Author Archives: Alex Wilhelm

Does Asana’s planned direct listing reveal the company’s true value?

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Hello and welcome back to our regular morning look at private companies, public markets and the gray space in between. Asana, a well-known workplace productivity company, announced yesterday it has filed privately to go public. The San Francisco-based company is well-funded, having raised more than $200 million; well-known, due in part to its tech-famous founding […] Continue reading Does Asana’s planned direct listing reveal the company’s true value?→

As SaaS stocks set new records, Atlassian’s earnings show there’s still room to grow

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Hello and welcome back to our regular morning look at private companies, public markets and the gray space in between. SaaS stocks had a good run in late 2019. TechCrunch covered their ascent, a recovery from early-year doldrums and a summer slowdown. In 2020 so far, SaaS and cloud stocks have surged to all-time highs. […] Continue reading As SaaS stocks set new records, Atlassian’s earnings show there’s still room to grow→

Microsoft announces global Teams ad push as it combats Slack for the heart of enterprise comms

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The long-running contest between Microsoft and its Teams service and Slack’s eponymous application continued this morning, with Redmond announcing what it describes as its first “global” advertising push for its enterprise communication service. Slack, a recent technology IPO, exploded in the back half of last decade, accreting huge revenues while burrowing into the tech stacks […] Continue reading Microsoft announces global Teams ad push as it combats Slack for the heart of enterprise comms→

Cloudinary passes $60M ARR without VC money

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Hello and welcome back to our regular morning look at private companies, public markets and the gray space in between. Today we’re continuing our exploration of companies that have reached material scale, usually viewed through the lens of annual recurring revenue (ARR). We’ve looked at companies that have reached the $100 million ARR mark and a […] Continue reading Cloudinary passes $60M ARR without VC money→

How some founders are raising capital outside of the VC world

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Hello and welcome back to our regular morning look at private companies, public markets and the gray space in between. Today, we’re exploring fundraising from outside the venture world. Founders looking to raise capital to power their growing companies have more options than ever. Traditional bank loans are an option, of course. As is venture […] Continue reading How some founders are raising capital outside of the VC world→

CrowdStrike’s CEO on how to IPO, direct listings and what’s ahead for SaaS startups

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A few days before Christmas, TechCrunch caught up with CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz to chat about his company’s public offering, direct listings and his expectations for the 2020 IPO market. We also spoke about CrowdStrike’s product niche — endpoint security — and a bit more on why he views his company as the Salesforce of […] Continue reading CrowdStrike’s CEO on how to IPO, direct listings and what’s ahead for SaaS startups→

Seed investors favor enterprise over consumer for first time this decade

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Hello and welcome back to our regular morning look at private companies, public markets and the gray space in between. It’s the second to last day of 2019, meaning we’re very nearly out of time this year; our space for repretrospection is quickly coming to a close. Before we do run out of hours, however, […] Continue reading Seed investors favor enterprise over consumer for first time this decade→

Public investors loved SaaS stocks in 2019, and startups should be thankful

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Hello and welcome back to our regular morning look at private companies, public markets and the gray space in between. Today, something short. Continuing our loose collection of look backs of the past year, it’s worth remembering two related facts. First, that this time last year SaaS stocks were getting beat up. And, second, that […] Continue reading Public investors loved SaaS stocks in 2019, and startups should be thankful→

Tech startups going public raise 3x more today than in 2015

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Hello and welcome back to our regular morning look at private companies, public markets and the grey space in between. Today we’re exploring the 2019 IPO cohort from a capital-in perspective. How much did tech companies going public in 2019 raise before they went public, and what impact that did that have on their valuation […] Continue reading Tech startups going public raise 3x more today than in 2015→

OneConnect’s drastic IPO value cut underscores the risk of high-growth, high-burn companies

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OneConnect’s US-listed IPO flew under our radar last week, which won’t do. The company’s public offering is both interesting and important, so let’s take a few minutes this morning to understand what we missed and why we care. The now-public company sells financial technology that banks in China and select foreign countries can use to […] Continue reading OneConnect’s drastic IPO value cut underscores the risk of high-growth, high-burn companies→