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IPOs are expensive and cumbersome – Try a direct listing, like we did at Spotify

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Re: IPOs are expensive and cumbersome – Try a direct listing, like we did at Spotify

#31

Post by ironjunkie »

jjuhl wrote: post #29
rayhano wrote: post #20

I posted this article because we’re planning to do the same and wanted to gather thoughts from the tech community (the financial community has commented on this sufficiently to help inform our process). I thought it might help to share our motivations for eventually listing our company vs taking more VC: a. The public markets force transparency. This aligns with our values. b. Governance enforced by VCs (especially i…

Why are you trying to provide "reasons"? You'r a company. You just want to make the maximum amount of money. Everyone knows this. Why try to pretend anything else?

Short answer: you are right, the goal is to make the maximum amount of money. I believe that justifying themselves with other reasons allows them to make more money that if they openly said they want to "Make money".

Basically, PR and a nicely crafted story maximizes the amount of money you get in return. People like nice stories.

Re: IPOs are expensive and cumbersome – Try a direct listing, like we did at Spotify

#33

Post by jjuhl »

ironjunkie wrote: post #31
jjuhl wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why are you trying to provide "reasons"? You'r a company. You just want to make the maximum amount of money. Everyone knows this. Why try to pretend anything else?

Short answer: you are right, the goal is to make the maximum amount of money. I believe that justifying themselves with other reasons allows them to make more money that if they openly said they want to "Make money". Basically, PR and a nicely crafted story maximizes the amount of money you get in return. People like nice stories.

Well, most people are ignorant and naive.

Re: IPOs are expensive and cumbersome – Try a direct listing, like we did at Spotify

#34

Post by Illniyar »

chollida1 wrote: post #3

The banks backing spotify made about as much from their "non IPO" compared to what they would have made from a traditional IPO so I don't think too many bulge bracket banks are worried about this trend. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-26/spotify-l... > Avoiding the lock-up period was a very important part of our decision to list Spotify directly, but there were also clear financial benefits. This was…

>Why invest in your company if you don't have the conviction that it will be worth more 3-6 months from now.

errr... they do, but they also want to buy that apartment or car that they held off on, or pay off loans they took. Employees and founders don't sell all of their stock.

Not to mention that regardless of personal convictions, as an employee or founder you'd like to diversify your investments.

Is it reasonable for investors to want a lock-up period - sure, but the fact that the company would prefer not to have a lock-up period shouldn't really be a red flag.

Re: IPOs are expensive and cumbersome – Try a direct listing, like we did at Spotify

#35

Post by krelian »

wildmusings wrote: post #16
whatever1 wrote: post #8

Honesty I don't get why a company has to go public and gamble its future on a herd of people that they have no clue about the business and just try to make profit out of you based on speculation. Stay private and get loans. At least loan rates will not change by 1000% overnight based on some nonsense that someone wrote on his Twitter.

The whole point of owning part of a company is to collect dividends and/or sell your shares for more than you bought them for. But without going public, it can be difficult to do the latter.

Isn't the whole point of owning a company is have a share of its profits? That's why the stock market never made sense to me. The price and price gains or losses on stocks are not related at all to the profits.

Re: IPOs are expensive and cumbersome – Try a direct listing, like we did at Spotify

#36

Post by nkohari »

erispoe wrote: post #30
rayhano wrote: post #20

I posted this article because we’re planning to do the same and wanted to gather thoughts from the tech community (the financial community has commented on this sufficiently to help inform our process). I thought it might help to share our motivations for eventually listing our company vs taking more VC: a. The public markets force transparency. This aligns with our values. b. Governance enforced by VCs (especially i…

> e. Friends and family and supporters can participate - especially from their retirement accounts. This is really important - the wealth creation being broad has a real good-news feel. Sharing the wealth. It's a really bad idea to do stock picking, or any other risky investment strategy, with your retirement account, and a really bad idea to promote it. One company goes bust and suddenly you lost your retirement sav…

Not sure what you mean by this. Most retirement accounts are investment portfolios. I don't think they meant that people should reinvest their entire portfolio in the offering, or invest money they couldn't afford to lose.

Re: IPOs are expensive and cumbersome – Try a direct listing, like we did at Spotify

#37

Post by tehlike »

rayhano wrote: post #20

I posted this article because we’re planning to do the same and wanted to gather thoughts from the tech community (the financial community has commented on this sufficiently to help inform our process). I thought it might help to share our motivations for eventually listing our company vs taking more VC: a. The public markets force transparency. This aligns with our values. b. Governance enforced by VCs (especially i…

Having shares of a private company is still possible with retirement accounts. It is a bit more work. You can roll an ira to an self-directed ira and invest in all sorts of financial instruments including real estate.

Re: IPOs are expensive and cumbersome – Try a direct listing, like we did at Spotify

#38

Post by tehlike »

rayhano wrote: post #20

I posted this article because we’re planning to do the same and wanted to gather thoughts from the tech community (the financial community has commented on this sufficiently to help inform our process). I thought it might help to share our motivations for eventually listing our company vs taking more VC: a. The public markets force transparency. This aligns with our values. b. Governance enforced by VCs (especially i…

Is quarterly updates a mandate or just norm?

Edit: yes, sec requires quarterly updates.

Re: IPOs are expensive and cumbersome – Try a direct listing, like we did at Spotify

#39

Post by ironjunkie »

nkohari wrote: post #36
erispoe wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> e. Friends and family and supporters can participate - especially from their retirement accounts. This is really important - the wealth creation being broad has a real good-news feel. Sharing the wealth. It's a really bad idea to do stock picking, or any other risky investment strategy, with your retirement account, and a really bad idea to promote it. One company goes bust and suddenly you lost your retirement sav…

Not sure what you mean by this. Most retirement accounts are investment portfolios. I don't think they meant that people should reinvest their entire portfolio in the offering, or invest money they couldn't afford to lose.

I think he means that stock picking is way more dangerous than a well diversified "safe" Fund like most retirement accounts push you to invest in (with high management fees of course).

Re: IPOs are expensive and cumbersome – Try a direct listing, like we did at Spotify

#40

Post by sova »

hogwild wrote: post #7
chollida1 wrote: post #3

The banks backing spotify made about as much from their "non IPO" compared to what they would have made from a traditional IPO so I don't think too many bulge bracket banks are worried about this trend. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-26/spotify-l... > Avoiding the lock-up period was a very important part of our decision to list Spotify directly, but there were also clear financial benefits. This was…

People don't generally invest all their money in one company regardless of how confident they are in it.

[citation required]
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