Executive Briefing

Beyond Meat is literally fake meat. Why is it worth $9 billion?

Also: Airbnb’s brilliant ‘Adventures’ play.

Beyond Meat Burger
Courtesy Beyond Meat

If you’ve hung out at a Whole Foods or Bloomberg terminal recently, you’re probably at least somewhat aware of Beyond Meat, a Los Angeles-based company making what it calls “The Future of Protein®” in the form of “delicious plant-based burgers, sausage, crumbles, and more.”

Founded a decade ago, Beyond Meat went public last month and its shares have taken on a life of their own, trading today around $150, six times their IPO price of $25.

Absurd or enlightened, its run has been enough that JPMorgan, one of the company’s IPO underwriters, downgraded shares to “neutral” this Tuesday, noting they were already “beyond our price target.” That drove a 25% decline, which the stock is already gaining back.

I’ll get into the “why” shortly.

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Dan Frommer

Hi, I’m Dan Frommer and this is The New Consumer, a publication about how and why people spend their time and money.

I’m a longtime tech and business journalist, and I’m excited to focus my attention on how technology continues to profoundly change how things are created, experienced, bought, and sold. The New Consumer is supported entirely by your membership — join now to receive my reporting, analysis, and commentary directly in your inbox, via my twice-weekly, member-exclusive Executive Briefing. Thanks in advance.

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