$100M+ Profit. Stock Down 72%. CEO Explains Why | Michael Walrath, Chairman & CEO @ Yext

About this episode

Michael Walrath discusses the undervaluation of profitable mid-cap software companies amidst the rise of AI-native growth stories.

Michael Walrath, Chairman and CEO of Yext, returns to break down why the market has left a profitable, $400 million mid-cap public software company trading at one times revenue, even with over $100 million in EBITDA. He joins AJ Bruno and Asad Zaman to argue that the so-called SaaS apocalypse has almost no data behind it, that most AI layoffs are really a decade of go-to-market overhiring unwinding, and that boring compounders still out-return the hypergrowth darlings. Topics include how venture capital distorts software valuations, why no one is coming to help the 2021 unicorns stuck in broken cap tables, the great GTM despecialization, and the extend-and-pretend game inside venture funds. Plus, a Quiz Pro Quo on new business creation in the US and a Bulls and Bears debate on the future of mid-cap software and the stickiness of the AI platform. Read Michael's essay, No One's Coming to Help You: https://x.com/michaelpwalrath/status/2051364181237010778 Key Takeaways: - The market has left profitable mid-cap software for dead in favor of AI-native growth stories, and Michael Walrath, Chairman and CEO at Yext, leaned into how strange that is for a business that still prints cash. As…

People in this episode

Hosts: AJ Bruno, Asad Zaman

Guest: Michael Walrath

Topics covered

• software valuations
• AI layoffs
• venture capital
• mid-cap software
• market trends
• business strategy

Keywords

• Yext
• mid-cap software
• SaaS apocalypse
• venture capital
• AI platform
• EBITDA
• go-to-market
• unicorns
• software valuations

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Yext, Pavilion, venture capitalists

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