Ben Gilbert: uncertainty

Transcript context

…I think the parallels to our Facebook IPO episode are just so great right now are so perfect and so apt. We graded the Facebook IPO and I think we gave it two grades – a grade for the actual IPO itself and then a grade for how that event influenced the trajectory of the company over time. And the IPO was terrible but what we learned from that story was that experience really made Facebook what it is today kind of drove them to much further greatness. I think I completely agree with you, like this IPO was brilliantly executed by Snap. They told their story so well and positioned themselves perfectly. One need only look at how the performance has gone over the last two days, granted it’s still very early but versus Facebook’s first two days. But the question and the real grade that matters, we’re going to have to come back for at least round 3, it not 4 and 5 down the road on this one. I totally agree. I almost feel silly for giving it an A. Like there’s just so much variance and so much we don’t know. But I think we can definitely grade execution on the IPO and no question, this was an A. There are huge headwinds here with Instagram stories launching and growth slowing and being gross margin negative. They have spun this great story about Snap as a camera company, Snap as a brand advertising company, Snap as the most innovative and interesting product company of our generation. And it’s worked really well.…

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