Why LMG needs more money 

almost-36 year old Linus: “I’m past my prime” 🤡 95 year old Queen of England “Bet” 🤑

There is nothing wrong with staying private. If the company can remain profitable and sustainable there's no reason it can't be the family business for generations. LMG doesn't have to be as big as the Mars Inc for that to happen.

"Linus Media Group isn't a building, it's a people" Linus be tempting Thanos fate

LInus, unless you get bored with the business you have decades to go. As a 66 year old technologist that has been at the sharp end my whole life I can tell you that there's more to do and more to see. Do not go public unless you are cashing out, feeding the shareholder monster is a soul crushing experience not to mention the associated phalanx of corporate lawyers and consultants. Keep your company organic, operate with your excellent ethics and only grow it to the size you want it to be. I built my first computer in 83 and my latest a week ago (12600 on a Z690 Motherboard).

"we need more money" what a coincidence, so do I

as someone who works in PE, it's hard to say LMG is an attractive target for going public. Private investments, possibly. But he is correct in creating sustainability (scalability and longer-term growth) past his involvement. Unless they go the direction of verge, there is a question of going concern.

Massive respect for Linus and team for not supporting crap merch subscriptions that people are never going to use. Thank you! edited.

Luke casually saying "can buy or sell drugs" and then linus going "wait what" got me in tears 🤣

Having been a financial statement auditor for KPMG, and having taken a company public, it’s not something casually done. There are filing and reporting requirements, and internal processes around auditing, that need to be met. It’s a lot of work. Get a good CFO!

I like where Linus is thinking of his future with LMG and quantifying it versus a tangible object. Supporters buying items merch for value and profit. Even LTX if that would ever come back… There has to be value to give back. Linus understands the value of the dollar and that every dollar is worth a lot to him, his company, and the person that had that dollar. I do agree there has to be something else tangible or not that people can buy. LMG, LTT, LTX. First started making money not off merch but experiences, knowledge, and community. To think how far they've already come. If they were back in the past: in your wildest dreams would you have gone “Gee I'm gonna have this much in the future”.

Ever think of expanding vertically? Add one or two stories to your existing building. It might be a cheaper option than buying.

Having bean counters buy up most of the available shares would be one of the most destructive things that could happen to LMG.

Imagine Linus having to crawl back to the board to apologize every time he drops a GPU

What!?! Prime years? I was part of a layoff at 38. Still laughing at you and late 30’s being prime. 8 years later and better off than I could have imagined then and room to improve still.

1:55 "Why would you do that" Because we really believe in the future of both you and LMG as a whole. Going public is usually a way to satisfy early investors, but if I were to be one of them I'd personally fine with it staying private and being part of something I think does both help and entertain people.

Possible path would be to bring LMG products to a mid size retail store chain, thus allowing access to the item to a much bigger market. Customers would buy the item for the design and quality of the product. Most would not have found it otherwise since, currently, they are mostly presented to computer enthusiasts, a small percentage of the population.

A subscription service that offers exclusive, limited print type stuff could walk that line. A company called FMF has a subscription called "The Drop". It's always has a shirt, long sleeve or short. Which comes with other cool items from other companies involved in the same industry. Sometimes collaborations with over people in the industry in terms of design. They do a great job with the program. I have yet to be disappointed with a single Drop box that I have received

Going public mainly just gives you access to significantly more capital. Yes you get paid a little from the IPO but your real payment comes from continued growth of the share price (think Bezos, Musk, Gates). Issuing new shares gives you easy access to new capital you can invest, which if you have positive NPV projects can be great. Cheap debt is also a benefit but usually isn't a reason to go public. The reason most companies go public is because Venture Capital got involved and that's how VC's get paid, plus investors will increase their return significantly once the public is able to invest. Cons: the market can be vicious and demand short term gains at the expense of the long term performance of the firm. Quarterly reporting and compliance can be a huge pain in the ass for inexperienced firms.

I think it would be interesting to keep the LMG headquarters in its current location, but acquire a small location in the US, which would technically make LMG an international company. Nothing crazy huge in the US, but something small and manageable with a focus / speciality like drone usage in media (commercials, real estate fly-throughs, etc...) Or something of the like. Then go public if more cash is needed once LMGs portfolio gains a name for itself and becomes more sustainable. I would imagine being an international company looks pretty good to an investor. Quality control of a satellite location could be an obstacle though, And I have no idea if doing any of that makes any financial sense whatsoever. I'm only a IT professional and tech enthusiast.

