| 5× | “five times” | Bank: Carve-outs favor buyers because corporate sellers prioritize divestment speed over price | Matt Bank | Nov 25, 2024 | — |
| 5× | “five times” | Michalik: PE downside is capped at 1x while target upside is 3x-5x | Chris and Rob Michalik | Nov 11, 2024 | — |
| 5× | “five X” | Alpine Investors set an explicit goal to deliver 5x on every fund | Graham Weaver | Jun 10, 2024 | — |
| 5× | “five times” | Alpine aims to reduce add-on multiples to 5x EBITDA within 12 months | Graham Weaver | Jun 10, 2024 | — |
| 5× | “five times” | Cheap Multiples Are Value Traps Without Factoring in Industry Disruption | Brett Barakett | May 20, 2024 | — |
| 5× | “five X” | Behring: 3G returned 130% of capital on Burger King IPO while keeping 70% | Alex Behring | May 6, 2024 | Supported |
| 5× | “five times” | Bain Capital Generated a 5x Multiple on 2006 HCA Mega-Buyout | Chris Gordon | Aug 28, 2023 | — |
| 5× | “five X” | NewView underwrites growth investments to 3x to 5x returns | Ravi Viswanathan | Jul 13, 2023 | — |
| 5× | “five times” | Steyer: India will generate five times more electricity in 2050 than today | Tom Steyer | Mar 6, 2023 | Open |
| 5× | “five times” | Seides: Dynamic ad insertion across podcast back-catalog delivers 5x listener reach | Ted Seides | Dec 26, 2022 | — |
| 5× | “five times” | Geremia: Investors take 5x more risk today for same 1990s returns | Carol Geremia | Dec 15, 2022 | Supported |
| 5× | “five times” | SkyBridge's FTX deal was priced at five times revenues | Anthony Scaramucci | Jan 16, 2023 | — |
| 5× | “five times” | Miah: Private equity firms are taking African public companies private at 4x earnings | Farouk Miah | Nov 7, 2022 | Partly supported |
| 5× | “five times” | Bitar: Venezuelan Private Equity Deals Trade at 3.5x to 5x EBITDA | Rodrigo Bitar | Aug 29, 2022 | — |
| 5× | “five times” | Large-cap Japanese valuations still fail to reflect massive improvements in corporate governance | Howard Smith | Aug 18, 2022 | — |
| 5× | “five X” | Veremis: Institutional crypto adoption is up 5x in clients, 20x in capital | Marcos Veremis | Jun 13, 2022 | — |
| 5× | “five X” | Veremis: Crypto VCs up 20x should distribute at least 5x to LPs | Marcos Veremis | Jun 13, 2022 | — |
| 5× | “five times” | Zell's office door closed fewer than five times in 30 years | Sam Zell | Jun 6, 2022 | — |
| 5× | “five times” | Libby: Founders can multiply QSBS tax exemptions to $25M using trusts | Billy Libby | May 23, 2022 | — |
| 5× | “five times” | Barber: Leverage limits impact LBO returns far more than interest rate hikes | John Barber | May 19, 2022 | — |
| 5× | “five times” | Xu: Capital Today provided five bridge loans to JD.com during 2008 crisis | Kathy Xu | Mar 28, 2022 | — |
| 5× | “five times” | Xu: Capital Today deployed $165M across five rounds in Xingsheng | Kathy Xu | Mar 28, 2022 | — |
| 5× | “five times” | Xu: Capital Today beats Sequoia China on three out of five deals | Kathy Xu | Mar 28, 2022 | — |
| 5× | “five X” | Kayden: Accolade targets over 5x for seed funds, 3-4x for established VC | Joelle Kayden | Feb 14, 2022 | — |
| 5× | “five times” | Martin: Berkshire Hathaway Stock Has Suffered 40% Drawdowns Multiple Times | Bruce Martin | Aug 19, 2021 | Partly supported |
| 5× | “five times” | Morgon: Eurazeo achieved a 5x return on Moncler over nine years | Virginie Morgon | Jul 19, 2021 | Partly supported |
| 5× | “five times” | Baran: Historical Japanese accounting did not require marking securities to market | David Baran | Feb 8, 2021 | Supported |
| 5× | “five times” | WashU drove strong returns buying Russian tech at 5x earnings multiples | Scott Wilson | Oct 5, 2020 | — |
| 5× | “five X” | Chamath: Social Capital delivered 5x-6x fund returns and 40% IRRs | Chamath Palihapitiya | Dec 7, 2020 | — |
