Illustration: Anand Kumar
Summary: New-age IPO darlings aren't a new kind of investment the same value-investing checks (margin of safety, unit economics, pricing power, capital allocation, trustworthy management) still apply. This column walks through each lens with examples and ends with a simple test: Could you hold it through a bad quarter?
Summary: New-age IPO darlings aren't a new kind of investment the same value-investing checks (margin of safety, unit economics, pricing power, capital allocation, trustworthy management) still apply. This column walks through each lens with examples and ends with a simple test: Could you hold it through a bad quarter? I am old enough to remember when ‘unit economics’ was not a phrase you needed to explain to your own portfolio. New-age companies, the quick-commerce apps, the fintechs, the online-first retailers, all have brought the term back into fashion. Several of these businesses were once IPO darlings. A good number of them now trade well below their listing highs, and more than a few investors have learnt that trading these stocks and investing in them are two very different things. So here is a thought: What if the right lens for evaluating a new-age business is not new at all? What if the oldest tools in value investing, the ones built for factories and fast-moving consumer goods, still work on a food delivery app or a fintech? I think they do, and better than most people expect. Here is how I use them. Always seek a margin of safety: Every IPO pitch tells a version of the same story: a market worth lakhs of crores, and a company uniquely placed to
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