If real estate's immediate price tag is the problem, u can engage investment firms to procure investor that would be interested to invest in your company. The $$$ they would have to poney up to buy LMG's shares would be the real estate in question. How they finance that portion of their investment would be their problem , whether they would look for REIT/retirement funds/pension funds/sovereign wealth funds/old europe trust money/etc. I handle property development projects in SEA and a lot of big projects are funded this way multi-layered. Except that we have SPVs for it so the profit can be better apportioned or are easily transferable via sales of shares.

There are a couple of justifications given for why firms desire to go public. 1) there stock is now a currency. 2) employees (and vendors) can get paid in that currency (many desire this) 3) If the market cap and revenue are significant, the company is required to "grow up" and on board significant internal controls (in the US, basically COSO compliance) and 4) bragging rights (no joke)

2:50 Wouldn't mind trying out an LTT weed strain

You're in no need for the kind of hypergrowth cash infusion of a public offering (unless you want to "Exit" and make serious cheddar personally). And you could easily raise on private markets for very acceptable terms. PS: "Dividends" are old fashioned - many many stocks do not do Dividends, in fact preference is usually to do stock buybacks (the company buys it's own equity, reducing the amount of equity on the market and thus having a deflationary increase effect on the price)

Buy land and build tends to be the best option. There are quite a few lenders who specialise in businesses building a new HQ.

Normally, they take it public or IPO because they need more investment very quickly to expand faster, or there is some funding that you need it right away. Some that went public, eventually becomes private since the stock price goes down leading to the capital technically shrinks, and therefore stopping further leaking.

You can also issue bonds. So if you want some money, but don't want to go to a bank, you can issue fixed interest rates bonds that can be bought on the open market. You can also raise money from splitting stock.

Reporting Requirements. You have to disclose A LOT of financial information and report to the Street (Wall or Bay Street) every quarter.

LMG in Kamloops would be DOPE.

If its a case of expansion due to relocation then , new people in a new place. Yeah its unleashing a head of the hydra to grow of its own but its free of roots.

Kickstarting new office, like Vldl did, seem to work nice, high bidders can get on wall of fame or a tour of the studio

You can sell further shares once you’re public to raise more money, it’s not just at the beginning. That’s why market cap is helpful, if you have a trillion dollar company, you can dilute your shares by only 1% and raise $10B in cash

I didn't watch the video yet, but based on the title, I assume Linus just screams CAPITALISM for 10:41?

I mean… if you run out of room for growth you could consider sort of like floatplane is it’s own thing… you could have satellite offices that contribute to the main hub

Sounds to me like you need to start selling consumables. Maybe TechieJuice, or even a physical magazine which to become a collectible item or piece of history. Here's an idea, release a monthly pocket-book which to include the best PC configs and laptops for different price points. Have laptop and PC setups for $200, $500, $750, $1000, $1500, and $2000, released quarterly (every 3 months). Or maybe start producting your own things (even if made-in-China), like your own deck-like-conversion kits for smartphones and tablets, or other things for the Steam Deck. A keyboard for the Steam Deck would be nice, especially if it came with something to protect the joysticks when traveling without the case, which could also double as a stand for the Deck for when you're consuming content. You already have the Deck, so you could probably start making them now and be one of the first on the market to sell them. Or a casing with airflow for adding a laptop-size SSD/HDD to the back of the Deck, while also not negatively affecting the Deck's cooling capabilities.

You don't have to go public to raise that much capital, PE and VC investors will happily invest as well as private companies can raise bonds for that kind of capital.

A potential solution is a investment division in LMG, who will invest a part of your profits and make good returns which will in turn help you grow financially.

When it comes to the integrity of the company and your brand, staying private is the best way to go. Right now you're priority is with what makes the viewer happy. But when you're public the viewer, AKA the customer, is second. You'd be forced to make decisions that might go against what you personally or the viewer want. In which case the quality can go down. And oh boy. Once quality is on a downward spiral, especially when the quality has been so high all this time, it's very hard to get out of it.