| 5× | “five times” | Underwriting construction-ready assets avoids binary permitting and interconnection risks | Reuben Munger | Jul 6, 2020 | — |
| 5× | “five times” | Futch: Biopharma equity raises two to five times more than royalty markets | Clark Futch | Jun 1, 2020 | Supported |
| 5× | “five X” | Clarkson: Sapphire underwrites Series A funds to 3x net, seed to 5x | Beezer Clarkson | Jan 20, 2020 | — |
| 5× | “five times” | The $1.2 Trillion High-Yield Bond Market Is Five Times Levered | Peter Troob | Jul 2, 2018 | Supported |
| 5× | “five X” | Hamed: Target small frontier funds for 5x returns, mega-funds for 2x | Ali Hamed | Feb 19, 2018 | — |
| 5× | “five times” | Mestel: Music catalog assets trade between 5x and high-teens cash flow | Larry Mestel | Oct 30, 2017 | Supported |
| 5× | “five X” | Schorr: Unprofitable CPG companies grossing $150M–$200M sell for $1B | Dan Schorr | Jul 31, 2017 | Supported |
| 4× | “four X” | Perelman: Super option dilution above 3x to 4x outcomes is worth the cost | Matt Perelman | Apr 27, 2026 | — |
| 4× | “four times” | Grantham: Super-Bubbles End When Speculative Market Leaders Dramatically Underperform | Jeremy Grantham | Mar 23, 2026 | — |
| 4× | “four times” | Sacerdote: Peter Lynch Timed Fidelity Analysts' Stock Pitches with Egg Timer | Alex Sacerdote | Dec 22, 2025 | Supported |
| 4× | “four times” | Sacerdote: Whale Rock bought Tesla at 4x three-year forward earnings | Alex Sacerdote | Dec 22, 2025 | — |
| 4× | “four times” | Sacerdote: Whale Rock bought Nvidia in January 2023 at 4x forward earnings | Alex Sacerdote | Dec 22, 2025 | — |
| 4× | “four X” | Khoury: Pod shops have grown 4x since Long Pond's founding | John Khoury | Dec 1, 2025 | Supported |
| 4× | “four times” | Wagner: 1990s distressed debt trades bought companies at two times cash flow | Herb Wagner | Sep 22, 2025 | — |
| 4× | “four X” | Thayer Street Payments Portfolio Company Grew GPV 5x in Four Years | Josh Kopowitz | Jun 12, 2025 | — |
| 4× | “four X” | Thayer Street Targets 60% to 80% LTV With 3x to 4x Upside | Josh Kopowitz | Jun 12, 2025 | — |
| 4× | “four times” | Bitar: Venezuelan acquisition entry valuations are currently sub-4x EBITDA | Rodrigo Bitar | Apr 28, 2025 | — |
| 4× | “four times” | Bank: Carve-outs favor buyers because corporate sellers prioritize divestment speed over price | Matt Bank | Nov 25, 2024 | — |
| 4× | “four times” | Kaname's Top Holdings Trade at 3.5x EBITDA and 9x Earnings | Toby Rodes | Sep 23, 2024 | — |
| 4× | “four times” | Alpine lost money buying businesses at 2-4x cash flow in Fund I | Graham Weaver | Jun 10, 2024 | — |
| 4× | “four times” | Morehead: Midstream MLPs Offered 3-4x to 12-14x EBITDA Arbitrage | David Morehead | Apr 22, 2024 | Supported |
| 4× | “four times” | Ou: GroveStreet buyout co-investments target 3-4x leverage at entry | Bruce Ou | Oct 30, 2023 | — |
| 4× | “four X” | Wong: Equity offerings are typically capped at 10% to 20% of market cap | Rod Wong | Apr 24, 2023 | — |
| 4× | “four times” | Geremia: MFS stock holding duration is 3-4x the industry average | Carol Geremia | Dec 15, 2022 | Supported |
| 4× | “four X” | Allocators should prioritize managers who produce superior net returns over discounted fees | Gregg Lemkau | Jan 9, 2023 | — |
| 4× | “four times” | Miah: Private equity firms are taking African public companies private at 4x earnings | Farouk Miah | Nov 7, 2022 | Partly supported |
| 4× | “four times” | Barber: Leverage limits impact LBO returns far more than interest rate hikes | John Barber | May 19, 2022 | — |
| 4× | “four times” | Gave: Russia's Ukraine struggles deter China from invading Taiwan | Louis-Vincent Gave | Apr 25, 2022 | — |
| 4× | “four X” | Kayden: Accolade targets over 5x for seed funds, 3-4x for established VC | Joelle Kayden | Feb 14, 2022 | — |
