Analysis | Snapchat’s IPO filing comes with an unusual investor warning (2024)

But two of the risks listed were particularly unusual. One wasthat buyers of the IPO shares would get no votes, leaving an extraordinary amount of power to its co-founders. The other (and admittedly, muchless weighty) atypicalwarning?The filing cited Snap'slack of a designated headquarters office -- an unconventional workplace setup in an industry that prizes sprawling campuses -- as one that could "negatively effect employee morale."

"We do not have one designated headquarters office in Venice; we instead have many office buildings that are dispersed throughout the city," the company said in its S-1 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in early February. "This diffuse structure may prevent us from fostering positive employee morale and encouraging social interaction among our employees and different business units," it noted, which could also make it"unable to adequately oversee employees and business functions."

While it's doubtful to bea big concern for investors compared to other issueswhen the company's shares are expected to be sold for the first time Wednesday, that future risk appears to have some grounding in reality, according to media reports.In a Wall Street Journal profile of Evan Spiegel, the company's "unorthodox CEO," published Monday, it cited former employees who said the arrangement can keep workers "siloed" and make communication harder between workers.

Business Insider, which examinedthe company's secretive culture back in October, reported that the office arrangement can "foster a sense of isolation and fiefdom between teams," and noted that Spiegel would "have to work on making sure its campus sprawl doesn't become a detriment to its growth." A Recode profile of Spiegel last year said his "obsession with privacy is heightened by the company’s physical layout" and that it "keeps teams separated."

But however much the arrangement may be a logistical hurdle or leave employees feeling in the dark, the scattered approach may have anupsideor two. Snap's hometown paper, theLos Angeles Times, also recently featuredSnap's unusual real estate, notingthat none of the 10 biggesttechnology IPOs in the past 15 years lacked aheadquarters building at the time they went public. At Snap, employees are dispersed between buildings in the offbeat, beachside Venice neighborhood in Los Angeles after it outgrew its first bungalow.(Emails to Snap's press office were not immediately returned, but the company said in a filing that"we expect to add additional offices as we increase our headcount and expand our business to other continents and countries." Snap currently has offices in five countries and is reportedly expanding into a larger lease in nearby Santa Monica.)

The Timescited the advantages of having a headquarters that Snap couldmiss out on: Having people on a single campus helps to build a more cohesive culture, there's a cost savings toputting amenities under one roof, and a dispersed environment makes it harder forspontaneous interactions between workers.

But it also notedways it could benefit. Isolating teams could help surprise users, making the secrecy strategic. Employees that get out in the local community may prompt more volunteering and support of local businesses. Venice's"gritty" vibe could be a good fit for millennial employees who'd prefer a funky urban localeto a sprawling suburban campus, it said, that could become a new modelin the tech industry.

Managementexperts interviewed by The Washington Post cited otheradvantages thescattered environment couldhave. It offers an alternative to Silicon Valley that could help Snap lureengineers from the Bay Area who want to work in a place that feels smaller and more distinct from Silicon Valley.

"I would imagine that’s a huge recruiting tool for them, the idea of spending your life in a beach bungalow versus spending your life in an office park inSan Jose," said Mandy O'Neill, a George Mason University associate professor who studies organizational culture. "There are some people who really like the startup culture. When they get bigger, when they get more formal, they leave."

Meanwhile, foran app that's designed around entertainment and user behavior, having lunch in public restaurants or walking to and from buildings among non-employees-- who could very well beusing theproduct -- could help spark ideas, too. Stanford University professor Bob Suttonsays that during the mid-90s, thedesign firm IDEO was scattered about in public buildings around Palo Alto. The firm's founder, David Kelley, who isalso the faculty director of Stanford's design school and was Spiegel's faculty adviser when he went to collegethere, used to say "the halls of our company are High Street," referring to amain strip in Palo Alto, Sutton says. Kelley was known to think of the streets as an equalizer, which helped lessenthe status differences that existbetween senior employees and junior workers thatexist inside the office, Sutton said.

According to media reports, Spiegel goes to and from buildings in a chauffeured SUV, so the latter dynamic may notplay out much. And a culture that's too secret will certainly haveits downsides on employee morale. But Sutton says secrecy also has aplace,citing companies like Apple under Steve Jobs, whose portraitis reported to hang in Spiegel's office. We may worshipconcepts like transparency in today's corporate cultures, he says, but keeping things under wraps, within limits, can speed up decision-making. "This idea that secrecy is all bad and centralization is all bad-- if that's so, how come we have all these secretive centralized companies that are so successful?"

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