Hear me out: The opening bell ceremony is called a ceremony because it really is one. There are pictures, there’s family (both biological and chosen), and there’s lots of folks getting from one spot to another in a venue—”herding kittens” as my mom would say.
But the primary way in which an IPO is like a wedding is this: It’s a big, dressed-up day that took a lot of time, relationship-building, and ups-and-downs to get there. And it’s also the first day of the rest of your life.
This all occurs to me Thursday morning as I stand on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, looking up at the bell-ringing balcony: Bipul Sinha, Rubrik CEO and cofounder, stood blue-suited and pink-tied, symbolically opening the public markets, surrounded by cheering employees, investors, and his family.
Rubrik, a data-focused cybersecurity company, went public yesterday, with the stock initially popping by about 20% and closing up nearly 16%. What happens now is much like what happens after a wedding: you get up tomorrow and while you have new formalities, the basics remain the same.
“I’ll wake up [tomorrow morning] and call my customers, talk to my team, as we figure out: How do we build a better product?” Sinha told me before the stock started trading. “At the end of the day, business exists to create value for customers, because that’s who pays for our paycheck.”
There is, of course, a lot about this that’s not like a wedding. After all, a wedding is a money-spending endeavor and this is, aside from the fees going to the underwriters and lawyers, a money-making endeavor. But an even bigger difference is that lots of people get married, while very few founders make it to this exact IPO moment that I was able to watch Sinha live out. Though a dream for many founders (and investors), this moment is rare.
Lightspeed Venture Partners partner and cofounder Ravi Mhatre and Greylock partner Asheem Chandna both said that the statistic they’ve heard is that less than 1% of founders ever get here.
“It has to be somewhere between 0.1% and 0.01%, the odds of getting here,” said Chandna, who was last at the NYSE for Palo Alto Networks’ IPO 12 years ago, as a founding investor of the company.
Then, you layer in Sinha’s personal story—he grew up in a small, poor town in India, and wasn’t a good student in the traditional sense. He didn’t get into state colleges, but got into IIT after preparing for the exam for more than a year. Decades later, tucked away in a surprisingly presidential-looking stock exchange room, I asked Sinha about how the distance-traveled in his own life affects how he thinks about the future.
“I’ve stopped thinking about what tomorrow is going to be,” he told me. “All of this wasn’t supposed to happen. It’s all gravy, It’s all house money.”
Rubrik’s story is ultimately both American and Indian, then. And, as IVP general partner Somesh Dash notes,an incredible example of the American Dream. “Somebody who comes to this country as an immigrant with nothing, and builds a business that could be an institution—where, as [Sinha] said at breakfast this morning, retirees in Maine and Oklahoma are going to be buying the stock.”
It’s also worth noting that Rubrik took a chance by making its Wall Street debut during this tricky IPO market.
“When you are the first company stepping into the waters, after a sort of multi-year hiatus, it definitely requires the courage of your convictions,” said Lightspeed’s Mhatre. “I’m really hopeful that enthusiasm around Rubrik will translate into more receptivity with public market investors.”
Sinha seems less focused on the question of what Rubrik’s IPO might mean for the broader marketplace, saying that he’s not worrying about “externalities…because you can’t control those things. What you can control is your input.”
Because, in the end, an IPO is like a wedding, especially in this key truth: The next day’s just the first day of the rest of your life, a new chapter in a story that will, with any luck, unfold for decades.
Elsewhere…My colleague Sharon Goldman just featured OpenAI rival Cohere and interviewed the company’s CEO, Aidan Gomez. “We’re still sort of the underdog,” he told Goldman. “We have to prove ourselves…I think in the past couple of months we’ve really done that.” Read the whole story here.
See you Monday,
Allie Garfinkle
Twitter: @agarfinks
Email: alexandra.garfinkle@fortune.com
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Joe Abrams curated the deals section of today’s newsletter.
VENTURE DEALS
- Movement Labs, a San Francisco-based blockchain development team, raised $38 million in Series A funding. Polychain Capital led the round and was joined by Hack VC, Placeholder, Archetype, Maven 11, Robot Ventures, Figment Capital, and others.
- Nominal, a Los Angeles, Calif.-based provider of data analytics for mission-critical operations, raised $28 million in funding from Lux Capital, General Catalyst, Founders Fund, Haystack VC, XYZ Ventures, Human Capital, Box Group, and Overmatch.
- Treefera, a London, U.K.-based AI-enabled data platform designed to make the reporting of nature-based assets, like carbon credits and supply chain sustainability, more transparent, raised $12 million in Series A funding. AlbionVC led the round and was joined by others.
- Terra One, a Berlin, Germany-based battery storage company, raised $7.5 million in seed funding. PT1 led the round and was joined by neosfer, 468 Capital, and others.
- Natix Network, a Hamburg, Germany-based developer of an app that collects map data by incentivizing users to capture their surroundings, raised $4.6 million in funding. Borderless Capital and Tioga Capital led the round and was joined by Escape Velocity, Big Brain, WAGMI Ventures, Inception Capital, Laser Digital, and others.
- roclub, a Berlin, Germany-based teleoperations platform for remote access to and operation of medical devices, raised €4 million ($4.3 million) in seed funding. Speedinvest led the round and was joined by FJ Labs, Better Ventures, and angel investors.
PRIVATE EQUITY
- GTCR agreed to take AssetMark, a Concord, Calif.-based wealth management technology platform for financial advisors, private for approximately $2.7 billion.
- Blackstone agreed to acquire Tropical Smoothie Cafe, an Atlanta, Ga.-based franchisor of fast casual restaurants offering food and smoothies, from Levine Leichtman Capital Partners. Financial terms were not disclosed.
EXITS
- Affiliates of CC Industries acquired Foremark Performance Chemicals, a La Porte, Texas-based producer of natural gas sweeteners, chemical building blocks, and slow-release fertilizers, from SK Capital. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Compagnie Financière Jousset and the SMAC management team acquired SMAC, a Paris, France-based provider of waterproofing and building envelope systems, from OpenGate Capital. Financial terms were not disclosed,
- KKR agreed to acquire nexeye, a Gorinchem, the Netherlands-based eye care provider, from 3i Group. Financial terms were not disclosed.
OTHER
- rePurpose Global acquired Bluebird Climate, a New York City-based developer of software designed to help brands assess, manage, and communicate the sustainability of their products, ingredients, and packaging. Financial terms were not disclosed.
IPOS
- Loar Holdings, a White Plain, N.Y.-based manufacturer of niche parts for aircraft and aerospace and defense systems, raised $308 million in an offering of 11 million shares priced at $28 on the New York Stock Exchange. The company posted $317 million in revenue for the year ending December 31, 2023.
- Marex Group, a London, U.K.-based financial services provider, raised $292 million in an offering of 15.4 million shares priced at $19 on the Nasdaq. The company posted $1.2 billion in revenue for the year ending December 31, 2023.
PEOPLE
- Abris Capital, a Warsaw, Poland-based private equity firm, promoted Tomasz Kujawa to partner.
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