My Investor Days: When the Numbers Didn’t Add Up
I remember sitting in a meeting with the CFO of a fast-growing public company—great margins, double-digit revenue growth, expanding customer base. On paper, they were doing everything right. But their stock had flatlined for six months.
They wanted answers.
As an investor at the time, I didn’t fault the fundamentals. What I saw was something different: a complete disconnect between how they talked about their business and how we, as investors, evaluated performance. Their quarterly materials were dense with operational detail, but lacked the narrative clarity or KPIs that could help us model upside. There was no bridge between the numbers and the value we could believe in.
And that’s when it clicked for me: performance and perception aren’t the same thing. Especially in public markets.
Years later, as an IR consultant, I still think about that moment. It’s not enough to achieve growth. You have to frame it in a way the market understands. That’s where growth-adjusted multiples come in. They’re how investors level the playing field across industries, sectors, and growth rates, and how they decide what your company is really worth.
Let’s break down what they are, how they work, and why most companies get them wrong.
