Toptal Management Consulting Blog

Waterfalls are an integral part of real estate investment terms, dictating the hierarchy of how cash is distributed to investors and the transaction’s sponsors. When structured correctly—with aligned incentives—they ensure that the deal is set up to achieve outsize success.

How can you easily assess whether your business is ready for sale? Key questions need to be answered to make the sales process as smooth as possible. A checklist can help managers prepare.

A financial forecast is a map that leads investors to the end goal. Most forecasts fail because they assume the ability to capture a market without detailing the assumptions to get them there. Startup financial models must be granular, with no missing steps from points A to Z.

We polled the Toptal Management Consultant network to find out how they access Bloomberg terminal-quality data without paying $25,000. One website we uncovered looks and feels exactly like FactSet—and costs nothing.

Not sure when to use which valuation ratio for which situation? In this article, we’ll delve into the must-know metrics and provide heuristics of when to use which measure.

Some industries like healthcare and utilities are naturally recession-proof. However, if you operate in more cyclical sectors, there is a range of initiatives that you can implement to make your business more resilient to economic shocks.

How do you value a startup or a scaleup? This is a question that plagues both founders and investors. Arriving at a figure all parties can agree upon is not very straightforward: ultimately, valuation is more of an art than a science.

Family Offices are becoming increasingly popular and prominent in investment circles. Their rise is due to changing economic conditions and the increased flexibility and control that families wish to exert with their capital.

What happened to Blackberry? The company, once the most valuable in Canada, has effectively been a zombie stock for a while. Is the picture painted by the stock a fair one, particularly for a company whose revenues are up 20% YoY?

Recession-proof industries either provide an absolute necessity that consumers will always keep purchasing, or have characteristics that are conducive to experiencing increased demand in downturns.

The restaurant industry is infamous for its failure rate. The most common reason for failure is location. Cloud kitchens do away with this obstacle, allowing restaurants to operate without having a central hip location.

To understand the recent decline in prominence of large banking conglomerates we must first understand the innovation history of the industry. This provides clues towards the paths banks must take for an innovative future.

Will electric airplanes dramatically reduce fuel costs, save the environment, and jumpstart the dying regional industry? In this article, we examine why electric airplanes are having their moment in the sun. We size the market, take bets on the winning players, investigate the challenges in current technologies, and take a guess at when you’ll be flying in an electric plane.

What happens when interest rates drop below zero - are you really paid to borrow money? Japan, Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, and the Eurozone have all experienced negative rates and their experiences give pointers towards the effectiveness of such strategies.

How has the beauty industry become extremely innovative? How did Glossier and The Ordinary approach (and crack) the problem of enticing consumers, building brand loyalty and creating unique experiences? The lessons are relevant for all DTC companies.

Business value is much more than just the sum of discounted future cash flows. There are strategic elements related to equity control that also determine true worth. These factors manifest through control, liquidity, marketability, and synergistic discounts and premiums.