I don’t really get what makes this an amazing IPO. Afaict they left 33% of the money on the table. How is that a good thing for the company or the shareholders?
It would be good for people who bought in (higher margin), good for people selling in 6 months (employees), and bad for the company (money on the table).
Don't forget about the underwriters (investment bankers) who will be paid a hefty sum by Pagerduty (despite underpricing the IPO) and who also just got a ton of goodwill from their top trading clients who got those IPO allocations
I don't see how this is better for employees, assuming there is a stable price X, whether you price IPO at X * 0.8 or X * 1.2, by the time 6 months is passed and employees are able to sell, it probably have already converged to X.
One way or another, that shouldn't be that big a deal.
The company doesn't necessarily raise that much on IPO day. The importance of raising that sum at a 20% higher/lower valuation probably isn't the biggest thing at stake.
The IPO isn't primarily fund raising, especially for this current crop of more mature unicorns. It's primarily liquidity generating.
