The first CFO of hot AI startup ThoughtSpot says an IPO is definitely part of their plan: 'This team wants the discipline of a public company'

• ThoughtSpot, the hot data visualization startup, just named Mohit Daswani as its first chief financial officer - something a company traditionally does in the run-up to an IPO.
• Daswani readily confirmed that going public is definitely part of ThoughtSpot's plan, telling Business Insider: "We're building a long-term sustainable business, and an IPO we expect will come."
• Daswani is a veteran finance exec who has worked for PayPal and Square, and who has seen the tech industry's ups and downs over the past 20 years.
• "Tech is a very disruptive industry," he said. "It eats its own. You may have a generation of technology that then is surpassed by the next. I think it's important as well, as we think about the long term, to take risks to enable that next wave of growth for our business."
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ThoughtSpot just named its first chief financial officer who readily confirmed what people typically assume when a hot startup finally hires a CFO: yes, an IPO is coming.

CFO Mohit Daswani, who was named to the post this week, says the $2 billion data visualization startup, which has raised $554 million in funding, is definitely aiming to become a public company.

"We're building a long-term sustainable business, and an IPO, we expect, will come," he told Business Insider. "This is a team that wants to have the discipline and rigor of being a public company. And so we'll do it. We'll do it when we're ready. We see it as part of our journey ahead."

ThoughtSpot, which now says that it rakes in about $100 million in annual revenue, has had an impressive journey as a fast-rising star of data visualization - referring to cloud software that makes it easier to sort through massive amounts of information and present insights to users in easy-to-use, visually compelling ways.

In a new sign of the startup's momentum, ThoughtSpot named seven new executives this week. Daswani was the most prominent new hire - and with the most notable background for someone who will play a critical role in ThoughtSpot's game plan for going public.

First time as CFO of pre-IPO startup

This is his first time to be CFO of a pre-IPO startup. And he's taking on this role at a time when there's more intense scrutiny on advance stage startups in the wake of the WeWork fiasco and the disappointing IPOs of companies such as Uber and Lyft.

But ThoughtSpot's position is strong, Daswani said. He pointed to "an incredible base of customers," and the startup's "great momentum" with its $100 million revenue run rate.

"Product-market fit is clear," he said. "Frankly, market leadership is clear. … We're very well capitalized. The risk is largely execution. It's in our hands to go and execute. The recent hiring that we're announcing is fantastic in that regard. It's humbling to be part of such an amazing team. It's what you want in terms of taking a risk at a company that's in that pre-IPO phase. I'll take the execution risk any day with good people."

Daswani is a veteran finance exec. He served as CFO of PayPal's payments, platform and risk division, and was recently Square's head of finance and strategy. Perhaps just as important, he's also seen the tech industry's ups and downs - as an investor.

He was with JP Morgan during the dot-com boom when many of today's tech behemoths emerged, and many others flamed out during the tech crash of 2000.

Lessons from the Dot-Com Bust

"I got a chance to see a number of the early Internet deals, where they went well, where they went bad," he said. He once made a bad $20 million bet on an online home buying startup that failed.

"It failed because, candidly, the market wasn't there then, and I don't know that it's there today," he said.

But the dot-com bust and the Great Recession that followed years later gave him deep insights into how startups become successful. It boils down to having a well thought out business model and a team that is disciplined in the way it executes on that plan.

"Businesses and IPOs go wrong because the business model wasn't really established and you can't make money," he said.

And it is particularly tricky in a fast-evolving sector like tech.

"Tech is a very disruptive industry," Daswani said. "It eats its own. You may have a generation of technology that then is surpassed by the next."

"And, you know, the valley is not shy about investing in that next next generation. So I think it's important as well, as we think about the long term is, continue to take risks, to enable that next wave of growth for our business and the opportunities we're not seeing today, but three, four years come down the road. We're staying hungry and curious about what that is. So we're investing behind that."

Taking risks is important, he stressed, especially for a pre-IPO company that is "still in a high growth stage."

"But it's taking risks that we are we understand, and that we can measure," he said. "If we got it, right, we will know why we got it right, and continue to invest that way. And if we got it wrong, then pivot and continue to learn and take those learnings and make bets the right way."

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