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Picking up the slack

Passing the IPO rubicon—The importance of Slack’s public offering

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

20/05/19

Sumanth Raghavendra

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

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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…

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