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Over the years, Iguodala’s funded over 40 companies including , , and . As an investor and a board member, he helped the company grow and go public in April 2019 with a billion-dollar IPO.

In recent weeks, Iguodala has taken on new roles in both the basketball and startup worlds. He recently joined the with . And on Feb. 5, he was for Catalyst Fund, the venture capital arm of Catalyst’s focus will be on early-stage investments in companies founded by African American, Latinx and female entrepreneurs.

For ’ Head of Funds and Managing Director , Iguodala’s investment experience and network, combined with his “his passion for supporting entrepreneurs from diverse backgrounds,” is a perfect fit for the firm’s Catalyst Fund.

Since its formation in 2011, the fund has backed .

Catalyst Fund Principal (a Muslim of Indian descent) told me the fund gives her and Iguodala a chance to help back founders who might not otherwise have access to capital and networks.

“We both come from unconventional backgrounds, and we want to be able to help founders who also come from unconventional backgrounds,” she told me. “We both truly believe talent and brilliance is equally distributed amongst individuals and that we can help get them the right level of resources.”

In a telephone interview, Crunchbase News caught up with Iguodala to hear more in-depth about his and Husain’s plans for the fund, and just how the NBA star got into startup investing.

CB News: How did you get into startup investing in the first place?

Iguodala: About 8 or 9 years ago, I started seeing a large return in the tech sector in the public markets. From there, I got interested and wanted to dive deeper into learning how I could invest before companies hit the public markets. I started seeing the growth in the private space, and that eventually led to where I am now.

Things I look at are: market size, does a company have a competitive advantage, can it fight off tech giants like , and ? I also look at founders and their vision–where they see themselves in 10 years. I ask myself, “How can I personally add value to a company, not just from a capital standpoint?”

CB News: What’s the most interesting part about investing in startups and helping them grow?

Iguodala: For Fatima and I, it’s really exciting. Look at technology, and how it’s changed our lives from everything to scheduling a flight or getting my son’s basketball game schedule. Everything is on my phone these days, and how we move in general is so much different than just say, eight years ago. Technology is doing so much to make our lives more efficient. So when I’m looking at that, this is an exciting time to be in this space. Not only for capital gains, but what you’re adding by having involvement in people’s day-to-day lives over the next 20, 30 or 40 years.

CB News: How does being a pro basketball player help you when it comes to making startup investments?

Iguodala: I just joined a new team, , in basketball, and one here at Catalyst. With the Heat, I was hyper focused my first couple of times on the court. While every team runs the same plays, each one has different terminologies for them. So I’ve been watching and learning on the fly, and having to figure out things fast.

It’s similar in the tech space. There’s different terminology and different acronyms for different industries and teams. Different companies have different vibes, some are more laid back and others are more buttoned-up. I have had to learn how to add value to different cultures within companies in the same way as I have with different teams.

There’s lots of egos on both sides. I thought it was just in the sports world, but I see it too in tech in other VCs, entrepreneurs or the best engineers. So I’ve had to learn how to deal with different personalities in both sports and investing. I’ve also learned to adapt and learn about different industries, from consumer to enterprise brands for example.

CB News: As someone with an unconventional “non-traditional VC” background, what skills or perspective do you have that make you a better investor and startup consultant than someone who may not have this diverse background?

Iguodala: I’m really excited because what we’re doing with the Catalyst Fund and what we represent is investing in underrepresented communities, and determining how we can put them in our ecosystem and help them grow in a responsible and sustainable way.

Being a minority, you have to have a grander scope in terms of the people you deal with on a daily basis. Many of us have that back against the wall mentality, and a passion and grit.

Every morning I wake up with a chip on my shoulder, and know I have to wake up with that passion and juice to go and prove myself. I’ve learned that I have to sacrifice, work hard and step up when it’s my turn. I’m ready to help other unconventional founders, and founders who are underrepresented in funding in the tech space, in their own journey.

Reporter’s note: For more on NBA players who are also startup investors, check out this article I wrote last summer here.

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Let’s dive in and see where they’re at.

Most recently, Datadog and Ping went public this week. Pricing above and at the midpoint of their respective ranges, they both saw their stocks surge on their first day of trading.

New York-based Datadog started trading on the public markets on Thursday after setting its price at $27 per share on Wednesday. The company’s stock opened at $40.35, nearly 50 percent higher than the price it set. Datadog’s stock closed at $37.55 on its first day of trading.

Denver’s Ping Identity closed its first day of trading Thursday at $20.11 after pricing on Wednesday at $15 per share. Its stock opened at $18.75, 25 percent higher than where it priced.

