NOTE: this was a past issue of my weekly newsletter, Timeless Gems. Join my free mailing list so you don’t miss out on future issues.
Today’s gem is Google’s P&L from the first few years of its operations:
Google is a once-in-a-generation company. It’s pretty fascinating to really take in its financials for the first few years of its operations (Google was founded in late 1998). $0 to $3bn in revenue (and $0 to $640m in operating profit) within just ~5 years … talk about striking gold!
From 2003 to 2004, Google increased R&D by $134m and increased S&M by $126m, and the result was adding $1.7bn in revenue. That operating leverage is mind-blowing.
I have previously written a blog post on why I think Google might be the greatest business in the history of capitalism.
Shout out to Everett for resurfacing this gem.
