> On 29 November 2021, HashiCorp set terms for its IPO
...I'm starting to think I'm onto something. (I do welcome anecdata that either helps or hurts my hypothesis)
I firmly believe this is a fact too.
One place I recently worked, I joined as it was going public and it went downhill quickly. The friends I’d made there talked about the fun perks, holidays and benefits the company was known for. Over the space of less than a year most of the culture atrophied, people left in droves and there were exactly zero holidays or perks given out.
Quarterly scope for fiscal data is one of the most short-sighted decisions humans have ever done. Expecting quarterly up-and-to-the-right, where simple sustenance is not enough, but profit must grow quarterly, on a planet with finite resources in an economy with finite money, is a guaranteed, zero-exceptions, recipe for failure, by definition.
If I were starting a business these days I'd be tempted to found it on the basis that 60% must be owned by employees of the company until the last living descendant of king Charles dies.
Making it seem like it's a legal requirement however is a very good thing for all the corporate raiders out there.
Their stock was down 60% only 3 short months after IPO.
I think this is just a struggle to turn what was once technical excellence into something that gives money. I haven't followed HashiCorp lately but was once a fan of some of their products. These days it seems things are slower over there. At least that's what it feels at a distance.
That's a scary thought.
The vast majority of tech companies that IPOd since Facebook have been a disaster of an investment.