Part of LinkedIn’s strategy was to stick to its vision and plan for gradual growth - no easy feat when Facebook burst into the spotlight as the social network to watch. And you need to make sure as many people know they can rely on you as possible.” “That’s what you need to do to go public. ![]() “Build something that's going to work for years and years,” says Solomon. ![]() It's okay to say, 'We're not going to be as big as possible as fast as possible, but we'll stick to what we do well. Scaling up and building revenue streams can come later.” Impatience - as glorified as it’s become in the tech world - is still a red flag for investors. “Get the product right before you do anything else. “You have to stick to your vision,” says Solomon. Everyone talks about breakout growth when the better route is to consistently put points on the board. “You might think you’re winning by beating everyone’s expectations, but the right people place their faith in steady growth, not surprise-driven, hockey-stick growth.”Ĭementing this predictability can be painful and even tedious for early-stage companies. “Companies that have a firm understanding of how they’re going to perform financially in the short and medium term do much better than those that have unplanned results, even if they do better than anticipated,” says Solomon. Companies with volatile growth patterns are, as a rule, less attractive than companies that can clearly predict what’s going to happen two months, two quarters, two years down the line. ![]() When it comes to attracting investors - public or otherwise - predictability is king. Check them off at regular intervals and you'll be in good shape.ġ. Fortunately, early on the best way to do that is to only focus on three easy rules. You should keep an IPO and success as a public company as a goal from your earliest days. When you’re just starting out as a founder, there’s a lot to think about: Are you hiring the right people? Are you shipping fast enough? Where is your product-market fit? An IPO seems like the last thing that should be on your mind - something about counting your chickens before they hatch.īut Solomon disagrees. In this exclusive interview, Solomon shares three battle-tested tactics that have guided numerous companies to great IPOs, and two fatal mistakes that he sees get made all too often. When you’re 10 people in a room cranking on a product, a public offering may seem like a lifetime away, but if you don’t start thinking about an IPO early, your chances of making it happen are greatly diminished. If he’s learned one thing from his near two decades of experience, winning IPOs requires careful preparation and foresight from the beginning (as in, never too early). Glenn Solomon of GGV Capital watched LinkedIn’s successful debut from the sidelines, but that same year, he helped Pandora achieve its $2.6 billion IPO, and he’s helped steer others like SuccessFactors and Nimble Storage to successful offerings too. But despite the jolt it delivered to the market, LinkedIn’s blockbuster public offering wasn’t a fluke. ![]() The media went wild, and the company’s subsequent public market success helped pave the way for the Facebook and Twitter IPOs. When LinkedIn went public in 2011, its share price soared over 100% on its first day of trading to the amazement of traders and tech investors.
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