Colorado Springs-based VENU Holding Corp. this month reported modest revenue increases in the second quarter of 2026 and a 38% increase in total assets in the first six months of the year, though net losses widened year over year and earnings per share remained broadly flat while company stock continues on an overall downward trend.

Still, the second quarter of 2026 “reflected steady, deliberate progress across our business,” VENU founder, Chair and Chief Executive Officer J.W. Roth said in an Aug. 13 news release announcing the company’s most recent financials.

And as VENU prepares to bring $1 billion worth of additional assets online over the next two years, Roth told The Gazette he’s energized and optimistic about his company’s future.

“We’re excited about where we’re going,” he said by phone Friday. “We have worked diligently for almost three years through tough times, financial stress and all the things that go into (growing a company). It’s not an easy thing to do. … And you wake up one morning and you can high-five because you’re finally booking the venues you only dreamed about five years ago. You feel like you’re sort of on the 5-yard line, ready to spike the football and score this. That’s where we’re at right now.”

VENU’s total assets increased to $511.8 million as of June 30, its latest filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission shows, up by $141.2 million, or 38%, from $370.5 million on Dec. 31.

Total revenues were up modestly in the second quarter of 2026, $4.8 million, compared with the second quarter of 2025, when revenues totaled $4.5 million.

The majority of net revenues, just under $3.2 million last quarter, were made through restaurant assets including food and beverage sales, the SEC filing shows. Event center ticket and fees revenue totaled about $1 million and rental and sponsorship revenue was about $555,000.

At the same time, VENU’s net loss widened year on year, $19.7 million in the second quarter of this year compared with $12.3 million in the same quarter of 2025.

It also saw a broadly flat loss per share, year over year.

VENU stocks have continued on an overall downward trend since hitting an all-time high of $18.10 per share in August last year. Shares fell sharply in January, after the company proposed offering $75 million of shares of its common stock, and have not recovered. At the close of the market on Friday, VENU’s shares were $2.02 each, compared with $8.59 at market’s close on Jan. 27.

But one analyst said he, too, is optimistic about the young company’s financial health.

“I very much see (VENU) going through the throes of ‘becoming.’ That doesn’t mean it’s all smooth-going and there are no bumps, but this is very much typified by things like taking short-term money at a high rate while long-term financing is put in place, which is a pretty normal thing for any company with bigger projects,” said Paul Yankey, the former lead for marketing, strategy, international business and sports management at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs.

He also previously served as an assistant teaching professor of marketing at the university and has a background in commercial banking as well as credit and financial analysis.

“You wish you can speed things up, but you just can’t. You do need to make sure you have the projects, the assets, the properties engaged and secured. This is the ride out of that, and it’s not always pleasant or it doesn’t always look super pretty,” Yankey added.

Roth’s largest expenses are business development, marketing and capital, costs he doesn’t expect will ease over the next couple of quarters.

VENU’s losses will keep growing over the next two years, but new assets coming online will greatly outpace losses, he said.

“We will open $1 billion worth of product over the next 24 months, but our net tangible assets will continue to grow at a far greater pace than my losses. We grew our net tangible assets by $140 million … and that’s going to do nothing but continue to grow,” he said.

With that, Roth expects the company will be profitable in the second or third quarter of 2027.

He highlighted two luxury venues he’s preparing to open this fall and early next year in Broken Arrow, Okla., and McKinney, Texas, respectively. Several other venues are also under construction or planned throughout northern Colorado, Texas and Tennessee.

“Timing’s going to be key. The sooner they can get them open, the better,” Yankey said.

With several entertainment venues already in its portfolio — the Bourbon Brothers Smokehouse and Tavern and the 8,000-seat open-air Ford Amphitheater in Colorado Springs among them — VENU has established a playbook for how it develops entertainment spaces and is getting better at executing them, he added.

“This isn’t their first rodeo,” Yankey said.

VENU is also sharpening how it finances its projects to completion. Since going public on the New York Stock Exchange in November 2024, Roth has funded VENU’s projects through a variety of mechanisms including the company’s common stock, sale-leasebacks, public-private partnerships and fractional ownership.

Roth is no longer using equity to help fund the projects, he said.

“In the early days of a business, you can’t borrow money. … You don’t have assets, revenue, anything. The only way to raise capital is to sell equity; I raised hundreds of millions of dollars by selling stock and … we’re finally at the point where we can now start leveraging our assets to finance our growth.”

He and other board members already purchase VENU stock, a strategy Yankey said should encourage investors. Roth said Friday he plans to accelerate the amount he’s buying.

Additionally, VENU joined the authoritative Russell 3000 and Russell 2000 indexes in late June, which offer the company more visibility among institutional investors to support its growth.

Rather than slow down or temporarily pause construction on other assets to pay down debt, Roth has accelerated construction, his focus on raking in big future profits.

“I’d never tap the brakes on growth to pay down debt when I’m on the 5-yard line,” he said. “Three years ago, I said that we needed almost $1 billion to do what we need to do. (Our team) knew going into it, eyes wide open, that this would be expensive and there would be debt in order to do it. … So I can slow down, pay off debt and delay earnings, or I can stomp on this and go as hard as I can, increase the debt and get to a much bigger earnings number.”

Roth wants to move away from financing through sale-leasebacks and use Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy (C-PACE) financing, a fixed-rate, low-cost long-term funding mechanism, to complete construction of his venues in Broken Arrow and McKinney.

In the meantime, he’s secured short-term bridge loans to cover immediate expenses and advance construction on both amphitheaters while minimizing share dilution.

If and when VENU secures its C-PACE funding, expected to close in the third quarter of 2026, “that’s going to be a very good thing,” Yankey said.

Though he didn’t point to a specific reason why VENU’s stocks have suffered particularly over the last seven months, Yankey believes the high cost of borrowing money and volatile markets that have sowed uncertainty among investors could be to blame.

And Roth views VENU’s stock prices as a bet for or against him at this point in time, he said: Will or won’t he complete and open his venues?

“When you’re a young aggressive company, (investors) are not buying this stock on metrics. You’re betting either (I’m) going to get there or not. Once we get to open (more assets), then it’s different: Are earnings growing? How fast are they growing? But today, that’s not the formula,” he said.

Yankey said investors should keep an eye on the cost of borrowing money and VENU’s high expenses. The company had $16 million in cash at the end of June but has spent $133 million in the last six months, its financials show.

“But on the other side, I really like that J.W. has put his own name on this specifically. And related parties (in partnership with VENU), they’re not being shy about their involvement,” Yankey added. “I really listen for that.”