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Profit First: Reverse Engineer Your Way To Financial Success

Terry Starbucker

What’s wrong with the traditional “GAAP” accounting formula. Confident that he had the formula to success, he became an angel investor… and proceeded to lose his entire fortune. Then he started all over again, with a new “Profit first” formula. Why the “Profit First” formula works with the entrepreneur’s natural behavior.

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Why We Need to Update Financial Reporting for the Digital Era

Harvard Business Review

However, many investors seem to have concluded that the most successful companies with tens of billions of dollars of valuation today could never have justified their valuation at the start of their operation based on discounted cash flow. Analysts increasingly rely on non-GAAP metrics.

Report 11
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Keep Your Sarbanes-Oxley Off My CFO

Harvard Business Review

If a CFO is operating outside the bounds of policy or law or GAAP and is willing to lie to the board about it, I doubt that he or she would be overly concerned about whether the line being crossed is dotted or solid. Even if the problem did exist, this proposal wouldn't fix it.

CFO 15
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You Can't Impress Stock Analysts.and Shouldn't Try

Harvard Business Review

It's a strategic and operational straight-jacket. In essence, they'll report their results to GAAP standards and as the SEC, FASB, and other quasi-regulatory bodies require.but they won't answer to analysts.

GAAP 12
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A Blueprint for Digital Companies’ Financial Reporting

Harvard Business Review

Investors, therefore, look not just for reported revenues but for drivers behind the revenues, especially because digital companies’ operating activities often differ from their revenue-generating activities. The first category should describe the amount spent on supporting current operations.

Report 8
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Reclaiming the Idea of Shareholder Value

Harvard Business Review

Countries that operate under common law, including the United States and the United Kingdom, lean in this direction. Countries that operate under civil law, including France, Germany, and Japan, tend to be in this camp. .” The first believes the company’s goal is to maximize shareholder value.

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Midsized Firms Can Survive a Cash Crisis

Harvard Business Review

Operational meltdowns can devour a midsized company’s cash. Cash revenues were indeed $200 million for the year, but the correct GAAP net revenues were only $30 million and profit was $2 million. Without adequate outside capital, a financial hemorrhage can escalate to a liquidity crash, an ugly moment when no one gets paid.

Crisis 8