At first blush, this is the ideal outcome for tech companies and their private market counterparts. The public market has, at least for now, proven to have an exceptional appetite for companies that are growing fast. Yet the significant pops over also signal that quite a bit of money has been left on the table. But the alternative, which is pricing too high, certainly comes with a touch more embarrassment, as SmileDirectClub has found out.

The Nashville-based DIY teeth straightening company priced its shares at $23 apiece before it started trading publicly last week. Its stock closed 28 percent below its price on its first day of trading and still hasn’t hit the $23 per share price the company thought it was worth. SmileDirectClub’s stock closed at $18.64 per share on Thursday.

Cloudflare’s had a pretty good near-week on the public markets so far. The company priced its shares at $15 apiece and opened at $18 per share on its first day of trading last week. Cloudflare’s stock was trading at $18.75 at the close of markets on Thursday.

We’ll continue to track late-stage companies’ IPOs as they come (Peloton next week!)

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The New York-based company priced its shares at $27 each on Wednesday night, raising $648 million by selling 24 million shares. The company first set a price range of $19 to $22 per share and later increased it to between $24 and $26 per share.

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Datadog, which provides monitoring and analytics services for developers and IT operations, is trading on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “DDOG.” Its shares were trading at $37.49 apiece around 12:30 p.m. EST on Thursday.

The public market’s enthusiasm for the company makes sense. Datadog reported fast revenue growth and slim losses when it filed its S-1 last month.

Its healthy metrics also attracted the interest of at least one company looking to acquire it. on Wednesday that Cisco recently offered more than $7 billion for Datadog, but the latter declined the acquisition offer.

The company raised $147.9 million in total funding as a private company from investors like and . Datadog’s valuation was unknown until this point. The last time the company raised money, which was nearly four years ago, it declined to discuss its valuation, according to . , $14.5 billion of venture funding since the start of 2019 has been put into information technology startups.

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Datadog, which will list on the Nasdaq with the ticker symbol “DDOG,” raised $648 million by selling 24 million shares.

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The New York-based company indicated a price range between $24 and $26 per share, after previously projecting $19 and $22 per share. With its pricing at $27, Datadog is valued at $7.8 billion.

Little is known about Datadog’s valuation as a private company. During its last fundraising round in 2016 the company declined to discuss its valuation, according to . But valuation aside, it has an impressive fundraising history, with in known funding from investors including and .

The company last raised $94.5 million in its 2016 Series D. Earlier today, that Cisco offered more than $7 billion for Datadog which was declined.

The Numbers

Datadog provides monitoring and analytics services for developers and IT operations teams. It has turned a profit before and its revenue growth is quick while its losses are comparatively slim. In short, it’s a healthy company with fast revenue growth and slim losses.

We wrote about Datadog’s finances when its S-1 dropped last month.

The company, which has more than 8,000 customers, reported that its revenue increased from $100.8 million in 2017 to $198.1 million in 2018. Its revenue grew from $85.4 million in the first half of 2018 to $153.3 million in the first half of 2019.

Regarding deficits, the company reported a $13.7 million operating loss in the first half of 2019.

We’ll have more on the company tomorrow when it begins trading.

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Yesterday a few things happened that are worth noting. First, raised its IPO price range, and priced its IPO above range.

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In the first case, Cloudflare raised its range by $2, from $10 to $12 per share to $12 to $14 per share. This pushed the content delivery and Internet security company’s maximum valuation to $4.2 billion, about $1 billion higher than where the company was by private investors. And SmileDirect priced at $23 per share, $1 over its $19 to $22 per-share price interval. This pushed the value of the teledentistry company to nearly $9 billion.

Both signs are nice and bullish at a time when a well-scrutinized IPO is sinking before the market’s eyes. issues (more here�����Ի� here) do not appear to be shaking sentiment among public investors for companies that are both growing (WeWork is good at growth) and have some sort of path to profitability (WeWork is less strong in this category).

And the path to profitability can even be rather loose. Cloudflare’s operating and net losses rose in H1 2019 compared to H1 2018, but the company’s revenue growth acceleration and falling losses as a percent of top line seem to be enough. And in the case of SmileDirect, the firm’s operating losses improved in the first half of 2019 over its H1 2018 results, but on a net basis it actually did a bit worse. However, each seems to be sufficient for the companies to go public following a positive pricing dance.