Wow Mystery Shirt is such a smart idea! No waste

I'd buy a quarterly case cleanup kit with a couple pairs of gloves and wipes for handling TG panels, monitor wipes/spray etc.

Much of the time, I really don't know what you guys are talking about (especially the gaming and the deep tech stuff; or, even, some of the shallower stuff). And yet, I enjoy listening to you guys talk about... whatever it is you're talking about.

I really like Linus' attitude towards viewers and customers. He seems very genuine and passionate about his business doing the right thing.

I hope you read this but i fkn love how you handle employees. Maybe its a canadian mentality but where i live companies handle people like disposable resource what they can easily throw everywhere.

Yeah, public listing for a small business like LMG doesn't really make sense. It creates a lot of extra overheads just running the business that you wouldn't have to deal with otherwise, like such as having a board of directors and dealing with them for the day to day stuff (not to mention paying them for the privilege); regular reports on the company's finances, performance, plans, projections, etc.; dealing with the share registry or a company that provides registry services, etc. All that stuff is almost certainly not worth the extra cost in the long term.

I would happily buy if the store had XL4 XL5 sizes shirts

It’s not just LMG, I too need more money. Everyone’s got reasons.

Public companies are legally required to act in there shareholder's benefit. "Fiduciary Duty of Loyalty: Officers and directors owe a duty of loyalty to a corporation and its shareholders. They are expected to put the welfare and best interests of the corporation above their own personal or other business interests."

LMG could always relocate to my place. I can sleep on my couch.

i hope you will grow big you would actually deserve it

Now you guys know why linus is frustrated when you have adblock on, it might be small but every penny counts. To be clear im not guilt tripping you to not skip ads, but linus would appreciate it, its still your time on your hands, skip if you have to or want to. There are short 30 ads that are unskippable which would be of help to lmg.

I know it would be Hella expensive but I would pay if yall did like a monthly Wan show shirt subscription

Commercial leases that had a guaranteed 3% or such increase year after year are just nuts to me. I had to read through leases on our buildings at my old job and I understand the cost of inflation and such but it always bugged me because at what point are you just pushing your long term tenants away just by the non-existent rent ceiling?

For subscriptions you could do something like Amazon prime or something that will help reduce the price or give access to new features before everyone else

I think letting people buy in would be a better idea. Then they can bring things to the table not just there money. You need to value the company first

“LMG is not a building, it’s people ”. Like Asgard!

Just go to the bank for a loan if you need cash, rates are low. Going public is a HUGE pain in the ass.

Ask your employees who wants to head up the secondary office in X location. Solved. Saying this having seen it as a consultant countless times, stop letting the ego & need of control get in front of letting your employees step up and grow the future of the company.

Going public also allows your employees a chance of ownership and ideally more invested in the success and growth of the company. Of course the downside of this is that now you have to grow or else. Growth is the reason for everything you do instead of doing things you are enjoying that will pay the bills. Any joy you have in what you do will be extinguished.

bro young asf talking about how old he is! you still got this linus

I think in this case doing a LTT coin and using them in exchange for store discounts or something similar would be a good short term money raising venture that still provides a tangible benefit to the people investing

LMG is people. I loved that. I agree.

Very roughly: Things that prevent you from going public are not legal, but the associated costs. There are very costly accounting standards to follow and similar administrative costs associated with it. The advantage in your case would essentially be the additional capital.

Why title of this video remind me of dutch van der linde

If you go public you have to pay the owner of each share more money every single year. Or the value of your business goes down, even if you are doing just fine. Its like taking a loan you can never pay off.

I thought this was like you know a prerequisite for a business and projects need money thought that was just already known...

I thought you got extra building not so long ago? So you need a third or just a massive building?

do you have capability to expand virtically, ie, add extra floors upwards in the building.?

LTTStore should sell prefilled, waterbottles ^^ There is your subscription model :D Buyers can chooses whether their bottle is filled with bathwater from madison, Sarah or Yvonne.

Going public is just a way to raise a lot of money and the down sides are many. Now you have grown organic, but there is another way. You could grow by buying other company/companies. Then you have the oppertunity to buy another company placed more strategic.