| 4× | “four times” | Hamed: Crossbeam maintains a tiered coverage list of 211 VC firms | Ali Hamed | Jan 31, 2022 | — |
| 4× | “four times” | Grantham: Tesla is not worth four times its pre-COVID value | Jeremy Grantham | Jul 8, 2021 | — |
| 4× | “four X” | Liow: Secular-within-cyclical setups create 10-baggers via multiple and earnings growth | Yen Liow | Apr 12, 2021 | — |
| 4× | “four X” | Dodson: Black boys are expelled at 4x the rate of white peers | Daryn Dodson | Dec 14, 2020 | Supported |
| 4× | “four times” | BlackRock LTPC rotates internal deal teams to re-underwrite companies without selling | André Bourbonnais | Jul 22, 2019 | — |
| 4× | “four times” | O'Shaughnessy: 4x Free Cash Flow Signals Distress in Public Equities, Not Private | Patrick O'Shaughnessy | Jun 10, 2019 | — |
| 4× | “four times” | Chalkstream holds a 4x notional short CDS position against tail risks | Andrew Tsai | Oct 22, 2018 | — |
| 4× | “four times” | Friedman: Absolute regulatory rules fail in a non-linear financial world | Manny Friedman | Jul 23, 2018 | — |
| 4× | “four times” | Scaramucci: Rising interest rates will trigger a hedge fund renaissance | Anthony Scaramucci | Jul 9, 2018 | — |
| 4× | “four times” | Selvala: Selling 25-delta covered calls realistically adds 2-3% in portfolio yield | Rick Selvala | Feb 26, 2018 | — |
| 4× | “four times” | Dunn: Quarterly trustee meetings picking fund managers do not work | Jim Dunn | Sep 4, 2017 | — |
| 4× | “four times” | Greylock's extreme LP transparency and partnership culture are rare in venture | Tom Lenehan | Apr 27, 2017 | — |
| 4× | “four times” | Morgan Stanley fell from 4x book value in 2000 to 0.5x | Steve Galbraith | Apr 13, 2017 | Supported |
| 3× | “three times” | WCM Investment Management has almost blown up at least three times | Sloan Payne | May 4, 2026 | — |
| 3× | “three times” | Perelman: Investment Discussions with Universal Consensus Are the Most Dangerous | Matt Perelman | Apr 27, 2026 | — |
| 3× | “three times” | Grantham: Super-Bubbles End When Speculative Market Leaders Dramatically Underperform | Jeremy Grantham | Mar 23, 2026 | — |
| 3× | “three times” | Sullivan: One peak dot-com VC fund exited its losing investments at 3x | Tim Sullivan | Jul 14, 2025 | — |
| 3× | “three times” | Barth: BBR seeded three interval funds and private credit BDCs recently | Brett Barth | Jun 30, 2025 | — |
| 3× | “three times” | Reynolds: Altimeter's late 2021 fund was $1.6B, 3x previous size | Megan Reynolds | Mar 31, 2025 | Supported |
| 3× | “three X” | Reynolds: Very Few Venture Funds Over $1B Have Ever Returned 3x+ | Megan Reynolds | Mar 31, 2025 | Supported |
| 3× | “three X” | A European GP waterfall requires 5.6x gross to deliver 3x net | Ed Grefenstette | Mar 24, 2025 | — |
| 3× | “three X” | U.S. public equity market concentration is at a 100-year high | Ed Grefenstette | Mar 24, 2025 | Supported |
| 3× | “three X” | LPs agreeing to American deal-by-deal carry waterfalls is absurd | Ed Grefenstette | Mar 24, 2025 | — |
| 3× | “three X” | McLean: Permian Shift to Horizontal Drilling Yielded 3x Capital Productivity Uplift | Jay McLean | Jan 20, 2025 | Supported |
| 3× | “three X” | Bank: GEM Targets 3x Net Return and 5-7% Public Outperformance for PE | Matt Bank | Nov 25, 2024 | — |
| 3× | “three times” | Bank: Carve-outs favor buyers because corporate sellers prioritize divestment speed over price | Matt Bank | Nov 25, 2024 | — |
| 3× | “three times” | Bessent: Great external managers provide big thematic trade ideas and SPVs | Scott Bessent | Nov 4, 2024 | — |
| 3× | “3 X” | Tannenbaum: Indian index return drops from 17x to 0.3x excluding 25 days | Dan Tannenbaum | May 23, 2024 | Supported |
| 3× | “three times” | Behring: Popeyes sales tripled after seven years under RBI ownership | Alex Behring | May 6, 2024 | Partly supported |