It will be interesting to see if next week’s IPOs, and (more on their initial pricing ranges here), can keep up the momentum. If that does happen, it’s hard to imagine a more public rebuke of WeWork’s model. Four companies, all unprofitable, go public precisely as your IPO sees valuation cut after valuation cut.

More when SmileDirect begins to trade.

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, a California-based digital content delivery and Internet security company, raised its IPO price range this morning from a prior $10 to $12 interval to $12 to $14 per share.

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The unicorn did not adjust the number of shares it expects to sell in its public debut. At its new prices, Cloudflare would be valued between $3.5 billion and $4.1 billion. (Cloudflare’s value reaches a maximum of $4.18 billion when shares reserved for underwriters are included in the calculation.) Each price is comfortably higher than Cloudflare’s final private valuation of $3.25 billion set in March of this year .

The market expects the company to price Thursday after the bell and trade Friday morning. Cloudflare’s maximum IPO raise is now $563.5 million, calculated using $14 per share and counting shares reserved for underwriters in the calculation.

We anticipated the new, higher prices. When the company initially set an IPO price range, we offered to “wager $1” that we see another SEC filing form the company with a “new price range.” Why? Because the company’s IPO price felt light in comparison to its private valuation given that the company disclosed accelerating revenue growth and falling cash consumption. Investors covet both, especially at a company operating at scale (in excess of nine-figures of annual revenue.)

Now, however, the game becomes more complicated. Where will Cloudflare finally price? Despite what’s going on in WeWork-land, I wonder if there isn’t a smidge more upside in the tank for the popular CDN vendor. More precisely, will Cloudflare price its equity at a price over the top of its new range? At $15 per share, for example. I wouldn’t be surprised.

It’s something we’ve seen twice this year, recall. priced above range in June and priced above range in August. Both cases show that for companies with traditional economics (ahem, WeWork), there is public-market appetite for IPO shares. Perhaps Cloudflare will catch the same wave.

Looking ahead should price this afternoon, and and are in the wings.

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While the proposed price ranges do not provide final information regarding the companies’ worth, they do give us good guiding marks concerning their potential public value. So, let’s explore each quickly as we look ahead to their debuts, which should land next week.

Datadog to price its equity between $19 and $22 per share when it goes public later this month.

The self-described “monitoring and analytics platform” targeting the world’s developers will sell 24 million shares in its initial public offering. That figure could be augmented by a further 3.6 million shares offered to its underwriting parties. At $22 per share, Datadog could raise as much as $528 million, or $607.2 million inclusive of the underwriter’s option, in its public offering.

At the low-end of its range, Datadog is worth around $5.5 billion. At $22 per share, the New York-based tech company could tip the scales at a value of around $6.4 billion. The company’s investors (who put into the business) are likely content with the result. , , , and all led rounds for Datadog during its life as a private company.

As a short reminder, Datadog put up $153.3 million in revenue during the first half of 2019, up from $85.4 in the year-ago period. Datadog appears on track to grow its revenue in 2019 by at least 50 percent from its 2018 result of $198.1 million. Datadog posted a profit in H1 2018 which melted into a $13.4 million net loss in H1 2019. Datadog remains less unprofitable than many 2019 IPOs of similar nature.

More when it prices next week.

Ping, a formerly venture-backed startup, is making its way to the public markets after a time spent in ‘ garage. The identity management company (think Okta) was back in 2016. Its have circulated at least since 2018.

And now the Denver-based company is going public. Targeting a $14 to $16 per-share IPO price range, Ping is selling 12.5 million shares, not including 1.875 million more reserved for underwriting banks. The combined tally at the top-end of its raise would put a $230 million gross raise into Ping’s pockets.

With just under 80 million shares outstanding after its IPO (including the underwriters’ option), Ping would be worth around $1.27 billion, a tidy sum for the company once powered by .

Ping’s growth rate is slower than Datadog’s, impacting its implied revenue multiple. The company’s revenue grew from $99.5 million in H1 2018 to $112.9 million in H1 2019. Over the same timeframe, Ping’s net loss tightened from $5.8 million to $3.1 million. Those losses are minute, making the firm’s slower growth rate likely more palatable to investors.

Still, Ping is targeting a revenue multiple that feels nearly starkly modest. Double its H1 2019 revenue and you get roughly $226 million. A $1.27 billion valuation is less than 6x that figure. In 2019 that’s a short multiple. As with Datadog, more when it prices.

Make sure you have your ears tuned to both Crunchbase News and our new, late-stage reporter over the next few weeks as we track four fascinating IPOs.