Subsidiary, at a different location/relocated?

Here is one reason. You go public. You pay yourself 60k salary then pay yourself tens of millions worth of your own stocks then borrow against with basically 0 tax (bc loans can’t be taxed in the US) and only pay the interest on loan to avoid taxes. That’s how the US works.

It is my understanding that you would be required to become publicly traded once you reach 100 individual shareholders/investors

It would be one way for Linus to liquidate some of the paper value of LMG, so he can spend it on something else, like right to repair lobbyists or laptop manufacturers or buying a Major League Badminton team.

The beauty is you can lease the current space if you find a larger one

Luke saying “you can buy DRUGS!” When talking about crypto makes him sound like a boomer.

Other than lots of money? well, for lots of money.

You should do private placements

Once you go public you become bound by fiduciary duty and become 100% dedicated to generating profit. Think of any decision you've ever made on principle that lowered your revenue, such as dropping the Anker sponsorship. If you go public, actions like that can result in you being ousted from your own company.

Could buy some land and trying building from scratch. Not cheap but probably cheaper than buying an outdated warehouse or building for the same amount

Slow and steady growth is preferable for long-term business goals. Explosive growth is cool and grabs headlines, but it's not typically sustainable and sets expectations too high. Compare someone who works a decent steady job and still has income ten years from now, to someone who wins the lottery and goes broke within three years (which, last I read, was the average). Winning the lottery sounds attractive, but I'd rather have a stable life.

Modern market isn't a huge fan of slow and steady. They're gonna want to see quarter after quarter of growth. Also even if you retain ownership of the company, stockholders do have rights, and most of them aren't going to be fans, they're going to be investment firms and groups looking to make a lot of money off you.

Ltt on his current path is not sutible for going puplic

Shirts can be consumable.

Going public allows you to sell LMG to the largest possible collection of people, including people who would only buy a small percentage. Meaning, Linus (and Yvonne) get paid. A company can also issue sales for fundraising, but I (non-expert) don't see that at all anymore. Instead companies that need money borrow or issue bonds. Instead, the initial money comes from private investors who will want the company to go public eventually so they get paid. However, once those shares are out you need to act in the interests of shareholders. See Tesla share holders suing Elon for using Tesla funds to bail out his failing Solar City company.

nvidia probably found out about this stuff and that combined with the objections went NOPE!

2nd location in a different timezone

If LMG goes public I will immediately stop watching any and all content.

You will never be past your prime, you’ll always be the perfect idol for technology. One day you’ll hand the company face over to someone else, but you’re name will always be what brings me back. Knowing that you know who and what will succeed you is all the trust I need to keep my support going for you forever.

You don’t sell stocks of LMG, you sell stocks of a new co LMG Real State, which whole purpose is to buy and lease property. This way this new co business is not tied to you, it’s a real state business. And you’re leasing to yourself so there’s no unknown there, and you can potentially do dividends

IMO you gotta do what is best for your company but you have to be able to deal with the growth without negatively impacting the core ideals of the original operation... but I still feel like going public will not benefit the viewer more than it would benefit the management...

just do a ncis ncis los angels ,ltt (near by industiral area )

Why not remote workers?

It sounds like LMG is the IBM of media groups in terms of growth. And that is not a bad thing.

Economical growth has slowed. Yes the real estate market is up tremendously and even with a recession I can almost guarantee we won’t see the number we saw before 2020. We have to wait 5 years for income to mortgage ratio to level back out.

I've never thought about his age. Not once. Ever. But now that I know..... I am not okay.

What the hell are some of these comments??? Did you guys listen to a fucking word linus said? He isn't acting more like an elite or wanting more money for himself, if he was he would relocate, make a crypto shitcoin, sell NFTs, etc but his morals stop him doing that thus restricting LMG from doing more typical shit. How any of you idiots can claim he's being an elitist after watching that video is far beyond me... I thought low effort trolling was a thing of the past by now.

Invest in young creators (money and supplies) , get them to sign onto your platform and take a cut. When they make money, you make money. You could be a pretty interesting investment company.. like shark tanks of the tech or youtube world.

Why not just issue bonds?

Linus spends this clip explaining why he ethically can't take everyone's money.

One year later… 😬

So See Thru, Crazy.