> The purpose of the IPO is to fund the company

IPOs traditionally had four purposes:

(1) Introduce a company's securities to public-market investors;

(2) Price said securities;

(3) Let existing investors sell; and

(4) Raise money for the company.

> Taking the long term view, maybe this IPO is just fine

Analysts overstate the importance of IPO dynamics. Facebook had a terrible IPO and. Snap had a great first day [1]. That said, burning an entire class of investors (retail) on day one, particularly for a brand like Lyft, isn't a great show. It's also reasonable to call out the bookrunner, JPMorgan, as a bad choice for future IPOs.

[1] https://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/02/snapchat-snap-open-trading-p...