"Searchable Log of All Conversation and Knowledge"... You know the acronym as Slack, the office messaging tool whose CEO/founder predicts the end of work email within 7 years. It boasts 10M daily active users, while the number of paying corporate accounts is growing (at 95K right now). Like plenty of other tech, it's losing money still as it spends to beat competition from Facebook ("Workplace") and Microsoft ("Teams"). Shares rose 49% on Day #1 of trading, even as Slack chose to go public via a "Direct Listing" — not an IPO. Here are 3 reasons why it did:
- A direct offering doesn't raise new money like an IPO would, (but it still gave early investors the chance to sell their stock in the public markets).
- That's why it was cheaper than an IPO (you don't pay the investment banking fees of issuing new shares).
- And Slack's got a big enough brand to list shares without needing an IPO-style promotional roadshow (Spotify pulled the same direct listing move last year).
New crypto, who dis?... Facebook revealed its blockchain-based cryptocurrency, "Libra": its logo is three exotic-ish waves, it'll be ready to use by the world's 2.4B FBers by 2020, and it's a "stable-coin" (backed by real money like the US dollar so the price shouldn't swing as much). 27 other companies will share oversight of ZuckBucks along with Facebook. And with the new cryptocurrency, you can pay friends in Libra, then easily convert to whatever currency you want to send back to your old school bank account. It's also Facebook's plan B if regulators cut down on its ad biz.
Shavasana smells great... because Lululemon's expanded from apparel to introduce its own selfcare products. The deodorant, shampoo, lip balm, and face moisturizer are strategically aluminum-free and marketed gender-neutral to cure "hot yoga face." It's Lulu's first step to lean into its new 5-year plan hard: “Become the experiential brand for people living the sweatlife.”