The CEO Behind Software’s Biggest IPO Ever | Forbes

Snowflake’s Frank Slootman doesn’t start companies.But no CEO has a better track record of turning the ideas of others into jackpots.Now the 3x IPO veteran is exclusively sharing his playbook.Slootman,who took over Snowflake in April 2019,has been ruthlessly efficient.Just six months in,he had lined up his anchor investors,including Dragoneer Investments and Marc Benioff’s Salesforce.Around the same time,he began meeting with research analysts who would wind up setting bullish prices for the IPO.And when Slootman and his team virtually rang the bell of the New York Stock Exchange,a process that looked as awkward as it sounds,raising some $3.4 billion in the process,Salesforce and others were there to support the floor.“These are people we knew from previous rodeos,” Slootman says with a shrug.