A Swedish company that sells rugs just raised $100 million at a $2.2 billion valuation, which works out to roughly 31 times its revenue, a multiple normally reserved for software that does not involve a loom. Nordic Knots makes about €61 million a year selling Scandinavian floor coverings, turns a real profit doing it, and has now been priced as though the rug is going to scale like code.

The investors are not confused because they have seen this film before, because the lead backer also funds Skims and Reformation, and they are betting that Nordic Knots stops being a rug company and becomes a lifestyle brand that happens to have started with rugs. The valuation is not for what the company sells but what they hope it sells next.

The rug, in other words, was the customer acquisition cost. The flagship stores in Los Angeles are the actual product, and the product is aspiration.