Toptal Finance Blog

While the complex esports industry may be daunting for investors, it is growing exponentially and has already amassed a large, global audience.

Many have a love-hate relationship with Microsoft’s PowerPoint. While super flexible, the tool can also be manual, tedious, and all-consuming, especially for the uninitiated. Authored by a former management consultant and finance expert, this article will help every user—from the beginner to the advanced operator—smooth out some of their points of friction and become an expert-level user of the application.

Through its acquisition of Whole Foods, Amazon is not only likely to disrupt the grocery shopping experience but is perhaps embarking on a grander push that could change the entire retail landscape, leaving Walmart on the back foot.

The Glass-Steagall Act, Depression-era legislation, has had a controversial, unconventional run. 80 years after its inception, it’s made its way back into public discourse. This article examines the historical context of the Act, its erosion, and its repeal, as well as its impact on the financial crisis.

Many newcomers to venture capital fail to appreciate some of the nuances that distinguishes venture investing from traditional forms of financial investing. This article delves into three areas in particular that new venture investors should look to understand.

The private equity industry is showing signs of maturity as record competition amongst funds and record-high levels of dry powder, combined with strong competition from cash-rich corporates, have driven valuations to levels that make it difficult to see how returns could remain competitive.

When looking to sell your business, you will want to maximize its value through a combination of planning and timing. This article runs through some of the most important considerations to keep in mind when preparing for a sale.

After several months of relative quiet, Greece is back in the spotlight as the latest repayment deadline on its bailout debt comes due in July. We take the opportunity to review the root causes of the crisis, what has been happening since it kicked off, and what needs to be done to resolve the situation.

A cashless society is approaching, with progress particularly pronounced in certain parts of the world. This piece examines global payment trends, as well as benefits and drawbacks of a cashless economy. It also includes case studies on India and Sweden, two countries already transitioning to a cashless future.

The financial services industry is seeing a wave of innovation that is bringing with it new technology, but also a need to attract and develop talent that have the skillset needed to operate in this changing environment. This article delves into some of the most important trends affecting the industry.

As retail continues to shift online, businesses and manufacturers are faced with ever-growing pressures to build serious online presences and distribution. This article looks at the different options available, and assesses their merits and considerations from a financial standpoint

Four years on from the signing of the JOBS act, equity crowdfunding remains a small, niche market. In this article, we take a look at the current state of equity crowdfunding in the US and assess some of the challenges the market faces if it wants to grow into its potential.

Startups nowadays are hyper focused on growth at all costs, a practice which often undermines the fundamental health of the business. This article takes an in-depth look at the importance of focusing on customer retention from day one and the practical benefits it can provide in the medium to long term.

With tax reform discussions likely to rise to the national forefront, this article provides analysis regarding border adjustment taxes and the recent House proposal. It assesses economic implications and historical comparisons to help you understand how you and your business might be impacted.

With the arrival and growing ubiquity of big data, Excel, as a data-mining and processing tool has been pushed to its limits—reflected in its dated 1,048,576 row hard limit and the application’s processing speed slowing to a crawl. As of 2010, Microsoft released a Power Pivot function that transformed the scope and usefulness of Excel where the extraction, combination, and analysis of large datasets are concerned.

Using live cases, Finance Expert Ellen Su explores in detail how to master Power Pivot and explores its hidden advantages as a big data tool.

Pricing strategy is one of the most important financial levers that companies have at their disposal to influence the financial success of their business. However, it is not an easy task. This article analyzes SaaS software pricing strategies and finds that several of the operational characteristics of the business model generate some very useful pricing advantages that can help drive financial performance.

Open-source software is a catalyst for growth and change in the IT industry, and one can’t overestimate its importance to the sector. In recent years, there has been a surge in venture capital dollars pouring into the sector. In this article, we analyse whether recent valuations make sense, and whether the open-source model lends itself to the returns profile that venture capital investors look for.

Ahead of Snap’s IPO, we take a look at whether the rumoured valuation makes sense, and find that whilst overall market concerns regarding DAU growth are justified, the market is likely under-valuing the company’s ARPU growth prospects. For us, Snap is a Buy.

Despite the large increase in resources aimed at helping founders navigate the fundraising process, many still struggle when it comes to particular term sheet clauses that can have unintended consequences if misunderstood.

These clauses can lead to founders losing control of their company or payout structures upon exit down the road, regardless of how much capital they succeeded in raising. This in-depth post by Toptal Finance Expert and VC Alex Graham fills the knowledge gap by breaking down the term sheet’s trickiest clauses and the implications thereof.

Equity research provides a very useful function in our current financial markets. Nevertheless, the profession has come under fire in recent years.

In this post, Toptal Finance Expert Ryan Downie details how to utilize research reports more effectively. Additionally, he outlines the equity research’s main value for both sophisticated and retail investors and highlights the pitfalls of this profession, its causes, and how you should evaluate research in order to avoid these issues.

For young companies, the value of a full-time CFO is hotly contested. At the debate’s core, is the trade-off between the sheer expense of an experienced CFO at such an early stage (not cheap), and the value said individual posits to confer where growth, strategy, fundraising, and operations are concerned.

Borrowing elements from Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and adapting them for this purpose, Toptal Finance Expert Scott Brown introduces a unique framework for how startups might go about thinking through and making this decision.