Zoom May Be the Best Silicon Valley IPO of the Year
April 16, 2019
Beth Kindig
Lead Tech Analyst
This post originally appeared on FATrader.com on April 16th, 2019. Beth later appeared on Yahoo Finance discussing this analysis.
This may be hard to believe, but on Thursday, Silicon Valley will have a company go public that is already profitable. If you’ve used Cisco’s Webex for meetings, then you’ll understand Zoom. The company provides web conferencing that is simple for users to join and has a lot of features to assist in virtual meetings.
Zoom has a “bottoms-up” viral customer base, which means junior employees evangelize the service at the company. These are often some of the most loyal customers. For instance, 55% of $100,000 or higher revenue customers were started with a single employee’s free trial.
Financials
Zoom’s financials outperform successful software-as-a-service companies on the public markets today, such as Workday and Okta. Here’s a snapshot of the S-1 Filing showing $60M in revenue in 2017, $151M in revenue in 2018 and $330M in revenue in 2019. The company has been posting 100%+ revenue growth for three years with gross profit margins in the high 70% to low 80% range compared to more mature SaaS companies currently on the public market posting increasing net losses (Okta and Workday).
In the year ending January 31st, 2019, Zoom became profitable with $7.58 million in net income or 3 cents EPS. The year prior, Zoom posted a net loss of $4.8 million. Compare this to Okta’s net loss of $125M on similar revenue this past year or Workday’s net losses of $418M on approx. $2.8B revenue.
Zoom’s IPO price continues to change daily. The shares are now being priced 8 percent higher than previously estimated last week with a valuation around $9 billion. This is up 9x from the company’s most recent private funding round, which was priced at a $1 billion valuation. SalesForce Ventures has agreed to buy $100 million Class A stock at the IPO.
Zoom has disrupted Cisco’s WebEx, which is clunky and more intensive software for video conferencing. Some Wall Street analysts have speculated Cisco and Microsoft are a threat to Zoom, although the opposite is true.
Zoom’s CEO Eric Yuan, owns 19 percent of the stake in the company, and was a former engineer at WebEx before it was acquired by Cisco. On a similar note, I would not be surprised if SalesForce acquired Zoom given its large stake and the loyal customers Zoom could bring to a predominant SaaS platform. Yuan has adamantly stated he would not sell a company after his experience with the WebEx acquisition, although this may be too idealistic for a standalone conferencing product. Long story short, it is likely Zoom will agree to an acquisition in the future.
SaaS Metrics
There is a breakdown of Zoom by venture capitalist Alex Clayton of Spark Capital. It bears mentioning that many of the software-as-a-service VCs support one another in public offerings and Clayton is a little too enthusiastic about Zoom. However, Clayton does a good job of visualizing the data. I’ll summarize some of what he says here and point out a few things you should consider when looking at the data that comes from the VC side.
Software-as-a-service (SaaS) has unique key metrics that venture capitalists look for when privately funding a SaaS startup. Subscription revenue run-rate is one metric used, although it can be overly simplistic.
Annual Revenue Run Rate = Monthly Revenue * 12 months
ARR does not account for churn or growth. Zoom’s ARR likely looks better than the more mature companies on the public markets (which are contrasted below) because Zoom is a smaller company and has gone through periods of hyper growth. For this chart to be completely accurate, you would have to compare growth from the same year of a company’s inception as Zoom is going public early compared to the other companies in this chart, and therefore, demonstrates hyper growth compared to a more mature company that files to go public.
Private investors typically calculate the monthly recurring revenue, which calculates the amount of revenue you have in the beginning of the month plus the revenue you gain during the month minus downgrades or customer churn.
Zoom has an advantage over many other public SaaS companies by posting positive net income. Many of the SaaS companies on the market today trading at 30x price to sales are not profitable. Okta, especially, may appear overvalued after Zoom’s IPO as the company posts similar annual income but with staggering net losses. Zoom is not in the same category as Okta, as Zoom is web conferencing and Okta is identity management. However, they share the same SaaS subscription-based business model and more financial clarity for investors in this business model will likely shift perception of how a SaaS company should perform on the public markets. Basically, Zoom’s financials are a safer bet.
