article thumbnail

“I guess we’ll know we’ve made it when a woman can get away with behaving like Elon Musk.” Talking With VC Ashley Mayer About Finding Your Career, Taking Box Public, And Why She’s Not Interested In Reading Yet Another Female CEO Takedown

Hunter Walker

Hunter Walk: Ok, so we first met when you were leading comms at enterprise software company Box, a startup you joined when they were still pretty early and stayed at until post-IPO. HW: Anyone who’s been through an IPO, I always like to ask about the experience because it’s such a classic, if statistically rare, startup milestone.

IPO 91
article thumbnail

On the Road to Recap:

abovethecrowd.com

The pressures of lofty paper valuations, massive burn rates (and the subsequent need for more cash), and unprecedented low levels of IPOs and M&A, have created a complex and unique circumstance which many Unicorn CEOs and investors are ill-prepared to navigate. In Q1 of 2016 there were zero VC-backed technology IPOs.

IPO 40
Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

article thumbnail

Out of the Crisis #7, Brian Chesky Part 1: running Airbnb in crisis mode, being multi-stakeholder, and re-founding the company

Startup Lessons Learned

This was supposed to be Airbnb's biggest year by many measures, including its IPO, which was one of the most anticipated since the 2008 financial crisis. And so the oven is like being an IPO. And the good thing is, was it included people that were already in our cap table. But it's like taking. You're baking.

article thumbnail

Out of the Crisis #26: Brian Armstrong of Coinbase on cryptocurrency, being mission-oriented, and institution building

Startup Lessons Learned

It was one of the year's most successful IPOs so far, and has been heralded as a "landmark moment" for cryptocurrency's entrance into mainstream investing. Just before the IPO, I had a far-reaching conversation with co-founder and CEO Brian Armstrong as he approached this major milestone for the company he co-founded back in 2012.

IPO 113
article thumbnail

Customers Love Free Stuff … But That’s Not Your Problem

abovethecrowd.com

On March 26, SoFi announced that “it will be offering its members (at least those with $3K in their account) the ability to invest in IPOs for companies going public, an investment opportunity that has traditionally been reserved for large institutional investors or ultra-high-net-worth individuals.”

IPO 82