Model the business
Real companies, rebuilt from their filings
One company at a time: what it filed, what follows from that by arithmetic, and what a forecast has to assume, on three separate sheets so you always know which kind of number you are looking at. The model is on the page and every assumption is yours to change.
Cases
Three kinds of number
The same rule on every page, so a reader can tell at any row whether a figure is the company’s, the arithmetic’s or ours.
Reported
Only what the company filed, each figure with its filing, note and XBRL tag. Nothing on the sheet is adjusted, and no guidance or estimate enters.
Derived
Arithmetic on the reported lines: margins, revenue per customer, and the company’s own non-GAAP measures rebuilt from GAAP so each add-back can be seen.
Editorial
The forecast assumptions, three cases of them, each saying it is a judgement of the page and why. Never presented as the company’s.
A model you can change
The cases work for every visitor; a free account unlocks every assumption and the pictures move with the workbook. The valuation is a consequence, never compared with the price.
Next on the list
Ranked by how well the filings support the method and how clean the question is. Where something stands in the way, it says so.
| # | Company | The question | Filings | What stands in the way |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | Spotify Technology S.A.NYSE: SPOT · from the SaaS operating model | How much of the operating margin comes from the premium tier and how much from advertising, and what does the royalty structure leave for a holder as the price rises? | Forms 20-F with XBRL (IFRS); premium subscribers, MAUs and ARPU disclosed quarterly | IFRS lines differ from the US GAAP tags the first case uses; the Reported sheet needs its own tag list. |
| 3 | Airbnb, Inc.Nasdaq: ABNB · from the Marketplace model: GMV, take rate and contribution | What does the take rate on gross booking value leave after payments, hosting and trust and safety, and how much of free cash flow is working capital from guests paying ahead? | Forms 10-K with XBRL; nights and experiences booked, gross booking value and take rate disclosed | Nothing: the filings carry what the model needs. |
| 4 | CoreWeave, Inc.Nasdaq: CRWV · from the Project finance model | Can contracted backlog service the debt that funds the GPUs before they depreciate, and what happens to the equity if a customer does not renew? | Form 10-K for 2025 with XBRL; contracted backlog, capex and the debt facilities disclosed | The debt is in several delayed-draw facilities with disclosures spread across the notes; a careful read of the terms is a week’s work before a model. |
| 5 | Adyen N.V.Euronext Amsterdam: ADYEN · from the Marketplace model: GMV, take rate and contribution | What does net revenue per unit of processed volume look like as the mix shifts to larger merchants, and how much of the EBITDA margin is operating leverage against a hiring plan? | Annual report and half-year report (IFRS, PDF); processed volume, net revenue and take rate disclosed | No SEC filing and no XBRL: every figure has to be read from the PDF annual report by hand and cited by page, which the format allows but the first case did not need. |
| 6 | Wise plcLondon Stock Exchange: WISE · from the Marketplace model: GMV, take rate and contribution | How much of profit is the cross-border take rate and how much is interest on customer balances, and what happens to each as rates fall and the take rate is cut? | Annual report (IFRS, PDF), fiscal year to 31 March; volume, take rate, active customers and interest income on customer balances disclosed | No XBRL; a March year end means the latest full year is older than the US cases; the interest-income disclosure changed presentation between years. |
Behind every case
The templates the cases descend from
A company case is an operating model from the library with a real company’s filings on its Reported sheet. The templates hold the method, each with its guide, its schedules and its labs.