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Backblaze IPO

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Re: Backblaze IPO

#111

Post by OrvalWintermute »

UnlockedSecrets wrote: post #92

Where does one go to start investing in IPO's such as these?

If they are pre-IPO you can reach out the company and they will often be able to fold you into a funding round if you are accredited and have sufficient cash.

There are a number of sites that cater to social seed investing, and other early rounds, as well as sites specific to accredited investors. I started out on sites like Seedinvest, Fundersclub, Startengine, and a few others. There are other sites if you are writing really big checks, instead of little ones.

There are a few sites like Sharespost & Equitzen selling pre-IPO shares too, so you can express interest in a company and get some stock if someone doesn't want the very long lockup period prior to a liquidity event.

It is also possible to buy into a SPAC that has stated intentions to buy a pre-IPO company and bring it public.

Re: Backblaze IPO

#112

Post by caf »

matheusmoreira wrote: post #53
deanCommie wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the hope is that 420,000 of those users are Grandmas who installed backblaze because their son told them it's a good idea to make sure she doesn't lose all her important documents, and she's backing up a couple PDFs. And then the other 10,000 are data hoarders like me with Terabytes of data. I used to be a Crashplan customer - tried them and Backblaze, and liked Crashplan more. They eventually pivoted to Busi…

> They said "yeah, we lose a ton of money on every user like you." Such an interesting statement. It's like they really think they can get away with offering "unlimited" storage without people taking full advantage of it. Like ISPs with their "unlimited" plans, they market that stuff and then they get mad if you actually saturate their link 24/7. I actually emailed backblaze about this years ago. I asked them if they…

It's like they really think they can get away with offering "unlimited" storage without people taking full advantage of it.

Well, yes, it's like a all-you-can-eat buffet restaurant that nonetheless isn't going to let you bring in a giant cooler and fill it up to take home.

Re: Backblaze IPO

#113

Post by Igelau »

henning wrote: post #35
bpodgursky wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're confident, short it. Make some money.

Somebody once told me the world is gonna roll me. They also said the market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent.

Ah yes, the album version of 'All Star' was so much better than the radio edit.

Re: Backblaze IPO

#114

Post by crossroadsguy »

55873445216111 wrote: post #96
crossroadsguy wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For a backup service they have too many ifs and gotchas. I’d personally stay as far away from them. I’d rather want something that charges more and doesn’t offer that gimmicky unlimited storage and gives me unlimited versioning and external media and doesn’t delete anything as long as I’m paying and am within my storage limit. That simple. That’s why I preferred CrashPlan which had a desktop app much less polished th…

I use Duplicati (duplicati.com) with Backblaze B2 as a backend for my backups. I get billed by GB-month and I get to define exactly what files to backup and how many versions to keep.

I use restic -> b2.

And also Vorta (which uses borg) -> rsync, borgbase; Tarsnap -> Tarsnap's S3 (I guess).

Vorta so far has been really good and has lots of potential.

(Badly need a restic GUI here. May drop restic anytime - I am not comfortable having a personal backup setup without a GUI)

Re: Backblaze IPO

#115

Post by noogle »

mitchellh wrote: post #91
henning wrote: post #8

> We have a history of cumulative losses, and we do not expect to be profitable for the foreseeable future. Fundamentals seem solid, gotta get me some of those shares!

EDIT: I’m going to retract this comment for the time being. I think it doesn’t give justice to the complexity of an S-1 and I want to revisit this in the future to add more color. I don’t want anyone to get the wrong idea or take this the wrong way. Probably a good blog post, one day. :)

One thing that is missing is the unit economics and customer subsidization. If the company sells a product worth $5, for $1 (essentially subsidizing the customer), then it cannot become profitable just by a decision to stop growth.

So in your example, and offer of 13% annual yield but with %400 commission is not a profitable one.

Re: Backblaze IPO

#117

Post by erik_seaberg »

bpodgursky wrote: post #58
notyourday wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You cannot short an IPO. You cannot short post IPO until the stock becomes marginable. What you can do, if have a lot of $$, is have one of the desks immediately at after the IPO write you a synthetic short position using an over the counter option.

Yeah you can't do it through the platforms, but if you know someone bullish IRL there's nothing stopping you from making a meatspace agreement to sell them 100 shares of backblaze for $10 one year from today.

I think the SEC would view that as an unregistered put option (only legal for accredited investors), though I can imagine a gentleman’s agreement to quietly settle it in cash.

Re: Backblaze IPO

#118

Post by [deleted] »

mitchellh wrote: post #91
henning wrote: post #8

> We have a history of cumulative losses, and we do not expect to be profitable for the foreseeable future. Fundamentals seem solid, gotta get me some of those shares!

EDIT: I’m going to retract this comment for the time being. I think it doesn’t give justice to the complexity of an S-1 and I want to revisit this in the future to add more color. I don’t want anyone to get the wrong idea or take this the wrong way. Probably a good blog post, one day. :)

[deleted]

Re: Backblaze IPO

#119

Post by [deleted] »

FfejL wrote: post #34
braum wrote: post #15

Fidelity is handling the IPO and if you have been a customer of BackBlaze for a while apparently you will get to buy before public, up to 1,000 shares between $15-17 per share. That is my understanding.

Not sure where you're getting those numbers. I've been a Backblaze customer for 10+ years, and I was contacted about the directed share program. Have not heard about price or volume yet.

[deleted]

Re: Backblaze IPO

#120

Post by braum »

ryanmercer wrote: post #85
mey wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How were you contacted? Been a customer for some time. Looking at my billing history looks like 2013. Must not be long enough :(

Not who you replied to but I got an email October 22nd "Pre-Registration for Potential IPO Directed Share Program " telling me to express interest, did, then October 28th got an email from Fidelity "Backblaze Directed Share Program - Account Opening Invitation" giving me until the 9th to open a Fidelity brokerage account.

yep. that is how it worked for me as well
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