bebuzeelogoBebuzee Ltd, a UK based online advertising and social network is hoping for a successful IPO by the end of 2014. Based purely on the steady increase of active users being seen week on week, along with some already sizable VC investments, it looks like they could follow the same path as some other successful tech start-ups in recent years.

Although in the first 6 months of 2014 in the US, just 30 tech company IPOs came to light (this is the most since 2007, a surprising decrease since the 1980’s).*1, Bebuzee are hoping to make a name for themselves among the greats of the online world.

Bebuzee, which is based in the international melting pot of Bournemouth on the south coast of England, plans to add itself to the vanguard of tech companies going public in 2014. In Q2 2014, with user numbers increasing from just 64k in July to over a million in August it seems as though the company is doing all the right things.*2 Growth of this velocity has been seen by some of the most common household names who are now a part of our daily lives.

Setting themselves apart from their competition is extremely important in the coming weeks and months in order to make the IPO attractive to traders.

If we look at one other well-known social networking site and the journey they went on to success, we can take a sneak peak at how things might go for this new wave social network…

One particular social network who floated in May 2012, began life at Harvard, went through years of change and pain before announcing an IPO of $38 valuing the company at $104 billion.*3 It took its founders 9 years to get the company to a position where they were ready to go public. Not that they couldn’t have done it earlier! If they had done the deed 3 years earlier the network would still have fetched a healthy $10-$15 IPO, valuing the company at around $40 billion.

The journey wasn’t easy by any stretch of the imagination. In the early days, issues with botched orders and trading glitches meant that some traders lost out due to not being able to sell stock at key times.

Hyper-growth is a path riddled with hurdles, and a company needs to be ready to tackle these head-on. The catalyst for this will be small but have a huge impact on the success of the company. Television and media coverage will be vitally important, VC investments will become easier to come by and brand awareness as a result will improve exponentially.

Bebuzee Ltd are in the fortunate time and place where they can learn from the mistakes that those who went before made. Adding their name to the list of those who made the leap from a limited company to a PLC could be life changing for those who invest early on and those who worked to get the business on its feet.

This is not the only option available, remaining a standalone entity until the company grows is another equally sensible option with equal merits and benefits.

When the time comes to float the company and start trading, those who invest early will avoid the heady prices that may come towards the end of 2014 onwards. With the apparent trend being mobile computing and consumers and businesses alike always looking for the next big thing. A business needs a competitive advantage over rest, this IPO could cause waves in the online tech world.

The temptation of Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest and Google-style profits are guaranteed to draw a lot of interest and drive the value of shares higher, provided that the company can keep up with ever changing demands and lifestyles, success is imminent. Those investors that once saw Cisco, HP and SunMicro as the giants are now starting to see the online companies as the next big venture. Only time will tell what lays in wait for Bebuzee…

By Techwacky

Editor-in-Chef of TechWacky.com