Equity shot: Dropbox is going public, and Aaron Levie has some advice

Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines.

At long last, after many predictions and even a private filing, Dropbox dropped its S-1 today. The filing marks the public beginning of the end of Dropbox’s life as a private company. Dropbox is going public!

To mark the occasion, Katie Roof and Alex Wilhelm met up in the TechCrunch podcast studio to chat about the company’s numbers. And, we got Aaron Levie, CEO of Dropbox competitor Box, on the phone to talk about the occasion.

Dropbox’s IPO has been long awaited for several reasons. Primarily that the firm grew quickly, landing a $10 billion valuation in 2014. Even more, it grew up during an earlier period in the SaaS era, when more niches were unfilled and recurring revenue was less perfectly understood.

(Today, in contrast, you cannot avoid the sheer bulk of SaaS advice out there. In fairness, Equity did just do an episode live at SaaStr, a SaaS-themed event.)

Dropbox’s debut also is a critical moment for the unicorn wave, the period in which we currently live that has seen a host of billion-dollar, yet-private companies prosper under the forgiving suns of private capital. Dropbox going public indicates that a large chunk of that accreted, illiquid wealth will manage to liquify itself after all.

For its investors, who command billions of dollars of its stock, it’s a welcome event. For us, it was a great excuse to sit around and talk about big private companies. Stay cool!

Equity drops every Friday at 6:00 am PT, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Pocket Casts, Downcast and all the casts.