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PagerDuty debuted on the New York Stock Exchange today, and as we hit the stock, the stock of the nine-year-old San Francisco-based Incident Processing Software Company is trading at close to 39 $.
This represents an increase of more than 60% compared to the $ 24 per share on the stock market, which has fallen from the range of $ 21 to $ 23 expected earlier, giving the company a valuation close to $ 3. billions of dollars. That's a lot for a company whose software helps technical teams in 11,000 companies detect application problems and react to incidents. Despite rapid growth (turnover up 48% last year), it had still collected only 117.8 million dollars in 2018. Meanwhile, its net loss has widened to 40 $ 7 million compared to $ 38.1 million in 2017.
Certainly, his performance must make very satisfied the investors of the company – who gave him for the last time a valuation of $ 1.3 billion in September – very happy. Some VCs are ready to win big if PagerDuty Andreessen Horowitz, who owns 18.4% of PagerDuty's shares and participates in the IPO; Accel, who owned 12.3 recently; and Bessemer, which owned 12.2%. The other winners are Baseline Ventures (6.7%) and Harrison Metal (5.3%).
It's also exciting for CEO Jennifer Tejada, A recognized operator who was named head of PagerDuty in 2016 and is now part of a small but growing club of women CEOs to publicize their technology companies, including Stitch's Katrina Lake. Fix and Julia Hartz of Eventbrite.
We spoke with Tejada earlier about the big day of the company. In addition to the credit of the company's co-founders (and shareholders), Andrew Miklas and Baskar Puvanathasan, who have since left the company, Tejada thanked PagerDuty co-founder Alex Solomon, who remains the company's CTO. She also talked to us a little about what she was today and how the IPO changed things – and did not do it. Our cat was edited for length.
TC: First of all, how do you feel?
JT: It was an amazing day. It's been a few incredible months. You must enjoy it when it's okay.
TC: How does the company's vision change now that it is public? Have you thought about possible acquisitions?
JT: The vision does not change. We intend to do exactly what we have done, which is to provide the best real-time business platform available to businesses as they transition to digital transformation to meet growing demands from their customers. We think we are [facing] an early and very broad opportunity that will be available to us for a long time. Our job, therefore, is always to create great products, stay close to our customers, grow regionally and continue to do what has allowed us to become a successful private company.
TC: You and I talked about the difficulties of keeping employees in San Francisco when we sat together in November. It's a battle for every local company. How do you keep employees beyond the lock-up period? How do you make sure that they stay focused on performance and not on the course of your stock?
JT: I think the mentality of "it's over when you go in public" is kind of a fable of Silicon Valley. If you look at the best-performing SaaS companies on the planet, they've gained 10, 20, 30 times their value after going public. I also think that what employees are looking for before their financial success is their professional success. Am I developed and recognized and can I build my career in this business? And we worked very hard to create those career opportunities for our employees who [I think see, as I do] the IPO, like a racing boat pushing on the dock, on the starting line and in the open sea, where the next adventure awaits.
In the meantime, we have already reduced our dependency on [overheated job markets] by opening offices in Toronto and Atlanta and Seattle and London and Sydney, although we are still hiring in San Francisco and Seattle.
TC: Obviously Lyft's shares have had their ups and downs because of the short sellers. Have you monitored a short-term interest? Are you worried that investors are pushing prices up and then selling them down?
JT: I have not even watched the last few hours. . . There are many things out of my control, and the free market is one of them.
TC: PagerDuty is rare in that it does not have a two-clbad structure, when it can significantly empower managers over all others badociated with a company. Presumably, this is a great relief for your investors; I'm just wondering if that has already been taken into account.
JT: I'm a little traditionalist. It's been a long time since I know the operation of the brakes and counterweights, and a single-clbad structure made sense for PagerDuty. In addition, two-clbad structures tend to emerge more frequently when founders are involved. While Alex is still an integral part of the industry, PagerDuty's other two founders have been working outside for some time.
TC: You have a lot of operating experience, including Keynote Systems, but you have never done any advertising. Did you find the roadshow experience surprising?
JT: I was surprised to see how much fun it was! [Laughs.] When you have a good story and a good partner helps you tell it – in my case, it's [PagerDuty CFO] Howard Wilson, with whom I've been working for 10 years – it's great. We had an excellent reception from investors. I loved our IPO team; our [top bank underwriting teams] were led by women and whenever I had a question, [had the answer]. I also had this cocoon of experience that surrounded me through our board of directors. If someone tells you that [in this position] they are super comfortable, they are either lying down or [clueless] but I was very lucky. I also have a bunch of buddies who are CEOs [and other executives] in SaaS and I have been asking for advice for months, so I felt well prepared.
TC: What advice did you give these friends about the transformation of your life?
JT: Part of that was the need to keep people focused and not to get distracted, to remind everyone that it was a milestone, not a goal. [Some centered on] Surround yourself with a great team and the importance of special relationships with investors, a function you will not have as a private company, but that can create tremendous value and provide support and understanding of the market .
A CEO said to make sure you keep having fun, trying to stay "you", finding joy in the same things as before. There will be stressful moments and difficult questions – this is the case for any business of this magnitude – but I have heard a lot of advice on how to take care of myself, including on the roadshow. In fact, there were a lot of support notes and private tweets that, in a work that can feel lonely, made me feel like I did not feel alone and I really appreciate it.
TC: People think of IPOs as another funding event, but it's a bit odd, is not it? If you were to list the most significant moments of your life on a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 is the most important, where could today fall? Would today be at the top of this list?
JT: When I think of the most significant moments, I think about the day my daughter was born and my wedding. Another day that was very meaningful to me was the endorsement of our commitment to give a percent [of PagerDuty’s equity, one percent of its product, and one percent of employees’ time] to the social impact. We did it much later in the game than some companies; our equity was already precious. But we knew this would create a significant impact over time.
But yes, it's a rewarding day, especially for the co-founders who launched the idea for PagerDuty a few years before even launching it, as well as for employees who have been working in the company for almost as long and who have refused in a more secure way. and higher paying jobs along the way. See their joy today – it's a memory that will certainly be part of my top 10.
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