Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on Seattle 2.0, and imported to GeekWire as part of our acquisition of Seattle 2.0 and its archival content. For more background, see this post.
By Gerry Langeler
(Reflections on Complete Genomics recent successful IPO – NASDAQ: GNOM)
It smells like “new car.”
The car companies must spend as much money on pheromone testing as they do on crash testing. I am not a car guy, but put me in a brand new vehicle and my brain screams, “I want you. I want you now!” It doesn’t matter if it’s a Kia or a Maserati, I get a primal reaction to the smell of a new car. An IPO smells like that. It says, “I want you, and want anything else that smells like you.”
It smells like your attic.
You know that musty old smell? You are up there rummaging around for the Christmas decorations and stumble upon an old photo album in a box. You open it up and are surrounded by the aroma of slowly decaying paper and photographic chemicals. You sit back and see pictures of remarkably slim, attractive people with terrific hair. Is that really you? And you see the smiles of people whose faces you mostly remember and names you mostly forget. And then there is that one special person you see and take a deep breath, “Hello, old friend. Nice to see you again. Hope you are well.” An IPO smells like that.
It smells like Thanksgiving dinner.
You know your reaction. Everything is on the table and the smells are overwhelming: Turkey, stuffing, gravy, cranberry relish, mashed yams covered in butter, pumpkin pie. You don’t need to distinguish them separately. They all mix together to say, “This is a celebration. This is a feast!” An IPO smells like that, too.
It smells like a locker room.
There is so much sweat and grime associated with getting a company to the IPO stage, especially these days. The entrepreneurs have done Herculean tasks to make the company successful. We venture capitalists have spent time on the sidelines as coaches. Our sweat has been the nervous kind. And in these choppy economic times, there was plenty of sweat just to get an IPO done. But as anyone who has been in a locker room can tell you, there are two entirely different smells to that place: the pungent odor after a loss is entirely different than the sweet aroma of “We won!”
All together, the new car, the attic, the feast and the locker room blend into….
The smell of fresh asphalt.
It is a new road. The bumpy days of being a private company are behind you, and the faster speed limits of the open road lie ahead. That smell is also a reminder that an IPO is not an exit, but rather a financing event. Neither the company management nor the investors have exited. There are many miles to travel where the team will have the opportunity to drive the firm in full public view. If they do so well, safely and predictably, the stock will react positively to their progress on the road to a major, lasting enterprise.
That new road smells very good, right now.
