Transcript
Introduction
Patrick
My guest this week is Bill Gurley, general partner at Benchmark capital. Our conversation is about one specific issue that has popped up as a topic of interest in the investment community in recent months. The comparison between bringing a company public through a traditional IPO and what's known as a direct listing. To be clear, this episode is very much in favor of direct listings instead of traditional IPOs. For those that want a good discussion of the IPO process and its upsides, check out episode 173 of the Exponent podcast with Ben Thompson, which I'll link in the show notes. Now, please enjoy my very interesting conversation with Bill Gurley.
The IPO Process and Its Weaknesses
Bill, we're going to tackle a single issue on the podcast, which I think the first time that we've done that and a fun framing for introducing what this issue is, is the Warren Buffet idea that if you're at a poker table and you don't know who the patsy is, you're probably the patsy. Maybe you can begin by describing what the table is, what game is being played and who is the patsy.