Valuation & DCF

Lessons

• Intrinsic Value and the Time Value of Money7 min read · Every valuation equation is one idea repeated: a dollar arriving later is worth less today.
• WACC, Disassembled9 min read · CAPM piece by piece: the risk-free rate, beta, the equity risk premium — then the blend with
• Projecting Free Cash Flow — Where Models Go to Lie8 min read · Revenue → margins → reinvestment → FCF. The four steps, the fade, and the documented optimism bias
• Terminal Value — the 80% Problem8 min read · Most of a DCF's value sits beyond year five, in one formula.
• Reading the Sensitivity Grid Like a Fairness Opinion6 min read · Point estimates are for pitches; grids are for decisions.
• Comps Done Right — Multiples and Their Abuses8 min read · EV/EBITDA vs P/E vs P/S: what each multiple quietly assumes, and how "adjusted" metrics became the
• Reverse DCF — What the Price Implies7 min read · Flip the tool: instead of asking what the stock is worth, ask what growth the price already
• Special Situations — When the Standard Model Breaks8 min read · Negative FCF, banks, cyclicals: three cases where the vanilla DCF misleads, and what practitioners
• Case File: Two IPOs, One Method8 min read · The 2019–2020 IPO class through one consistent DCF lens: what was knowable then, what the models
• The Full Valuation Workflow — From Statements to a Defensible Range9 min read · The ten-minute institutional pipeline: WACC from live data, FCF from filings, fade, terminal, grid

Sources

Damodaran (ERP data); Mauboussin, ATKM; McKinsey Valuation; IPO prospectuses (SEC S-1 filings)