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In fact, there’s enough to justify taking a look at the list of companies that have publicly filed for an IPO. No company on this list has a date or a price range, putting them a ways off from actually trading. Still, these companies are probably the next set of tech and venture-backed IPOs we’ll see.

Bear in mind that we should see a Postmates S-1 in the coming weeks, and that 9F went public recently for $9.50 per share and is worth nearly $11 as we write today. That aside, we’ll examine our four impending IPOs in the order that they announced, oldest first.

• S-1 publication date: .
• Crunchbase News coverage: S-1 post, S-1 follow-up post.

There’s no need for The We Company, better known as WeWork, to file another S-1 document to include more results. We’re in the middle of a quarter. So we expect that the next SEC filing from The We Company will include a price interval.

Companies going public set a price range for their shares, based on demand, and then either price inside the numbers, raise the range, or price outside of their expected price. Some companies even raise their range and then price above the boosted set of expectations.

Indeed, it can be strategic to set a low initial IPO pricing interval, merely so that the company going public can raise its price, and thus drive an extra set of attention to its offering, before the big day. If WeWork will pursue something similar isn’t clear, though the company’s pricing dance will be the biggest topic of the week, whenever it happens.

WeWork has a huge uphill battle ahead of it to defend its final private valuation. If it cannot reach the $47 billion figure, how close it can get will become the only thing discussed over salads in South Park. Obviously, Crunchbase News is eagerly anticipating the signal that The We Company’s pricing will provide regarding investor interest in high-growth private companies that are cash hungry and starkly unprofitable.

• S-1 publication date: .
• Crunchbase News coverage: S-1 post, graphed financial performance post.

Similar to what WeWork has in front of it, Cloudflare is another company working towards an initial pricing interval. Last valued at around $3.25 billion after a $150 million investment in March of this year, Cloudflare is upper-tier in the unicorn world. We’d also hazard a guess that the company would like to best its private valuation during its public offering.

Annualizing its H1 2019 performance yields a full-year revenue estimate of $258.3 million, though that figure is low due to it not including H2 2019 growth from the firm. Call it $300 million, then. At its old $3.25 billion valuation, the company would be worth just under 11x times revenue. Shooting for a higher number will push Cloudflare’s valuation deeper into double-digit revenue multiple territory.

This is when roadshows come into play. It’s up to the company to sell investors on not only on its future growth but future profits. More, of course, when we get that first set of pricing estimates from the company.

• S-1 publication date: .
• Crunchbase News coverage: SmileDirectClub Files to Go Public

SmileDirectClub is aiming to raise $100 million with its IPO and revealed quick revenue growth and increasing losses. The startup, which raised $ as a private company, is backed by likes of and .

SmileDirectClub, which has drawn the ire of , has ramped up its spending on sales and marketing, more than doubling the line item from $86.5 million in the first half of 2018 to $209.1 million in the first half of 2019.

It’ll be interesting to see how the startup does amid concerns about “teledenistry” and considering how its competitor Align has been doing recently on the public markets.

• S-1 publication date: August 23, 2019.
• Crunchbase News coverage: S-1 post.

Ping isn’t posting the fastest growth, but it’s also far less unprofitable than most of its ilk. It even made some money back in 2017.

What’s notable about the Ping deal is its history. The firm was snapped up by Vista Equity Partners, a private equity firm, for $600 million in June of 2016. The company has grown since then. However, it’s most recent growth rate (comparing H1 2018 to H1 2019) puts the firm’s revenue expansion at a modest 13 percent. Its ARR grew a bit faster at 25 percent over the same periods.

But with a loss of under $14 million in 2018, and just $3.1 million in the first half of 2019, Ping’s capital needs are more modest and its burn less sensational than a number of other companies in the IPO hunt. That makes its pricing harder to guesstimate than, say, a Cloudflare or Datadog.

• S-1 publication date: August 23, 2019.
• Crunchbase News coverage: S-1 post.

Datadog dropped its S-1 last Friday, showing off a history of sporadic profitability and recent, modest losses. The company reported 85.4 percent revenue growth in the first half of 2019 and over 8,800 customers. Crunchbase News wrote about Datadog’s first steps toward the public markets, and we found that the company’s growth rate is attractive when compared to its recent deficits.

With the company going public, we’re especially interested in how the public markets will value it. Datadog declined to share its valuation when it last raised money () but those numbers will come to light when it updates its S-1 with a pricing interval. According to the firm was worth around $640 million when it last raised capital.

Datadog is, therefore, hunting for a unicorn valuation while it pursues its IPO.

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