| 3× | “three X” | Jacobs: A 2x to 3x return over ten years is a very bad outcome | Brad Jacobs | Feb 12, 2024 | — |
| 3× | “three times” | Seventeen sovereign funds rejected Jacobs's oil roll-up over ESG mandates | Brad Jacobs | Feb 12, 2024 | — |
| 3× | “three times” | High-growth companies compounding at 50% benefit from delaying their IPO | Michael Carmen | Aug 10, 2023 | — |
| 3× | “three times” | Toomey: Private Equity Could Expand Two to Three Times and Stay Healthy | John Toomey | Apr 17, 2023 | — |
| 3× | “three X” | Clarkson: Overallocated LPs are freezing venture commitments for 12 to 24 months | Beezer Clarkson | Feb 27, 2023 | — |
| 3× | “three times” | Samuels: Asking 'why' three times bypasses GP marketing scripts | Sarah Samuels | Aug 1, 2022 | — |
| 3× | “three times” | Gave: Russia's Ukraine struggles deter China from invading Taiwan | Louis-Vincent Gave | Apr 25, 2022 | — |
| 3× | “three times” | Lamont: Series B and C round sizes have tripled over five years | Annie Lamont | Mar 7, 2022 | Contradicted |
| 3× | “three times” | Xu: Capital Today beats Sequoia China on three out of five deals | Kathy Xu | Mar 28, 2022 | — |
| 3× | “three times” | Corlett: TDM made 65 investments and lost money only three times | Hamish Corlett | Oct 14, 2021 | — |
| 3× | “three times” | Connaughton: Bain bought Baxter carve-out at 3x versus modern 15-20x multiples | John Connaughton | Jun 28, 2021 | Supported |
| 3× | “three times” | Moseley: APFC sold secondary assets three times over eight years | Steve Moseley | May 3, 2021 | — |
| 3× | “three X” | Liow: Secular-within-cyclical setups create 10-baggers via multiple and earnings growth | Yen Liow | Apr 12, 2021 | — |
| 3× | “three times” | Peters: One River's First Public Statements Moved Bitcoin 15-25% | Eric Peters | Mar 8, 2021 | Supported |
| 3× | “three X” | Chamath: Embarcadero Venture Partners returned ~3x with mid-teens IRR | Chamath Palihapitiya | Dec 7, 2020 | — |
| 3× | “three times” | Steve Cohen attributes Point72's longevity to completely rebuilding it three times | Matthew Granade | Aug 3, 2020 | — |
| 3× | “three times” | Goldman promoted Davis to distressed desk because external hires cost 3x | Tony Davis | Jun 29, 2020 | — |
| 3× | “three times” | Jefferson: Extreme distressed credit payouts completely disprove efficient market theory | Brett Jefferson | May 25, 2020 | — |
| 3× | “three X” | Clarkson: Sapphire underwrites Series A funds to 3x net, seed to 5x | Beezer Clarkson | Jan 20, 2020 | — |
| 3× | “three times” | O'Shaughnessy: OSAM Failed Three Times Attempting Short Strategies Internally | Patrick O'Shaughnessy | Jun 10, 2019 | — |
| 3× | “three times” | Friedman: Absolute regulatory rules fail in a non-linear financial world | Manny Friedman | Jul 23, 2018 | — |
| 3× | “three X” | 30% Carried Interest Above a 3x Hurdle Has Become Standard in VC | Chris Douvos | Jul 3, 2017 | Supported |
| 2.5× | “2.5 times” | Miller: Coal-to-gas shift delivers 2.5x the environmental benefit of gas-to-renewables | Matt Miller | Oct 14, 2024 | — |
| 2.3× | “2.3 times” | Salem: Providence made 2.3x on Eircom over 2.3 years | Paul Salem | Feb 1, 2021 | Supported |
| 2.3× | “2.3 times” | Wittenberg: Diverse companies see 19% higher revenue, 2.3x cash flow per employee | Joel Wittenberg | Aug 31, 2020 | Partly supported |
| 2× | “two times” | Moyo: The U.S. economy has grown to nearly twice Europe's size. | Baroness Dambisa Moyo | Jul 13, 2026 | Partly supported |
| 2× | “two times” | Jain: Hedge funds charge too much in today's highly efficient markets | Rajiv Jain | Jun 8, 2026 | — |
| 2× | “two times” | Grantham: Super-Bubbles End When Speculative Market Leaders Dramatically Underperform | Jeremy Grantham | Mar 23, 2026 | — |
