For a founder of a highly-touted Internet company undertaking an IPO, the “Letter to Shareholders” in the S-1 prospectus has become a rarefied form of performance art. Going public is the purest capitalist act—a deep and unambiguous genuflection to Mammon. But a founder’s letter provides an opportunity to explain that while the company is indeed tapping the rapacious forces of Wall Street to solicit investments on the open market, it’s not really about the billions of dollars set to tumble into the wallets of company executives, angel investors, venture capitalists, investment bankers, and the squeegee guy who wiped the founder’s windshield and took his tip in stock instead of quarters.
It’s about making the world a better place.
Mark Zuckerberg aced the test. In his letter to investors who may be considering buying shares of Facebook to enhance their portfolios, he proclaims that as CEO — one who controls 57 percent of the voting stock — his focus is not reaping the highest profits, but profiting from a righteous mission. That mission is “rewire the way people spread and consumer information.” The point of that epic rewiring job is to facilitate sharing—to convince people that sharing among themselves is not a surrender of privacy, but an act of empowerment. Not necessarily accumulating the biggest pile of cash.
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