Episode 43: The Square IPO

Acquired

Unicorns and ratchets and lawsuits, oh my! Our heroes dive into the history of Jack Dorsey’s famous “other” company, Square. Was the Square IPO a canary in the coal mine signaling doom & gloom for the so-called unicorn companies of the early 2010’s, or a mispriced and misunderstood diamond in the rough? Acquired weighs in.

Sponsors:
Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig24
Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta
Crusoe: https://bit.ly/acquiredcrusoe

Topics Covered Include:

• Square’s deep origins in the early 90’s in St. Louis, MO with the initial meeting of its co-founders, Jack Dorsey & Jim McKelvey
• McKelvey’s side glass blowing business and the “inspiration” for Square that came much later in the late 2000’s
• The complicated involvement of Washington University (in St. Louis) professor Robert Morley, who had worked for years developing payment card reading technology
• The company’s early meeting with Scott Forstall at Apple, and its “significant” impact on the its name and design
• The real disruptive innovation of Square and its business model (hint: not just building a mobile card reader)
• Square’s massive payments deal with Starbucks in 2012 and its impact on the company
• The evolution of Square’s business from a simple card reader to cloud-based Point of Sale (PoS) system and entire suite of merchant tools & business management services
• The drama leading up to Square’s IPO (including at Jack Dorsey’s “other” company, Twitter), dynamics and narratives affecting its pricing, the effect of IPO “ratchets”, and the company’s performance over the ~2 years since

The Carve Out:

• David: Bob Iger on Nick Bilton’s Inside the Hive podcast
• Ben: The World After Capital on GitBooks