High-growth companies with no earnings: why DCF still works, how to anchor assumptions to a path-to-profitability, and when revenue multiples are more honest than a speculative DCF.

The Rule of 40 as a framework for SaaS and high-growth multiples: revenue growth plus profit margin must exceed 40%. How to use EV/Sales without overpaying for growth.

Mature companies with stable returns: why terminal value assumptions dominate, how to handle excess cash and non-operating assets, and the capital return signals that precede re-rating.

Distressed but not dead. The probability-weighted DCF: assign scenarios (recovery, restructuring, failure), attach probabilities, and discount each branch. Damodaran's discipline.

When debt exceeds asset value, equity is an out-of-the-money call option. The Merton model applied: why deeply distressed equity can still have positive value despite negative book equity.

Banks can't be valued with standard frameworks — debt is a raw material, not just financing. The DDM for banks, the P/Book vs. ROE relationship, and McKinsey's regulatory capital approach.

Earnings at the top of the cycle are not sustainable earnings. Mid-cycle normalization, commodity-price sensitivity, and EV-to-resource-base multiples for energy and materials.

GAAP expensing of R&D and marketing understates both assets and earnings. How to capitalize R&D to reconstruct invested capital — and estimate brand value from premium pricing.

Value each business segment separately, then sum them. Why conglomerates trade at a discount to SOTP — and what catalysts close the gap.

Option to defer investment, option to expand, option to abandon. How real options add value beyond static DCF — and when they're large enough to change an investment decision.

Valuing companies that earn in one currency and trade in another. How to handle country risk, currency risk, and the choice between adjusting cash flows vs. adjusting the discount rate.

Emerging market complications: unreliable financial data, political risk premiums, illiquidity discounts, and why the same business can be worth dramatically different amounts in different geographies.

Thirteen questions: apply the appropriate valuation framework to five different company types from provided descriptions and financial data.