Welcome to a somewhat late edition of Best of the Week, written on a bright, cooooold day in Evandale, Tasmania, after a hectic few days in Sydney including Thursday’s Mumbrella Travel Summit, which was mega.
The is one of the most fascinating stories that just keeps getting more difficult to read without feeling a bit angry. And yet, I can’t look away! It’s incredible how much money has been lost with never ending promises of a bright future. Imagine all the amazing business ideas and models created by women and migrants that would never get a look in because of this country’s entrenched boys club, and yet this business gets a runway that just goes on and on. I can’t wait for the next update.
The Vinyl story triggers people because it doesn’t fit the expected narrative: a public company, founder-led, scaling fast in a sector many have written off. But for all the performative outrage, the fundamentals are actually... kind of textbook.
In less than two years: $0 to $20M revenue run rate, five (or six?) acquisitions integrated, normalised cost base lowered quarter-on-quarter, and targeting profitability on a timeline first floated a year ago - without raising equity for working capital since (will be interesting to see if they pull that off).
While many media operators are playing defence or cutting back, these guys are giving it a crack, fusing traditional publishing with tech, AI, e-com and live. That to me is the “what if this works?” question... plenty of high-growth companies have burned far more for far longer before getting anywhere near profit.
As for the tone here 🙄 insiders know Tim hasn’t exactly been impartial ever since Vinyl got the first look at Mumbrella. That deal didn’t go ahead, and apparently neither did the detachment.
The is one of the most fascinating stories that just keeps getting more difficult to read without feeling a bit angry. And yet, I can’t look away! It’s incredible how much money has been lost with never ending promises of a bright future. Imagine all the amazing business ideas and models created by women and migrants that would never get a look in because of this country’s entrenched boys club, and yet this business gets a runway that just goes on and on. I can’t wait for the next update.
The Vinyl story triggers people because it doesn’t fit the expected narrative: a public company, founder-led, scaling fast in a sector many have written off. But for all the performative outrage, the fundamentals are actually... kind of textbook.
In less than two years: $0 to $20M revenue run rate, five (or six?) acquisitions integrated, normalised cost base lowered quarter-on-quarter, and targeting profitability on a timeline first floated a year ago - without raising equity for working capital since (will be interesting to see if they pull that off).
While many media operators are playing defence or cutting back, these guys are giving it a crack, fusing traditional publishing with tech, AI, e-com and live. That to me is the “what if this works?” question... plenty of high-growth companies have burned far more for far longer before getting anywhere near profit.
As for the tone here 🙄 insiders know Tim hasn’t exactly been impartial ever since Vinyl got the first look at Mumbrella. That deal didn’t go ahead, and apparently neither did the detachment.