20VC: From $6.2BN Market Cap to $2.8BN: What Is Not Translating About Navan's Public Story | Are Any Public Company CEOs Actually Happy? | Why Navan Built It's Own Customer Service AI and What it Could Mean For Customer Service AI with Ariel Cohen

**Harry Stebbings** (0:00)
This is 20VC with me, Harry Stebbings, and what a show we have in store for you today. So last month, Navan went public. They went public with an IPO price or a market cap of over $6.2 billion. Today, the market cap is $2.8 billion. It has been a rough ride, but Ariel, the founder, is one of the greatest founders of the last decade. The company is an incredible business. So today, we discuss why go public when he did, is he happy that they did, a review of the process itself, and how AI impacts the company and its prospects moving forwards? This was such fun to do, and Ariel has been a friend for many, many years now, close to a decade, and is one of the great CEOs of our time. But before we dive into the show today, this episode is brought to you by Perk, the intelligent platform for travel and spend. Every successful founder remembers their breakthroughs, those moments in the journey that changed their trajectory, whether it was going from burning cash to building leverage, or from headcount growth to operational scale. Breakthroughs don't come from spending hours buried in spreadsheets, booking and rebooking travel, or chasing their teams for last-quarters coffee receipts. That's shadow work, and that's what Perk was built for. One recent study found shadow work costs companies over 1.7 trillion every year, as employees waste hour after hour on manual, time-consuming work, instead of the jobs they were hired to do. Perk's AI is purpose-built to automate shadow work, so teams can focus on real work, with real impact. Don't let anything get in the way of your next breakthrough. Leave the travel and spend to Perk. Visit perk.com/20vctoday.
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**Ariel Cohen** (4:02)
You have now arrived at your destination.

**Harry Stebbings** (4:05)
Ariel, dude, I cannot believe we were just chatting before. I can't believe that both Navan and 20VC are like 11 years old. It is so good to have you back, my friend.

**Ariel Cohen** (4:16)
Dude, it makes us really old. That's what it actually, that's the problem with this statement. 11 years in this journey and probably at least for me another 20 years to go.

**Harry Stebbings** (4:27)
You created a $4 billion or $5 billion company in that time. I still am doing a podcast. Admittedly, there's more listeners, but still, I would feel better if I was you. But I want to start, the big thing that's changed since we last chatted is you've gone public. Before we discuss like the post-going public, how was the pre-going public process? Is it what you thought? Did you enjoy it?