The Brode Report monthly newsletter is where I share my insights and musings on finance, strategy, and modeling based on decades of experience. My goal is to inform and educate you with no-holds-barred analysis and commentary on a wide range of topics.
I have found this is a great way for me to stay in touch with clients and potential clients, so please sign up below to receive the newsletter by email.
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Previous Issues
February 2023 – Serious Personal News | Money in Dickens | Capsule Book Reviews
January 2023 – Linear Algebra and Excel
September 2021 – Business Plan Teardowns: The Perfect Hiding Place
July 2021 – Helium Crypto Crowdsourced Telecom: How Does This Make Sense?
May 2021 – Feeding the Beast: The One Critical Telecom Assumption People Miss
March 2021 – The “One Microsoft” MetricOctober 2019 – Is Your Financial Model Aimed at Engineers or Investors?
May 2019 – Unpacking Uber’s Spin Machine
March 2019 – Nudgemail: My Secret Weapon
October 2018 – Why I Still Do Real Models in Excel: My Wish List for Google Sheets
August 2018 – Great Colors in Graphs
June 2018 – Google Sheets: Major Upgrades
May 2018 – Raising $45M With A Great Business Model
April 2018 – Constraining Actuals + Forecast Results With Guardrails
March 2018 – What To Do When Excel Cannot Calculate an IRR
February 2018 – (Part 2) Wall Street Journal Tells Us To Give Up Excel
January 2018 – Wall Street Journal Tells Us To Give Up Excel
June 2017 – Kaizen – Continuous Improvement
May 2017 – Thank Steve Ballmer: Incredible Data at USAfacts.org
April 2017 – Uber Teardown
March 2017 #2 – Turning Modeling From A Craft To A Manufacturing Process
March 2017 – Finding Cells Which Reference Other Worksheets
September 2016 – Who Won The Rio Olympics?
August 2016 – MATCH Overuse
July 2016 – Narrative Reports In A Model
May 2016 – Will Amazon be worth $3 Trillion by 2025?
April 2016 – Beware Changing Valuation Methodologies!
March 2016 – Google Sheets vs. Excel: A New Look
August 2015 – Bad Charts…And Insights From Better Ones
February 2015 – Is It Appropriate To Use Weighted Averages on IRRs?
March 2014 – Where Has NPV Gone?
February 2014 – Sochi Winter Olympics Analysis
January 2014 – Kakuro Puzzle and The Price Is Right
August 2013 – How to Nail This Year’s Budgeting Process
March 2013 – IRR and Multiple
January/February 2013 – Police Fun Facts!
December 2012 – Mary Meeker’s State of the Web
October 2012 – Income versus Cash Flow Statements
September 2012 – The Puzzles of Win Smith
August 2012 – Who Won The Olympics?
July 2012 – Groupon’s Woes…plus Olympic Victories
June 2012 – Sophisticated Loan Repayment Forecasting
May 2012 – The SaaS “Magic Number”
April 2012 – QuiBids: A Trip Down The Rabbit Hole
March 2012 – On Facebook, Groupon, and Pennies
February 2012 – Misleading Charts and Groupon Limericks
January 2012 – From Budgeting To Strategic Planning
December 2011 – Revenue per Headcount in Large Companies
November 2011 – Dropbox Pops to $4B (Plus Groupon IPOs)
October 2011 – Exploring Spotify’s Business Model (Plus Groupon updates)
September 2011 – I Can’t Resist: More Groupon Analysis, Plus More!
August 2011 – Groupon’s IPO Story is Falling Apart
July 2011 – “But Wait, There’s More!” – The Economics of Direct Response Advertising
June 2011 – Groupon’s IPO Filing
May 2011 – LinkedIn Valuation
April 2011 – What Startups Need
March 2011 – Beating “Let’s Make a Deal”
February 2011 – Groupon: Not a Deal for Investors at $15B
January 2011 – On Art and Craftsmanship in Financial Modeling
December 2010 – List of Productivity Tools from 2010
November 2010 – Classic Large Model Miscues | Evaluate your Model Online
October 2010 – Fixing a Large Model so a Transaction Could Close
September 2010 – Five Tips for Better Scenario Modeling | Skype IPO
July 2010 – Predicting Broadband Stimulus Awards | World Cup & Economics
June 2010 – Scoring Financial Forecast Models | How to Monetize a Social Network
Flawless Financial Newsletter Archives
Flawless Financial was the previous version of our newsletter. The articles are still relevant and applicable today, so here’s a list of our archived issues.
