
S-1 Teardown: ACV Auctions
ACV is one of the first of this generation’s B2B marketplaces to go public and its S-1 is a unique chance to look ‘under the hood’ at the economics of a vertical marketplace that has achieved public company scale.
Last night Bowery Capital attended the NY Enterprise Monthly Technology Meetup. This event was focused on enterprise security, an area we have become increasingly interested in for two reasons:
First, the need for security solutions is growing. In the past, applications seldom communicated with one another. Companies could build a moat around their IT to protect themselves. Today’s incredible degree of interconnection – not only among software, but also among platforms – creates new points where security can be compromised. Second, IT security is now top-of-mind for CEOs. Last month Target CEO Gregg Steinhafel, a 35-year veteran of the company, stepped down in the aftermath of a massive data breach that compromised credit card information of 40 million customers. Target is just one of many F500 companies where customer data has been exposed. CEOs are getting more involved with IT security because an oversight could cost them their jobs and materially damage their companies.
Bill Murphy is one of several thought leaders who spoke at the event. Bill is not only the CTO of The Blackstone Group, but also plays a key role in helping its 70+ portfolio companies (which together comprise over 600,000 employees and includes Hilton Hotels, among other titan brands) make informed IT security decisions.
As a buyer of enterprise security solutions, Bill shared an interesting angle and provided insight into his thought process. We left with three takeaways:
Thanks to @fendien and our friends at @NYETM for organizing this event.
ACV is one of the first of this generation’s B2B marketplaces to go public and its S-1 is a unique chance to look ‘under the hood’ at the economics of a vertical marketplace that has achieved public company scale.
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Below we have compiled a list of metrics that could be relevant for most B2B marketplaces and hope that it serves as a framework for tracking KPIs for success.