Oren Zaslansky

SoftBank is famous.

They're infamous.

I get it.

Working with Masa is a tiny piece of what we do when you're a SoftBank portfolio company, but really you live within your deal team.

Within my deal team, who, of course, is on my board, again, board meeting on Wednesday, I challenged my team in a couple of things.

I said, number one, I understand how the private markets think.

We've raised nine rounds, about half-priced Series C through Series D, and also some notes in between because you're getting started or bridges, up bridges, never down bridges, but the good bridges and the hard bridges along the way.

And I'd said, look, I know how the private markets think about us.

I understand what the story is.

I've done it nine times.

I understand what the key metrics are in order to create shareholder value.

I don't yet understand the public markets.

And yet this business is headed to the public markets.

We're not yet ready to hire a banker.

We're not yet ready to start talking to the exchanges.

I wouldn't quite call us pre-IPO, but we're pre-pre-IPO, meaning find me people that can educate me on the story and under the key metrics to understand how we need to shape this firm over the next two or three years to get it ready for the public markets.

You find those people.

I'm too busy.

Go to work, number one.

Number two is talent, talent, talent.