Snowflake CEO, Frank Slootman is looking at the third IPO. Slootman is preparing to take the company public 13 years after his first tech IPO, Data Domain, and eight years after his second IPO, ServiceNow.
Slootman’s third IPO touted to be the hottest deal of the year
Slootman, aged 61 is an operations guru, a leader who turns a jet plane into a rocketship and makes a lot of cash for customers, investors, and himself. He says that he is more of a Marine Corps than the Peace Corps and is not worried about hurting some feelings along the way.
Slootman’s third IPO is the hottest deal of the year, even with Airbnb, Palantir, and Asana being in the pipeline. He was named Snowflake’s CEO sixteen months ago. Before he arrived, the company was headed by Microsoft executive Bob Muglia and was already valued at $4 billion by venture investors.
Snowflake’s revenue doubled to $242 million from $104 million in the first half of 2020
Snowflake filed a prospectus on Monday that revealed the company’s revenue in the first half of the year to have doubled to $242 million from $104 million the year earlier. Also, headcount jumped by more than 50% to over 2000.
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The company’s decision to file for an IPO is another sign of how the world has changed since it was hit by the coronavirus pandemic in March. Months before the crisis struck, Slootman had stated that an IPO would take place by early summer or after the presidential election in November.
Unfortunately, there was no filing in the early summer, but companies are now lining up ahead of the presidential election. As Snowflake made its prospectus public, Asana, Unity Software, JFrog, and Sumo Logic also revealed its filings. Palantir filed the following day.
Cloud software continues to thrive as COVID-19 affects major businesses
Although COVID-19 has ruined the economy, cloud software continues to thrive. With remote work the new normal, businesses have been forced to adopt tools to help manage the remote workforce and collect data in ways accessible to all people.
In an interview with CNBC, Slootman said that there is no doubt that the crisis has accelerated the trend towards a digital transformation. He further stated that Snowflake is a 100% cloud company and can vacate 2000 people out of their offices while continuing operations.