INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Continuing our irregular surveys of the public markets, two things happened this week that are worth our time
And, second, software as a service (SaaS) stocks reached record highs on the public markets after retreating over last summer.The two
milestones, only modestly related events, indicate how temperate the public waters are for technology companies today, a fact that should
extend warmth into the private market where startups, and their venture capital backers, work.The happenings are good news for technology
startups for a number of reasons, including that major tech players have never had as much wealth in hand with which to buy smaller
companies, and strong SaaS valuations help both smaller startups fundraise, and their larger brethren possibly exit.Indeed, the stridently
good valuations that major tech companies and their smaller siblings enjoy today should be just the sort of market conditions under which
times their revenue (using enterprise value instead of market cap, for those keeping score at home), not every private, venture-backed
company will necessarily benefit from public investor largesse.What about tech-ish startups?How much the current public-market tech
public in 2019 were quickly spit up by investors unwilling to support valuations that matched or rose above their final private valuations
lines, and the repeatability of business
hopefuls of the year, the more tech-ish they can appear between now and pricing the better
Because technology companies today are valued so highly, perhaps even a faint dusting of tech will save their valuations as they cross the
chasm between private and adult.
