Going Public: How Silicon Valley Rebels Loosened Wall Street’s Grip on the IPO and Sparked a Revolution

I thought this book was very informative on the practicalities and details of getting organized and executing an IPO. It also gave a fun look “behind the scenes” on a number of high-profile IPOs. A fun and informative read for anyone working in or around the IPO market.

This is the first book I’ve been able to pick up in a long time and I wasn’t disappointed! Dakin Campbell illuminates the details of many key events with Google, Facebook and the IPO world as a whole that I never knew even as a student of the tech and financial world. Amazing insight of the players, past and present, and the forces behind the scenes that make this particular part of finance so intriguing. I can’t wait to see what area Mr. Campbell decides to shine a light on next.

Really enjoyed Going Public. I have family who work in investment banking and I've heard the stories about the back room dealing during IPOs. If you've ever wondered why it is considered a "good thing" to have your IPO pop on the first day of trading, even though no other financial asset is expected to be sold below market by that much, then this book is a must read!

Provided great insight and backstory to the IPOs we all read about/saw in the news. From Google and Facebook to Doordash, this book lifted the curtain on what went on with companies we all rely on today.

As an investor in stocks for decades, I have followed business information in the New York Times andthe Philadelphia Inquirer. As I read “Going Public” by Dakin Campbell, I realized there was a tremendous back story that I was totally unfamiliar with. Although the underwriters mentioned, such as Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, and the technology companies, such as Google, Spotify and Airbnb, were known to me, the inside story was all new. I found it a fascinating and enlightening page-turner. I believe anyone working in finance or technology would find this behind-the-scenes book even more compelling than I did.

Campbell does a great job detailing the steps taken by a number of tech companies to go public. What was most interesting what how he detailed it chronologically and through each significant sequential event the traditional system & process was slowly changing.As an operator and a strategic finance leader, I appreciated Campbell’s “inside view” of companies, an most notably the approach of Spotify, under the leadership of their then-CFO, Barry McCarthy.

This is one of the few books that reveals in detail how IPOs really work. There are myths and misconceptions and theories that don't match reality. This book accurately describes what happens.It also is one of the few books that is up-to-date with details about how direct listings have panned out.Entrepreneurs who are considering getting public will get the straight dope, not just the pitch talk from bankers or out-of-date academic data that supposedly favors one approach versus another.New bankers should read it before starting their job. I'm adding it as a reading for my business and law school students.

Whether you work in banking or tech - or simply enjoy a good, character-driven story - this is a stellar book to learn about the history of the IPO.