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Airbnb Raises $555M in Funding

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Re: Airbnb Raises $555M in Funding

#2
Someone please correct me if I'm wrong in assuming this but it seems a company like AirBnb would only raise private capital instead of going IPO because it's financials suck. I mean if you were doing really well and had profits that you were pumping back into the company you would want to IPO to raise money for lower dilution right? A private round might cause much more dilution than an IPO. Maybe I'm missing something.

Re: Airbnb Raises $555M in Funding

#3
Hey Airbnb founders/employees. Fuck you. Working for you isn't rocket science, so fuck you and all your elitist attitudes not even considering me for employment because I didn't go to Harvard|Stanford|Insert Top 10 school here.

Re: Airbnb Raises $555M in Funding

#6

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong in assuming this but it seems a company like AirBnb would only raise private capital instead of going IPO because it's financials suck. I mean if you were doing really well and had profits that you were pumping back into the company you would want to IPO to raise money for lower dilution right? A private round might cause much more dilution than an IPO. Maybe I'm missing somethi…

[deleted]

Re: Airbnb Raises $555M in Funding

#7
post #3

Hey Airbnb founders/employees. Fuck you. Working for you isn't rocket science, so fuck you and all your elitist attitudes not even considering me for employment because I didn't go to Harvard|Stanford|Insert Top 10 school here.

I been there, getting rejected for what amounts to a CRUD job because I didn't have the right pedigree. Shake it off and move on.

Re: Airbnb Raises $555M in Funding

#9

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong in assuming this but it seems a company like AirBnb would only raise private capital instead of going IPO because it's financials suck. I mean if you were doing really well and had profits that you were pumping back into the company you would want to IPO to raise money for lower dilution right? A private round might cause much more dilution than an IPO. Maybe I'm missing somethi…

Welllll.... there are hassles associated with being a public company beyond merely "people holding your feet to the fire of financials." You have to comply with Sarbanes-Oxley, which is just a real pain in the ass, for example (source: I worked for NetSuite as they went public, and coming into compliance with SarbOx was a bunch of work).

A private funding round with a limited controlled equity buyback from employees gives you a certain amount of control that going public does not, too -- a company like AirBnB that had a broadly successful IPO would presumably mint a ton of millionaires among their employees, and I would expect to see a substantial talent drain once that happened.

But yes, I assume that "financials aren't in great shape" is the majority explanation for AirBnB's failure to go public.

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