Takeaway
Zoom is likely to be a popular IPO due to being a profitable SaaS company. With many companies like Okta, WorkDay, and Twilio trading at 15-30 Price to Sales ratios, and many not profitable, you can image the excitement that will follow Zoom. I am going to allocate a small percentage to Zoom’s IPO, provided it remains at a $9 billion valuation. I am considering a short on Okta as of Zooms’ S-1 Filing as the stock has climbed 80% from December lows.
As many FATrader analysts have pointed out, IPOs are risky.
I am a tech analyst, not a financial advisor.
Gains of up to 2,160% from our Free Newsletter.
Here are sample stock gains from the I/O Fund’s newsletter --- produced weekly and all for free!
2,160% on Nvidia
675% on Bitcoin
*as of Mar 27, 2025
Our newsletter provides an edge in the world’s most valuable industry – technology. Due to the enormous gains from this particular industry, we think it’s essential that every stock investor have a credible source who specializes in tech. Subscribe for Free Weekly Analysis on the Best Tech Stocks.
If you are a more serious investor, we have a premium service that offers lower entries and real-time trade alerts. Sample returns on the premium site include 3,430% on Nvidia, 915% on Chainlink, and 1,020% on Bitcoin. The I/O Fund is audited annually to prove it’s one of the best-performing Funds on the market, with returns that beat Wall Street funds.
Get a bonus for subscription!
Subscribe to our free weekly stock
analysis and receive the "AI Stock: 5
Things Nobody is Telling you" brochure
for free.
More To Explore
Newsletter
Oracle Stock Outlook: Revenue Could Double by FY2029, yet Targets Seem Lofty
Late in 2024, Oracle outlined an ambitious plan to nearly double its revenue by fiscal 2029, hinging on long-term growth in enterprise AI and cloud spending. Oracle sets itself apart from its hypersca
I/O Fund Reports 210% Cumulative Return -- Ranking Above Wall Street's Best
In 2024, I/O Fund posted a 35% return, significantly outperforming popular tech ETFs, which recorded an 8% return over the same period. On a cumulative basis, the results translate to a remarkable 219
The Harsh Truth: Retail Investors Take the Brunt of Market Losses
Retail investors face significant disadvantages in the stock market, often underperforming institutional investors by a wide margin. Studies show that high-frequency trading firms dominate market acti
NVIDIA Blackwell Ultra Fuels AI & HPC Innovation, Efficiency and Capability
NVIDIA’s latest Blackwell Ultra GPU, unveiled at NVIDIA GTC 2025, is transforming AI acceleration and high-performance computing (HPC). Designed for the “Age of Reasoning,” these cutting-edge GPUs del
NVIDIA’s GB200s for up to 27 Trillion Parameter Models: Scaling Next-Gen AI Superclusters
Supercomputers and advanced AI data centers are driving the AI revolution, enabling breakthroughs in deep learning and large-scale model training. As AI workloads become increasingly complex, next-gen
Nvidia CEO Predicts AI Spending Will Increase 300%+ in 3 Years
Nvidia has traversed choppy waters so far in 2025 as concerns have mounted about how the company plans to sustain its historic levels of demand. At GTC, Huang threw cold water on many of the Street’s
AI Data Center Power Wars: Brown vs. Clean vs. Renewable Energy Sources
AI data centers are at the heart of the AI revolution, but their massive energy demands raise critical questions. With power consumption expected to grow 160% by 2030, data centers are turning to a mi
Why Gas Pipelines Are the Unsung Heroes of AI Data Center Expansion
Natural gas is emerging as the backbone of AI data center expansion, with demand expected to reach up to 6 billion cubic feet per day by 2030. As AI-driven infrastructure surges, data centers are turn
Alibaba Stock: China Has Low AI Revenue Compared to United States
Alibaba’s AI-driven cloud revenue is surging with six consecutive quarters of triple-digit growth. However, its AI earnings remain a fraction of what U.S. tech giants report, with Microsoft leading at
Unlocking the Future of AI Data Centers: Which Fuel Source Reigns Supreme in Efficiency?
AI data centers are projected to consume 9% of U.S. electricity by 2030, driven by soaring GPU power demands, with Nvidia’s GB200 reaching 2,700W—a 300% increase over previous generations. As AI racks