UiPath is the Latest Robotic Process Automation Stock

The way venture capitalists (VCs) look at business ventures depends on which stage they’re coming in at. American television show Shark Tank gives us a glimpse of what VCs look for in the earliest stages of a business – signs of traction, which usually comes in the form of revenues. “We did $700,000 in sales out of our living room in 8 months,” is the sort of response that you’ll see raise some shark eyebrows. Once VCs know someone will buy what you’re selling, they then want to know how large the opportunity is, usually referred to as total addressable market (TAM).

If people are lining up to buy what you’re selling and the TAM is giant, you may have a run-rate growth chart that looks like this.

That’s the sort of growth that gets VCs excited, even more so that it’s a Software-as-a–Service (SaaS) business model which commands a premium in the market. It’s that sort of growth that gives a startup lots of leverage in the funding relationship which can lead to overvaluations. That’s why when UiPath says they’ve filed for an IPO, we’re going to be really cautious about all the hype that might surround that offering. Just weeks ago, UiPath took in funding at a valuation of $35 billion which gives us somewhere to start.

Enterprise AI SaaS Offerings

We’ve written extensively about why