Tech Deciphered

Tech Deciphered


#7 – The “Silicon Valley bubble” bursts, why that is good news, and the IPO landscape in hardware vs. software and enterprise vs. consumer

March 15, 2020

We launch into why 100 Bn in value just evaporated from “Silicon Valley” and why that is a good thing for private companies and investors going forward. We discuss the rationality of public markets and go into the IPO landscape... B2B vs B2C, as well as hardware vs software. We analyse direct listings and why that may (or may not) matter. Finally, we discuss secret teams at Apple, the controversy around its Activation Lock and Amazon steadily making their role noticed in the Tablet market.
Navigation:

Silicon Valley bubble bursts? (02:18)
Hardware IPOs continue to struggle, but public performance is not always bad (11:53)
B2B vs. B2C IPOs (22:49)
Direct listings (28:33)
Apple’s (not so) secret satellite team (37:32)
iFixit controversy (43:17)
State of the Tablet market (47:20)

Resources:

WSJ, Silicon Valley adjusts to new reality as $100B evaporates - https://on.wsj.com/2TRGKYD
Top Tier, B2B vs B2C IPOs - http://bit.ly/2INnoxz
Tech Crunch, Hardware IPOs continue to struggle - https://tcrn.ch/2IQXZmJ
CNBC, NYSE proposes allowing companies to raise fresh capital in direct listings - https://cnb.cx/39TjMWx
Bloomberg, Apple Has Secret Team Working on Satellites to Beam Data to Devices - https://bloom.bg/39VjVsy
Walt Mossberg, Apple has added the infamous "Activation Lock" to Macs, and it's going to cause tons of perfectly good laptops to go to waste -  http://bit.ly/2wYuGMe
iFixit, Apple’s Activation Lock Will Make It Very Difficult to Refurbish Macs - http://bit.ly/33mrCWr
Business Wire, Strategy Analytics: Prime Day and Alexa Catapult Amazon to #2 Tablet Spot Globally - https://bwnews.pr/38U1Nyb

Our co-hosts:

Bertrand Schmitt, Tech Entrepreneur, co-founder and Chairman at App Annie, @bschmitt
Nuno Goncalves Pedro, Investor, co-Founder and Managing Partner of Strive Capital, @ngpedro 

Our show:
 
Tech DECIPHERED brings you the Entrepreneur and Investor views on Big Tech, VC and Start-up news, opinion pieces and research. We decipher their meaning, and add inside knowledge and context. Being nerds, we also discuss the latest gadgets and pop culture news.

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Full transcription: may contain unintentionally confusing, inaccurate and/or amusing transcription errors
Nuno: Episode 7. 
In this episode, we're gonna discuss news around IPOs, initial public offerings, or exits, as we like to call them. We will be talking about , the de-mystification of venture capital and startups. And finally, we'll end up with some gadget news.
Bertrand: Excellent Nuno, thank you. 
Let's start with IPOs and as you say, sometimes we talk about IPOs and we equate that with exit. I think that might be actually  dangerous to think too much as an exit, at least from an entrepreneur perspective. Yes, from a VC perspective, but from an entrepreneur perspective, it's often a stepping stone, to getting bigger and getting, maybe out of your teenage years, but definitely an exciting time when it happens.
Nuno: Correct. And you get to ring bells and do all sorts of funny things that are interesting. 
Silicon Valley bubble bursts? (02:18)
That said, sometimes reality sets in, which brings us to the first article today, which is the article on Silicon Valley, adjusting to the new reality as a $ 100 Billion evaporates, the Wall Street journal article.
This article goes into quite a lot of detail on the significant haircuts that have happened with companies that have IPOed in the last few years. So companies that have lost a lot of value from their initial public offering price,  and also companies that almost IPOed and manage not to IPO and had significant hair cuts in their private market caps, with the case of WeWork being obviously,