This 28 Year Old Billionaire Just Bought Forbes

Author

Callum Booker
May 16, 2023

Read time: 3 minutes

GM! It's Tuesday, May 16th - Today we're covering an under the radar 28-year-old tech billionaire that just bought Forbes.

Let's unpack it!

FEATURE

This 28 Year Old Billionaire Just Bought Forbes

Forbes has a new majority owner, and he’s only 28 years old.

This month, Luminar founder and CEO Austin Russell purchased 82% of Forbes at an $800M valuation.

Let’s figure out how Russell was able to acquire his $1.6B net worth at such a young age and make waves in the tech world.

So, What’s the Business?

When Russell was a teenager, he developed a breakthrough in lidar sense technology. Lidar stands for “light detection and ranging”, and Russell was able to develop a high-resolution, long-range lidar system that was ideal for autonomous vehicles.

With the prototype he developed in his parent’s garage, he was able to win a $100K Thiel Fellowship grant to further develop and commercialize his lidar tech.

While Tesla is a car manufacturer built around electric engines and autonomous driving tech, Russell took a different path with Luminar. Instead of creating his own cars, Russell’s lidar technology can be transplanted into car brands like Volvo, Audi, and Toyota, whom he’s already partnered with.

Luminar is currently valued at $2.4B and the company generated $40.7M in revenue in 2022. Though the company is not currently profitable, it’s making bold projections of 100% year-over-year growth through fiscal year 2028.

Investors seem to believe in these projections since the company is currently valued at 2.2x the estimated revenues for fiscal year 2027.

How They Win

Luminar’s valuation isn’t a mistake. Investors see a company that’s singularly focused on improving autonomous driving and has a clear pathway towards profitability. Here’s a breakdown of what drives their success.

Solve a problem

To create demand, you need to solve a problem that consumers will pay you to solve. Luminar markets its autonomous driving tech as an innovation in car safety akin to seatbelts and airbags. Luminar’s lidar provides cars with a 3D view of the roadways ahead and can take over vehicle control to avoid car crashes.

Strategic partnerships

Early in its inception, Luminar partnered with the Toyota Research Institute, Volvo Cars Tech Fund, and Audi’s Intelligent Driving Team. These early partnerships provided Luminar with credibility and market access. In return, these car manufacturers found a way to compete with Tesla in the realm of autonomous vehicles.

Luminar also recently announced a multi-billion-dollar deal with Mercedes, but they did not disclose the exact financial figures. The deal is larger than all of their other OEM partnerships combined and will require Luminar to produce 10X more lidar systems.

Continual innovation

Since Luminar is solely focused on developing its lidar tech, they can put all their resources into driving down costs of development and staying ahead of the competition. The company recently unveiled their Iris Plus system that has a 300-meter range and can operate at autobahn-level speeds.

To drive down costs, Luminar is opening a Mexico manufacturing facility through a partnership with Celestica Inc. This high volume manufacturing plant hopes to bring the cost of each sensor down to $100, making lidar-equipped vehicles viable for mass market appeal.

Key Observations

Austin had a few options - He could either become an arms dealer, and sell his tech to the highest bigger, or a warlord and compete directly with Tesla by building a competing automotive company.

He decided to become an arms dealer and sold his product to top car brands desperately searching for ways to stay competitive.

TOGETHER WITH DYMICRON

How Venhub Is Solving A $100B Problem For Retailers

Theft alone costs retailers $100B every year. In addition to labor shortages, the high cost of real estate, and other issues, business owners are fighting an uphill battle...

VenHub has the potential to change that as they patent a revolutionary autonomous retail system, starting with the $654B convenience store industry.

And they’re taking investors meanwhile.

Why the world needs Venhub

It’s getting harder for small store owners to find the right hires for a 24-hour operation, which is why Venhub is pioneering 24/7 fully autonomous retail kiosks that could transform everything about how a convenience store is run – stocking, transactions, inventory management, and more.

From the store owner’s perspective, it creates the potential for:

  • 5X higher margins

  • 98% faster to build

  • A more sustainable operation

Plus, VenHub provides a secure and welcoming environment for customers to shop.

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