In 2024, I had all sorts of funky metaphors for the stagnant IPO market, from "bathtub that wasn’t draining" to a tangled garden hose.
At a stalled time for IPOs, most of my metaphors were bleak. But one wasn’t—it came as I wrote about cybersecurity company Rubrik, which went public in April. Watching Rubrik CEO and cofounder Bipul Sinha, his family, investors, and colleagues on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, it occurred to me that an IPO is like a wedding. It’s both a celebrated endpoint and the first day of the rest of your life.
