Linus to sell any of his stake, but if the company were public he could sell any amount of his ownership to free up cash at any time
Yeah, public listing for a small business like LMG doesn't really make sense. It creates a lot of extra overheads just running the business that you wouldn't have to deal with otherwise, like such as having a board of directors and dealing with them for the day to day stuff (not to mention paying them for the privilege); regular reports on the company's finances, performance, plans, projections, etc.; dealing with the share registry or a company that provides registry services, etc. All that stuff is almost certainly not worth the extra cost in the long term.
Going public also allows your employees a chance of ownership and ideally more invested in the success and growth of the company.
Of course the downside of this is that now you have to grow or else. Growth is the reason for everything you do instead of doing things you are enjoying that will pay the bills. Any joy you have in what you do will be extinguished.
I wish more business owners thought like linus
How about instead of relocation, you expand to a more affordable landscape? Do you need the team to be so close to one another? maybe the new employees come from a new location?
This is where companies who start to grow like this begin to have multiple locations across different states, with most locations being very favorable to them tax and investment wise.
Uploading content to the internet and communicating would be no different no matter the location (as long as the internet connection is good and time different not too extreme)
u don't need a big city to guarantee a good internet connection
That's what I was thinking too, like multiple campuses each with their own entirely separate staff.
There's another reason for not locating to some place else other than cities. Talented people are always available in cities and suburbs. And to get the best talent you need the huge pool of highly qualified individuals to be good at what you do.
Technology has shown you do not need to be all in same roof. You could have branch offices to do specific functions. As long as the internet speed is good. You could have branch offices anywhere.. Hawaii, England, Mexico..
If real estate's immediate price tag is the problem, u can engage investment firms to procure investor that would be interested to invest in your company. The $$$ they would have to poney up to buy LMG's shares would be the real estate in question. How they finance that portion of their investment would be their problem , whether they would look for REIT/retirement funds/pension funds/sovereign wealth funds/old europe trust money/etc.
I handle property development projects in SEA and a lot of big projects are funded this way multi-layered. Except that we have SPVs for it so the profit can be better apportioned or are easily transferable via sales of shares.
I would happily buy if the store had XL4 XL5 sizes shirts
Totally not saying you should go public but to answer the question: company bonds. Also, it's not just a higher credit limit, it's corporate loans have far lower interest rates. Public companies often (not always) have access to not only more credit, but cheaper credit.
Hey Linus this is my two cents about LMG having an IP for whatever it's worth. I am the kind of investor who does not like dividends because whatever profits you make you should invest back into LMG. I am sure the community would support you, and when it comes to the future of LMG I see you more like a warren buffet. Your opinion will always matter. You could be the Oracle of Vancouver XD.
- Long time Fan, Thanks for being you
If its a case of expansion due to relocation then , new people in a new place. Yeah its unleashing a head of the hydra to grow of its own but its free of roots.
bro young asf talking about how old he is! you still got this linus
Ended up buying the WAN Hoodie b/c of the design and all the claims of high quality and high comfort. Was very disappointed - the interior has no lining and the material is very rough and uncomfortable b/c of it.
Only reason I didn't return it is just b/c at least it was a way to support y'all...
You can sell further shares once you’re public to raise more money, it’s not just at the beginning. That’s why market cap is helpful, if you have a trillion dollar company, you can dilute your shares by only 1% and raise $10B in cash
I would love to see an LTT Coffee bean subscription