Australians like to think that they believe in second chances, but how true really is that?
asserted
that → like → chances
Oliver Curtis’s bruising experience with the abandoned Firmus float has exposed both a business that got ahead of itself and our familiar appetite for watching someone fall.
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someone → abandon → itself
The company wanted a valuation of about $44billion.
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company → want → 44billion
Investors weren’t buying it, literally.
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Investors → buy → it
Nobody owes an entrepreneur their hard-earned savings simply because he has an inspiring pitch or wants to rewrite his chequered past.
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he → owe → past
Curtis was convicted in 2016 of conspiring to commit insider trading and served a year in prison.
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Curtis → convict → prison
It was serious, deliberate offending, involving 45 trades and about $1.4 million in illegal profits.
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It → involve → profits
People are entitled to remember it, particularly when deciding whether or not to trust him with their money now.
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People → remember → money
But the relish with which a failed float becomes a verdict on Curtis’s entire attempt to rebuild his life is quite another matter
But he did serve his time.
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he → fail → time
Which allows for the possibility that his next chapter could be better than his last.
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chapter → allow → last
Firmus, which he co-founded in 2019, isn’t something dreamed up last Tuesday to cash in on artificial intelligence.
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he → co → intelligence
It has spent years developing computing and cooling technology, attracted Nvidia as an investor, for example, and secured customers including Meta and OpenAI.
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It → spend → Meta
According to its September announcement, Meta is already using its Melbourne computing infrastructure.
So there’s clearly an operating business beneath the spin of the sales pitch.
None of that made the proposed price sensible, however.
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price → accord → that
With only two operational sites and much of its expansion still to be delivered, Firmus was asking investors to pay an enormous amount for what it hoped to become.
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it → deliver → what
Perhaps Curtis and those around him started believing their own publicity a little too much.
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Curtis → start → publicity
They certainly tried to run before they could walk at anything like the scale being sold.
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they → try → scale
The withdrawal of CDC Data Centres from the proposed development partnership was a huge blow.
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withdrawal → propose → partnership
Its chief strategy officer subsequently pointed to differences in approach, including CDC’s requirements for assurance, rigour and process.
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officer → point → assurance
And the proposed arrangements allowing substantial existing shareholdings to be sold from the first day of trading didn’t smell right to say the very least.
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shareholdings → propose → least
New investors were entitled to ask who would be sticking around for the hard work that was all ahead of the business.
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that → entitle → business
The relish with which a failed float becomes a verdict on Curtis’s entire attempt to rebuild his life is quite another.
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float → fail → life
What Curtis does next, and how he reacts to this setback, will be defining
It’s prompted the inevitable sneering in some quarters.
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It → react → quarters
A rejected valuation establishes that the market wouldn’t pay the asking price, that’s a truism.
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that → reject → price
It doesn’t, however, establish that everything built beneath it is worthless, or that the bloke building it should have stayed permanently defined by his prison sentence.
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bloke → establish → sentence
Australia needs people willing to build businesses in industries beyond the ones that have served us for generations.
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that → need → generations
Some will overreach, some will fail.
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some → overreach → ?
Even promising companies can be offered at ridiculous prices, we know that.
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we → offer → that
Curtis now has more to prove than he already did: deliver the infrastructure, justify the confidence of customers and backers, and respond properly to difficult questions.
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he → have → questions
Redemption has to be earned through conduct.
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Redemption → have → conduct
It can’t be announced by a publicist or priced into a prospectus.
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It → announce → prospectus
Which is why what he does next, and how he reacts to this setback, will be defining.
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he → react → setback
But we should leave room for it to happen.
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it → leave → room
Just spare us the smug satisfaction at the prospect that a man who served his time might never escape his past.
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who → spare → past
The Aporia
