24 Nov Why The Hortonworks IPO Could Jeopardize Other Big Data Companies
We’re finally going to get a Big Data IPO, with Hortonworks filing its S-1 this month. Yet I’m not hearing much cheering from the people who have the most to gain in the short term: venture capitalists. In fact, over the course of the last two weeks, I’ve talked with a number of VCs and each of them has expressed the same concern:
Hortonworks filed to go public way too early.
Given its still shaky financials, the risk isn’t merely that Hortonworks will struggle as a public company. The bigger risk is that a weak IPO will hold back other Big Data companies with better financials.
Rocket Ships Require Lots Of Fuel
In some respects, Hortonworks is a rocket ship, more than doubling top-line revenue growth. For the first nine months of the year, it pulled in over $33 million in revenue, more than double what it did last year.