We took external investment so we need to either get acquired or IPO. Since 2015 we're aiming for an IPO in 2020 https://about.gitlab.com/strategy/ and so far we're on track.
We took external investment so we need to either get acquired or IPO. Since 2015 we're aiming for an IPO in 2020 https://about.gitlab.com/strategy/ and so far we're on track.
What's your measurement for determining whether you are on track to an IPO in 2020?
Companies that IPO generally have a certain amount of annual revenue, a certain sized customer base in particular sectors (e.g. SAAS), and have a certain valuation judged by market capitalization. Companies have to be a certain minimum size and must have a predictable business with stable metrics for public exchanges and markets to be willing to list and purchase shares in the company. This doesn't always require being profitable as of the IPO, but it typically requires a credible plan for achieving profitability (in the eyes of investors).
According to the 2017 IPO Report [1], citing SEC data, the median IPO offering size in 2016 was $95 million, and the median annual revenue was $66.5 million. To pick an example according to Crunchbase, Mulesoft raised $221 million in its 2017 IPO at a valuation of about $4 billion. They had a revenue in 2016 of $188 million with a year-over-year growth rate of 70%. For another example, Dropbox's 2018 IPO valued the company at $11 billion on revenues in 2017 of $1.1 billion.
[1] https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2017/05/25/2017-ipo-report/
First off: that is an excellent 101 introduction to the topic, thank you for taking the time to write it.
However I'm already familiar with the topic. I'd just like to hear from Gitlab's CEO what makes him believe he's "on track" to an IPO in 2020. Usually such a display of confidence is backed by some form of evidence. Does Gitlab publish their revenue, or revenue growth, anywhere?
Or maybe, you could become profitable organically in the future. Today, might go down as a turning point in your history
Call me cynical, but the goal of startups is not to become organically profitable. It's something extremely hard to do anyway, especially in the developer space nowadays where everyone expects everything to be fee.
It's not up to them anymore. VCs want their returns soon, not in twenty years.