00:00We want to talk, of course, about Navon's most recent earnings, but we also want to talk with
00:04you about just the broader IPO momentum that we've seen. You have an impressive resume in
00:09this space. You helped shepherd in the IPO or the public listing of the New York Stock Exchange. So
00:14what do you make of the fact that the final full trading week of 2025 had such big IPOs come
00:21through? Companies are ready to go public, right? We talked the last time I was here about the
00:26pipeline and companies benefit from the marketing, the branding. They benefit from access to capital.
00:33They benefit from having an acquisition currency and they just benefit from being public and it's good for the
00:39capital market. So I think the strength at the end of the year shows there are companies that have been ready.
00:45They've been in the pipeline and at different times there's appetite. We have seen, however, the fact that
00:51investors can be fickle, right? They can be very quick to be risk on or risk off. We were looking at some data
00:58recently that tech IPOs between April 1 and the end of October were up 76 percent. And those same tech IPOs from end of
01:08October to just end of day yesterday were down 30 percent. So it's probably the first asset class, you know, new
01:15IPOs to be sold down or to be bought in, depending on just the general sentiment in the market.
01:22Yeah, I mean, I feel like CoreWeave is a great example of that trend. It absolutely soared after its IPO up until
01:28June and since October, pretty much. It's kind of been in the dumps. So the fact that you do have this sort of hot
01:35and cold attitude to the new tech entrance, is that something that, you know, we might expect to see
01:41continue in 2026 or could this just be a moment in time? I think it's a moment in time and I think
01:47we'll have the same moment in time again in the future, just like we've had it historically. I mean,
01:52my sense is, though, that bigger, bigger IPOs are coming, not just this week. But when you look to
01:572026, there's some really big names that are ready to go out. Well, can we talk about how that gets
02:02digested by the market? And obviously, for those folks don't know, but in your previous life before
02:07Navon, I mean, you were instrumental in bringing a lot of stuff to market, including the NYSE itself,
02:12which is sort of apropos. But you look at the size of OpenAI, Anthropic, and SpaceX,
02:19I'm forgetting a couple others here, Databricks. You're talking about companies that are going to
02:23be, in some cases, close to trillion dollars valuations. The only thing we could find that
02:27even came close to that was, of course, Aramco. And they sold such a small sliver. Is that what we're
02:31going to be looking at? I don't know. I don't know the exact number. But when companies go out,
02:37they're really trying to manage the size of what they bring to the market. That way you can have
02:42the right supply-demand dynamics and making sure that there's enough for the portfolio managers to
02:48put in their portfolios, but not too much. They're trying to manage the float. They're trying to
02:54manage secondaries. So all of it, it's a lot of calculations that go into it. But as you said,
02:59it's really about making sure there's the right supply-demand at the time of the IPO.
03:04But do you think something like an open AI is almost more difficult? Because on the surface,
03:07you would think everybody wants to own it. But I almost feel like then that almost creates the
03:11potential for error of overshooting, for the bankers to overshoot expectations, given all the hype.
03:17Sentiment drives a lot of demand, right? Or it can lead to lack of demand. And so I actually think
03:24something like open AI will probably be viewed as something that has to be in the portfolio.
03:28And that's part of it as well. Yeah. And that's been an argument, too,
03:33with some of these big names is that given how big they are, and the fact that most of them are
03:39cash flow positive, they're probably going to end up in the benchmark indices within a year or so.
03:43Correct. And you also have the fact that portfolio managers are looking for new names,
03:48particularly in large cap portfolios. They're looking for new names to add in,
03:53to add to diversification. Think about how many names or how much market cap has come out of the
03:59market over the last few years. And so these IPOs are really well received, as long as a story they
04:04can understand and a story they want to put in the book. Well, that's one of the big conversations,
04:09the shrinking supply of the public equity markets. And maybe you're especially feeling it in the large
04:14caps. And I wonder how far we can take the example of open AI, of SpaceX, and extrapolating that
04:21to this narrative that's prevailed that, you know, you can stay private for a long time here. You can
04:26get all the funding you need. Do the possibility of open AI and SpaceX going public actually dispel
04:33that? Or are those such special cases that maybe it doesn't quite apply? They are special cases.
04:40You know, at the end of the day, they are special cases. On the other hand, I think they're realizing
04:45the benefits of the public capital markets. I mean, many of them are starting to, the big names are
04:50issuing debt, right? And it's easier to do that as a public company. They realize that their employees
04:56are looking for a secondary market for their shares. And I also believe it's part of a general
05:01maturation theme that these companies realize, whether you're private or public, you need that
05:06maturation. And going public really can be a forcing function. So, Amy, before we run out of time,
05:11we do have to ask you about the actual company that you work for. You are the CFO of Navon, which
05:16just went public. For those of the viewers that don't know, basically, business travel application.
05:22You're also leaving next year sometime away from your position as CFO. Give us a sense, first of all,
05:28into how Navon's business is doing, and also more specifically, some of the broader trends
05:32with business travel. Sure. So, thank you. We reported our first earnings this week. Revenue was up 29%.
05:39Our gross booking volume, which is the number of transactions that people are spending on,
05:45grew 40%. Our gross margins expanded to 74%. And we had almost 900 basis point expansion
05:52in our non-GAAP operating margin. So, basically, what it says about business travel is that it's
05:59booming. We actually had a record month in October. So, a lot of people are wondering what happened
06:05during the uncertainty of the government shutdown. Road warriors are road warriors. We had a slight
06:12pickup at the end of October. Basically, I think everybody trying to get those trips in before that
06:17November 11th date. Yeah. And then we saw a little bit of a slowdown versus what we normally see.
06:22And, you know, they're right back at it. So, it's great to see business travelers continuing to travel.
06:28That is so interesting that even during the government shutdown, when there was a lot of concern
06:32about the functioning of the airlines that, as you say, the road warriors still traveling,
06:38it's interesting taking a look at the sell side reaction. We don't have a ton of time left. But
06:41there is this idea out there that the guidance was a little bit conservative. And I wonder if you
06:46agree with that assessment. Sometimes it can be wise to be conservative when you first come out with
06:50your first earnings. But I will say the momentum in the business is incredible. We're seeing enterprise
06:56customers really at a tipping point of recognizing the importance of AI, modern technology in their
07:04stack. Corporate boards, CEOs, and CFOs are realizing that benefit. And we saw a new customer
07:11announcement, a CAC 40 company. We saw Axel Springer, Frazier's join us. We launched Visa
07:19this month. And so, we're really excited about the momentum that we're seeing. Travelers want that AI edge.
07:26As we excited about the thing next thing, but that'sälux. And finally, there's
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