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Paper Profit (Paper Loss)

Categories: Accounting

It was only notional. It was on paper, not like...cash wired into the bank account kitty.

How'd the paper profit happen? Well, you invested early in whatever.com. You put in $100,000 for a 5% stake in the company. With dilution, at its 4th round, you now own 3% of a company valued at $200 million. That's 8 million bucks on a 100 grand invest. Nice work.

But it's only a paper profit. The company could still totally go bankrupt. If the cars don't fly, or if they tilt in the wind and give people Henry VIII haircuts, then they're likely...dust in the wind. But for the moment, you can feel good about being a multimillionaire on paper.

So go buy Car & Driver magazine and look at the convertible Bentleys...on paper. That's all you can afford at the moment.



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