WP Engine hints at IPO with hiring of Bazaarvoice’s Heather Brunner as its COO

This makes approximately zero sense. The rule of thumb is $100mm in revenue (maybe as low as $50mm in annual, or $75mm in run-rate, if things are growing fast) and 3-5 years operating with revenue for IPO now.

From the figures I've seen, WPEngine is about 1% of that. (EDIT: oops, that was just their first year; didn't realize they've been around since 2010)

I haven't seen any credible news source pushing the "IPO" story here, just a bunch of "weird" news sources (maybe within the wordpress industry niche?) which TNW picked up. Or, a writer at TNW wrote a really breathlessly positive article about a company he personally liked, and threw the IPO thing in to make it interesting.

I'd bet on this being a weird marketing strategy for the WPEngine product; fake IPO rumors around a fairly mundane HR decision to get buzz and customers. If so, well played!

dotBen2• 13 years ago

no, we're not going to IPO any time soon. But, we're a lot more than 1% of $100mm in revenue. We actually did $1mm in revenue in our first year, and we're supporting our team growth based on revenue.

rdl2• 13 years ago

Ah, I thought this was your first year. I guess I'm off by a year or two on your growth. (I didn't mean to be particularly critical of WPEngine, just of the "IPO" thing)

WP Engine hints at IPO with hiring of Bazaarvoice’s Heather Brunner as its COO

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