The importance of Slack’s Initial Public Offering

As Slack goes from a tiny speck to a public listing, it could well be the most important IPO of our time

Uber was meant to be the marquee IPO of 2019, but all eyes are now on Slack after Uber's IPO went south

Slack doesn't hold a candle to Uber in terms of valuation, but its IPO is nonetheless important

The success or failure of its IPO could reshape the fundamentals of VC economics and startup playbooks

The repercussions will be felt in India too, where thousands of SaaS startups have sprung up in recent years following Slack's playbook

In all of 2018, 233 companies went public, according to research company IPOScoop.com. They raised a collective $54 billion. This year was meant to eclipse that, with unicorns—startups valued north of a billion dollars—expected to steal the show.

Of all these initial public offerings (IPOs), ride-hailing app Uber was supposed to be the definitive IPO listing of our time. With valuation targets ranging from $120 billion to $200 billion, Uber’s market capitalisation numbers were touted to be as large as its influence in pioneering the “gig economy” model.

Instead, Uber’s IPO turned out to be one of the worst-performing IPOs of all time.

AUTHOR

Sumanth Raghavendra

Sumanth is a serial entrepreneur with more than eighteen years experience in running startups. He is currently the founder of Deck App Technologies, a Bangalore-based startup attempting to re-imagine productivity software for the Post-PC era. Sumanth’s columns appear regularly in leading publications. He holds MBA degrees from the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore and Thunderbird, The American Graduate School of International Management, USA.

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