| 2× | “two X” | Khoury: REIT Price Movements Are Now Double Long Pond's Early Years | John Khoury | Dec 1, 2025 | Supported |
| 2× | “two X” | Ripley: Buyout investors trained to accept 2x gross returns struggle to unlearn that standard | Jay Ripley | Nov 10, 2025 | — |
| 2× | “two X” | Ripley: Leveraged 2x gross PE buyout strategies aren't worth it | Jay Ripley | Nov 10, 2025 | — |
| 2× | “two times” | Wagner: 1990s distressed debt trades bought companies at two times cash flow | Herb Wagner | Sep 22, 2025 | — |
| 2× | “two X” | Forman: Stablecoins Settled $27 Trillion in 2024, Double Visa's Annual Volume | Ben Forman | Apr 21, 2025 | Supported |
| 2× | “two X” | Forman: Polymarket Saw Double Coinbase's Web Traffic in November 2024 | Ben Forman | Apr 21, 2025 | Contradicted |
| 2× | “two X” | Grefenstette's early micro-market buyout fund delivered a 2x net return | Ed Grefenstette | Mar 24, 2025 | — |
| 2× | “two times” | Barth: BBR declined a 2x NAV bid on a 2022 venture fund | Brett Barth | Feb 24, 2025 | — |
| 2× | “two X” | Charles: Top wirehouses committed twice as much capital as top institutional LPs | Ian Charles | Feb 10, 2025 | Not publicly verifiable |
| 2× | “two X” | McLean: Natural gas emissions reductions beat solar and wind combined by 2x | Jay McLean | Jan 20, 2025 | Supported |
| 2× | “two times” | Connaughton: Bain turned a 0.65x marked-down fund into over 2x return | John Connaughton | Jul 8, 2024 | Partly supported |
| 2× | “two times” | Jacobs: High-Performing Frontline Staff Made Up to 2x Competitors' Pay | Brad Jacobs | Feb 12, 2024 | — |
| 2× | “two times” | Collins: Seawolf bought Petrobras at 2x earnings for a 30% dividend yield | Porter Collins | Jul 3, 2023 | — |
| 2× | “two times” | Resnick on why KSL's only two investment losses involved charismatic founders | Eric Resnick | Jun 19, 2023 | — |
| 2× | “two times” | Zandiyeh: Laundry businesses could be acquired for 2x earnings with $20k-$30k | Kiyan Zandiyeh | May 25, 2023 | — |
| 2× | “two times” | Craib: High PE returns require less skill than market-neutral quant investing | Richard Craib | May 11, 2023 | — |
| 2× | “two X” | Toomey: 2004–2006 Buyout Vintages Had Lower IRRs Than 2007–2008 Vintages | John Toomey | Apr 17, 2023 | Supported |
| 2× | “two times” | TRA issuers average $400M+ in EBITDA with under 2x leverage | Andy Lee | Mar 30, 2023 | Not publicly verifiable |
| 2× | “two X” | Allocators should prioritize managers who produce superior net returns over discounted fees | Gregg Lemkau | Jan 9, 2023 | — |
| 2× | “two times” | Barth: LPs are cutting routine re-ups to second-quartile private equity managers | Brett Barth | Sep 19, 2022 | — |
| 2× | “two X” | Veremis: Crypto VCs up 20x should distribute at least 5x to LPs | Marcos Veremis | Jun 13, 2022 | — |
| 2× | “two times” | Hamed: Crossbeam maintains a tiered coverage list of 211 VC firms | Ali Hamed | Jan 31, 2022 | — |
| 2× | “two times” | First Round has historically stayed within 1.5 to 2x original fund sizes | Chris Douvos | Dec 9, 2021 | Supported |
| 2× | “two X” | Smith: Footwork was ~2x oversubscribed on Fund I by early March 2021 | Mike Smith | Sep 23, 2021 | — |
| 2× | “two times” | Thome: WARF ran a $6B notional portfolio via 2x leverage | Carrie Thome | Oct 19, 2020 | — |
| 2× | “two times” | Lawrence: Taekwang Industrial depreciated a $600M facility in three years | Richard Lawrence | Jun 25, 2020 | Supported |
| 2× | “two X” | China produces roughly twice as much AI research as the US | Tim McCusker | Dec 17, 2018 | Contradicted |
| 2× | “two X” | Hamed: Target small frontier funds for 5x returns, mega-funds for 2x | Ali Hamed | Feb 19, 2018 | — |
| 2× | “two times” | QIC Doubled Queensland Motorways Value in Four Years to Fund State Pension | Ross Israel | May 21, 2018 | Supported |
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