41–50 of 52 posts
So hold up, is this just project management software being listed on the stock exchange? Or are they offering like a suite of tools like Atlassian?
You can marginalize anything if you wanted to.
So hold up, is this just project management software being listed on the stock exchange? Or are they offering like a suite of tools like Atlassian?
Historically small technology companies would IPO. Dell went public and was worth only $85 million in 1988. The last 10-15 years is an abnormality where tech companies wait a long time to IPO. Slack is just team communication software, trading with a $12 billion market cap. Shopify is just a modern remake of Viaweb handling site building and shopping carts, trading for $56 billion. Snap is just a chat app trading wit…
With others at least you can imagine some paradigm shift, same as with Tesla.
I previously worked at Asana (and own shares), and am glad they’re going the direct listing route. It’s good to normalize the practice of cutting out middlemen in the IPO.
Yes. Far too many financial instruments seem to be explicitly designed to enable the already-moneyed to skim a cut off of every single operation; and while you could have made the argument decades ago that it was a somewhat laborious process, I don't really buy that anymore. Transparency and automation may yet help rid us of rent-seeking behaviour.
Or the road show for that matter? Does the CEO of Asana have pension funds, mutual funds, PE, HFs, etc in their contacts list? Would they be able to negotiate a better price than the banks that already have a working relationship with these entities?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's a not a very helpful feedback, especially for folks that might be looking into using them. Any chance you can share more on what you don't like?
Not the original commenter, but for me, several things made me despise it: * No way of entering code blocks renders the product completely useless for technical teams. (JIRA also makes it particularly complicated with their "code block" element) * The clunkiness of the heavy-weight JavaScript frontend is inducing a very negative feeling the moment I think about having to open Asana. * The user interface breaks common…
No markdown support, you have to remember clumsy set of unique hot keys for message formatting.
I was a very unhappy user of Asana.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes. Far too many financial instruments seem to be explicitly designed to enable the already-moneyed to skim a cut off of every single operation; and while you could have made the argument decades ago that it was a somewhat laborious process, I don't really buy that anymore. Transparency and automation may yet help rid us of rent-seeking behaviour.
How do you automate the investment banks' most important function: underwriting the share issue so the company gets a guaranteed minimum share price? Or the road show for that matter? Does the CEO of Asana have pension funds, mutual funds, PE, HFs, etc in their contacts list? Would they be able to negotiate a better price than the banks that already have a working relationship with these entities?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes. Far too many financial instruments seem to be explicitly designed to enable the already-moneyed to skim a cut off of every single operation; and while you could have made the argument decades ago that it was a somewhat laborious process, I don't really buy that anymore. Transparency and automation may yet help rid us of rent-seeking behaviour.
Direct listings don’t cut Investment Banks out; it just changes the fee dynamic. You’re still paying “the middle man”, just for different services. https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-10-04/how-to...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes. Far too many financial instruments seem to be explicitly designed to enable the already-moneyed to skim a cut off of every single operation; and while you could have made the argument decades ago that it was a somewhat laborious process, I don't really buy that anymore. Transparency and automation may yet help rid us of rent-seeking behaviour.
How do you automate the investment banks' most important function: underwriting the share issue so the company gets a guaranteed minimum share price? Or the road show for that matter? Does the CEO of Asana have pension funds, mutual funds, PE, HFs, etc in their contacts list? Would they be able to negotiate a better price than the banks that already have a working relationship with these entities?
He might actually, what with his time at Facebook.
But the point of a direct listing is that you aren't negotiating a price - you put the company on the stock market, and let the markets do the negotiating for you.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
How do you automate the investment banks' most important function: underwriting the share issue so the company gets a guaranteed minimum share price? Or the road show for that matter? Does the CEO of Asana have pension funds, mutual funds, PE, HFs, etc in their contacts list? Would they be able to negotiate a better price than the banks that already have a working relationship with these entities?
>Does the CEO of Asana have pension funds, mutual funds, PE, HFs, etc in their contacts list? He might actually, what with his time at Facebook. But the point of a direct listing is that you aren't negotiating a price - you put the company on the stock market, and let the markets do the negotiating for you.
If Asana is profitable and their valuations check out, that would be a scenario where maybe the banks aren't needed. But if they're not, leaving it up the market to decide can be dangerous.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
>Does the CEO of Asana have pension funds, mutual funds, PE, HFs, etc in their contacts list? He might actually, what with his time at Facebook. But the point of a direct listing is that you aren't negotiating a price - you put the company on the stock market, and let the markets do the negotiating for you.
If employees are partially compensated in options, it makes sense to negotiate a price that's at or above the strike price so that some of their options can be cashed out at the time of going public. If Asana is profitable and their valuations check out, that would be a scenario where maybe the banks aren't needed. But if they're not, leaving it up the market to decide can be dangerous.