1/ I just sold my startup to @MorningBrew at age 22. Here's how I built and exited one of the first TikTok media companies [THREAD]

Fully AI generated thumbnail.

Social media is lowkey hard now.

Hope you enjoyed the thread. I make cinema level DD videos on the most exciting stocks on my YouTube. Just dropped one on an air taxi stock destined to 10x.

To cap this off we can not overstate the growth of BNPL. It's a $560B category today growing to nearly $1T in 5 yrs. 60% of respondents across generations prefer it to credit cards. The real question is not will BNPL stick?. It's "Can Klarna make a quality business out of it".

And for the wider BNPL sector?. • FICO will start adding BNPL to credit scores.• Apple and PayPal are now competitors.• Everything depends on a strong economy and consumer spending.

But red flags remain:. • $7M+ paid to orgs linked to the CEO’s wife.• $800M+ in insider selling pre-IPO.• $867M in securitized loans hidden from the balance sheet.- Abrupt shift to UK HQ. These aren't small governance issues — they’re real risks.

I guess the ads thesis is somewhat interesting. Meta makes around $50 per user with ads. If Klarna could make $25 it could bring in $2.5B+ of high margin revenue. That's almost the same as their entire current revenue.

So what's Klarna's $100B vision?. Klarna wants to be the “WeChat of the West.”. Inside one app:. Shopping discovery, rewards, payments, ads, banking. With 93M users, they’re now monetizing data like Amazon.

Klarna does have real advantages though. • $9.5B in low-cost consumer deposits .• European banking license .• Merchant partners like Walmart who dropped Affirm.• Growing U.S. business (39% YoY). They’re not just a lender — they’re building a platform.

Affirm has a quarter of Klarna's GMV ($26B) but generates $400M more in revenue ($3.2B). It's also growing WAY faster (38% vs. 24%). Overall it's much more efficient at monetizing each transaction. Both co's however have similar credit loss rates and gross margins.

Let's wheel in the comps. Its main competitor Affirm is worth ~$27B, with shares up 70% since the IPO and 35% YTD. Does this mean investors are excited about BNPL?. Klarna is targeting $14B valuation. How do the businesses compare?

CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski claims AI is key to cost-cutting and underwriting. It purportedly helped cut marketing costs by $10M, CRM costs by 28%, and 62% of customer support is handled by it. Some call out Klarna's AI strategy as a fancy disguise for routine cost cutting 😂

Klarna recorded $495M in bad loans last year. That’s 18% of revenue — more than it spends on marketing going straight to bad debt. This is a HUGE issue. But can AI solve it?

According to Klarna's S-1, it produced a $21M net profit last year. Don't be deceived. Under proper accounting, Klarna had a $121 million operating loss. Hugely improved from -$1B in 2022, but still bleeding. Why? Credit losses 😳.

Klarna exploded across Europe, then the U.S. Today:. • $105B in GMV (+14% yoy).• $2.8B in revenue (+24% yoy).• 7.5M debit card users (5M waitlist).• 1st net profit ever. The company is getting better at making money from each user. But we need a closer look 🚩

BNPL wasn’t a Silicon Valley idea — it started in Sweden 20 years ago. In 2005, the Swedes had a “try before you buy” culture. Merchants hated the risk. So Klarna was born to sit in the middle:. Consumers pay later, merchants get paid now.

Klarna is about to IPO. With $100B+ in GMV, 93M users, and its first net profit, it touts itself as the next-gen of commerce. But for every $1 they make in revenue. They lose $0.18 because people don't pay back their loans. Here's everything you need to know 🧵

Highest ROI but low effort play as a creator?. Screenshot thumbnails and save em for inspo. Even when you're j chilling. I do this religiously. Visual frameworks for days. 13 pages worth so far.

YouTube just released a feature where your fans can "hype" your video to boost its reach (if you have <500K subs). Seems like incentivizing this from your most loyal fans could be high ROI

Check out the full video on my youtube channel. Twice a week I give you cinematic level DD on a high upside stock. It feels more like watching a movie than doing investment research. And my picks are locks.