109:365 | Zoom IPO

While it got buried in the news of yesterday, the Zoom initial public offering (IPO) went off with a bang. The video conferencing company’s stock price soared 76% in their first day of trading.

My husband was surprised when I glanced at the TV yesterday and asked, “MY ZOOM!?!” Clearly, I’m not utilizing my BBA in Finance or my MBA on a regular basis as I had no idea their IPO was scheduled. That said, I’ve been a Zoom customer for so long that we enjoy legacy pricing that hasn’t been on their website in ages.

Zoom is one of the handful of technologies I recommend without hesitation. It’s rock solid, and fairly priced relative to its competitors. My only concern in reading about the IPO is the commentary from Yuan, the company’s CEO, that Zoom is going to “double down, triple down” on growth.

As noted in a Fortune article,

“Zoom will need to spend cash on hiring, technology, and salespeople to fend off tough competitors … Yuan believes that going public will help give Zoom the credibility it needs to court big companies and international businesses as customers, which it will need to compete with larger enterprise technology businesses. Zoom plans to target the hiring of recent computer science graduates in cities like Kansas City and Sacramento, where salaries aren’t as high as in Silicon Valley, where it’s based. Currently, 500 of the company’s 1,702 workers are in China, according to its regulatory filings, leaving unsaid that wages there are lower.”

I just hope after all that planned growth, I can continue to be one of their longest and biggest fans. More to follow …