October 2005 – Operating Companies: Seven Rules for Modeling
July 2005 – Rollup Models
April 2005 – Operationalizing A Model: Part 2
March 2005 – Operationalizing A Model: Part 1
February 2005 – After The Money Comes: What Next?
September 2004 – Choosing Among Competing Lenders
August 2004 – Management Challenges In Budgeting
July 2004 – Budgeting Principles
June 2004 – Keeping Forecasts Up To Date
May 2004 – Finance and Sales Can Be Friends!
April 2004 – Income vs. Cash Flow Statements
March 2004 – Venture Capital 101
February 2004 – Valuation Terminology
January 2004 – Jack Tankersley Interview
December 2003 – Productivity Tools
November 2003 – Fundraising Action Plan
September 2003 – Quickly Creating A Great Financial Package
August 2003 – Financial Summaries
July 2003 – Assumptions Tell The Story
June 2003 – 25-Point Financial Model Scorecard
May 2003 – The Wisdom of Joel Spolsky
April 2003 – Presenting Investment Returns
March 2003 – Revenue per Headcount
February 2003 – How Do You Read A Financial Model?
January 2003 – The 80-20 Rule for Models or One Mile Equals One Mile
Organized By Topic
25-point Financial Model Scorecard, my financial model evaluation methodology.
Success story: How I fixed a large model to close a structured finance transaction.
Classic large model miscues — common modeling mistakes.
Unpacking Uber’s Spin Machine – a closer look at the ride-share giant’s prep for IPO
How I helped a startup raise $45M from top VC’s.
Solving the MontyHall Problem – Beating “Let’s Make a Deal.”
QuiBids: A Trip Down the Rabbit Hole.
May 2019 – Unpacking Uber’s Spin Machine
May 2016 – Will Amazon be worth $3 Trillion by 2025?
August 2015 – Bad Charts…And Insights From Better Ones
February 2011 – Groupon: Not a Deal for Investors at $15B
Back in the day, I argued Groupon should have accepted Google’s $6B offer rather than trying to go public at $15B. I was right: today Groupon is valued at $1.35B.
July 2012 – Groupon’s Woes…plus Olympic Victories
March 2012 – On Facebook, Groupon, and Pennies
February 2012 – Misleading Charts and Groupon Limericks
November 2011 – Dropbox Pops to $4B (Plus Groupon IPOs)
October 2011 – Exploring Spotify’s Business Model (Plus Groupon updates)
September 2011 – I Can’t Resist: More Groupon Analysis, Plus More!
August 2011 – Groupon’s IPO Story is Falling Apart
June 2011 – Groupon’s IPO Filing
February 2011 – Groupon: Not a Deal for Investors at $15B
As an expert user of spreadsheets since the 1980s, I have strong beliefs about using them well.
June 2018 – Google Sheets: Major Upgrades
March 2017 – Finding Cells Which Reference Other Worksheets
August 2016 – MATCH Overuse
March 2016 – Google Sheets vs. Excel: A New Look
I learned corporate finance theory from the innovative and rigorous Dr. Bill Alberts of the University of Washington and Marakon Associates. I regularly see people’s odd beliefs about corporate finance decision-making and am inspired to give my views.
March 2018 – What To Do When Excel Cannot Calculate an IRR
April 2016 – Beware Changing Valuation Methodologies!
February 2015 – Is It Appropriate To Use Weighted Averages on IRRs?
March 2014 – Where Has NPV Gone?
March 2013 – IRR and Multiple
August 2018 – Great Colors in Graphs
March 2017 #2 – Turning Modeling From A Craft To A Manufacturing Process
July 2016 – Narrative Reports In A Model
August 2015 – Bad Charts…And Insights From Better Ones
