Remove 2004 Remove IPO Remove Marketing Remove Operations
article thumbnail

Yelp's IPO Will Test the Flaws in Its Business Model

Harvard Business Review

Yelp's IPO filing comes hot on the heels of successful IPOs and high valuations for Angie's List and Groupon. Yelp's timing reflects both a tech-friendly market and the company's current position as the dominant consumer-review web site. When Yelp began in 2004, this would have been a devastating prospect.

IPO 14
article thumbnail

Should Everyone Be Allowed to Invest in Private Tech Companies?

Harvard Business Review

They therefore seek investors who understand their initial losses and can facilitate secondary rounds of funding when their operations grow. Gone is the heyday of the 1990s when firms with simply an idea and little or no revenues could do an IPO. By the time, those opportunities reach public markets, if at all, they are fully priced.

Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

article thumbnail

An Insider’s Account of the Yahoo-Alibaba Deal

Harvard Business Review

At the time, though, we were just in search of a new approach to building a sustainable business in that critical but often difficult market. In fact, you could say (and many did) that our previous attempts had failed, in that we hadn’t established a sustained market position. Things hadn’t gone well up until that point.

article thumbnail

Founding a Company Doesn’t Have to be a Big Career Risk

Harvard Business Review

After five years, in 2004, Tickle was profitable with more than $20 million in revenue; it received an acquisition offer for $100 million, as well as IPO entreaties. The most important way to mitigate risk is to become excellent at either engineering, product, selling, or operations and management.

Career 8