IPOs That Launched Like Rockets– or Flew Straight Into a Wall
If you hear the faint hiss of champagne corks this summer season, that’s the sound of lenders limbering up for 2 long-anticipated debuts: Chime and Klarna. The FinTech duo is anticipated to test whether the going public (IPO) window is actually broad open or simply cracked. While we wait on their roadshows (and the requisite marketing hoodies), let’s lighten things up with a tour of the last quarter-century’s IPO high-flyers– and the offerings that belly-flopped so hard they left a crater in the term sheet. Consider it as the Wall Street version of “Hot Ones”: some scorch, some whimper, all entertain.
IPO Hall of Popularity (Listed in chronological order)
- Alphabet (née Google), 2004: Priced at $85, adjusted to pocket-change after 2 divides, a single $1 invested in the auction would be worth roughly $55 today– great for a 5,400% trip. Not bad for a business that began in a garage and now appears intent on indexing Mars.
- Visa, 2008: The payments network raised a then-record $17.9 billion and never recalled. A $10,000 stake at the IPO now flirts with $200,000, nearly a 20-bagger that likewise throws off dividends– credit where credit’s due.
- Tesla, 2010: Drifted at $17 a share, scoffed at by Detroit, and now up 3,000%-plus even after current speed bumps. Financiers who held through the 5-for-1 and 3-for-1 splits made bragging rights– and possibly a Roadster.
- Salesforce, 2004: The SaaS pioneer went public at $11. Today, that $11 is about $272, implying a $1,000 IPO ticket is worth north of $60,000, proof that recurring profits ages like a great cabernet.
- Shopify, 2015: From “Ottawa upstart” to eCommerce operating system, the stock has notched a mind-bending 3,600% total return in a decade, spraying some maple syrup on Silicon Valley’s lunch.
- Honorable mention: Snowflake’s 2020 debut doubled on day one and is still trading ~ 75% above its $120 concern price, the software world’s version of a cannonball splash.
IPO House of Shame (Evidence that not every bell-ringing should have a keepsake image)
- Pets.com, 2000: Raised $82.5 million in February, spent extravagantly on a sock-puppet Super Bowl advertisement, and filed Chapter 11 nine months later. The dot-com age’s cautionary tail– or is that tale?
- Groupon, 2011: Opened at $28, but slipped below its $20 offer cost within three weeks as daily-deal fatigue set in. Corporate motto might have been “Buy one pop, get one plunge free.”
- Blue Apron, 2017: A $1.9 billion market cap on the first day diminished 99% before the meal-kit maker sold itself for just $103 million in 2023. Turns out investors didn’t crave a subscription to negative gross margins.
- SmileDirectClub, 2019: Debuted at $23, delisted 4 years later after tumbling to 8 cents and filing Chapter 11. Sometimes the smile really is upside-down.
- WeWork, 2021 (SPAC edition): Finally reached public markets at a $9 billion valuation– already a shadow of its $47 billion peak– just to sink more than 99% and land in bankruptcy court. SoftBank’s vision.
So, What’s the Moral of the Cap Table?
- Size ≠ Success. Visa and Snowflake both staged jumbo offerings, but Saudi Aramco-scale fund-raises don’t guarantee performance– ask Facebook’s rocky first year or, well, WeWork.
- Business Model Beats Buzz. Google’s auction was eccentric; Pets.com’s mascot was cute. Just one, however, could fund itself without burning through money like kindling.
- Time in Market Trumps Timing the market. A dominant network effect (Visa), high-gross-margin software (Salesforce, Shopify) or a cult-CEO product flywheel (Tesla) can overcome nearly any macro-cycle– eventually.
As Chime polishes its checking-with-spot-me story and Klarna pitches buy now, pay later (BNPL) to buy-side analysts, remember: IPO day is just the opening scene. Twenty-five years of hits and misses show the real drama begins after the confetti is swept the NYSE floor.
Happy weekending– and may your own investments land in the Hall of Fame, not your house of Shame.
