your money as you consider whether you should buy this stock as well. i've got great guests today to go over 24 as welthis as well the investment committee is here as always. and we're anticipating the ipo and jon fortt's interview with frank slootman leslie picker is with us too and steve, you wanted an allocation and you didn't get it, but you why did you want a piece of this action >> well, i readprospectus, a strange thing to do for a great deal and the growth is phenomenal when they cite their retention rate, it is 158% which means that they are upselling, their accounts are taking on more are product. so i love the cloud. this is ai for the cloud it has a blue chip list of clients of accounts. so why wouldn't you want it. you don't find that growth anywhere and so everything checked on the box. so maybe if brad will give me some of his, we'll continue our friendship looking forward to that. >> and i have pete najarian who called in who is unhappy as well you wanted a piece of this too and you didn't get it either >> no, and i'll tell you what, it was one of these situations where you really do start to expect that you are going to because of what level you are in terms of a customer. but it didn't happen when you look at retention rate in this cloud world that we're in right now and all the data that is being collected, this is an unbelievable opportunity. and if you could get in, you really wanted to get in and i think steve and i both are in the same camp right now. but when you have buffett and all these others that got in at different rounds, it certainly is something that does intrigue you because i've been waiting for this for a long time, following this one long the way. and it is a disappointment, but still excited for the markets because i think that this will be a really -- i think that it will be a record-setting ipo >> certainly the biggest software ipo of and biggest ipo of 2020. and that is the view from two pros, if you will. and interesting when you think about what the so-called average joes might be thinking on twitter, somebody tweeting all the main street people are asking me about snowflake, even people who never owned stocks, it is insane so liz young, what does that tell us when the current environment that we're in? >> i think that tweet tells us something is that we've all been talking about for a long time, that the individual investor in this recovery and in this environment regardless of the recovery is a new you force to be reckoned with and it has a lot of power there are so many people interested z in investing in stocks and this is in the perfect spot we have it in the tech space, a ton of interest in equity markets overall because of tina, because there is no alternative. so we'll continue to see that demand and then just examples from steve and pete that there are people out there still with demand that couldn't get their demand met so an interesting experience to all of us. i would expect demand to continue and although this is a pretty big difference between ipo prifs and what we're expecting for it to trade at, i don't think that it is a huge surprise. >> and jon fortt, you know this space better than anybody. why is there so much hype around this >> i think that it is the revenue growth rate so focused in cloud and the scale that they have achieved already. you combine that with slootman's track record he has picked this company, he has grown this company and this company as an impressive list of customers. and i have to mention that revenue growth rate at the same time but it is also spending a lot on sales and marketing. so interesting to hear over time what the company's philosophy is on that path to profitability that we have always talk about is it more amazon-like where the scale and ambition that they have is so huge that they are not even talking about really getting profits into focus, or is it something different? given that it got this valuation with the level of spending that they are doing on growth, it sure seems like he has a mandate to continue to have his foot on the gas pedal. >> we have very exciting guests to bring into the conversation we have the founder and ceo of altimeter capital, and also the lead independent director for snowflake, former ceo as well of that company and oh, by the way between the two of them, they own more than 35% of this company. great to have you with us. mike, given your role here and how far instrumental you were in the earliest days of snowflake, what do you make of this story we're talking about right now? >> you know, thank you for having me on, and i try not to pay too much attention, i'll defer to brad on anything financially related or valuation related. we're more focused on building a great product and serving customers. and excited to see that the world is starting to understand what the incredible product it is >> and you gave snowflake its name way back when. your firm sutter hill ventures recruited most of the first critical employees, which is somewhat rare. and you are the guy who got slootman to get off the sailboat and come into the board room >> yeah, it all started with the founders who are incredibly humble talented guys and my partner doug moore helped recruit the engineering team and my partner chad peat helped hire 500 people. so it has been a great partnership. >> and as we wait for the as to being to actually open, frank slootman will be with us in a moment jim cramer called it the richest highest priced ipo we've ever had, the toughest ever to value. you go from 75 to 85 expected range to what we're talking about now, which is 230 to 235 a valuation that earlier this morning felt like okay $30 something billion, maybe i can get behind that, to 60 something billion twice a twitter. does this make sense to you as an investor? >> well, scott, i will certainly admit that the heart is beating a little faster right now than it usually does when i come on the show but seven years ago, i asked miami a very simple question and mike is humble as well he is a visionary in silicon valley and was instrumental in this idea. but i asked him a simple question, before we even had a dollar in revenue, which was if everything we assume and want to go right goes right, how big is the prize? and he looks at me without missing a beat and he said it is the biggest prize in software. the cloud fundamentally rearchitects where data sits, how it is processed and how we glean insights and if you think about the off line world, or are are a cal, microsoft, ibm,off a trillion dollars of enterprise value sits in kind of the offline world, the pre-cloud world of data, databases and data insights. and so there is a lot of excitement today, there will be a lot of gyrations, markets get ahead of themselves, they um ultimately themselves. but snowflake is growing and valuable because it sits at the heart of these two mega trends >> i'm just thinking about you as a very successful investor. if you weren't already involved in this story, could you get behind something that is more than 100 times sales i mean these numbers are blowing people away and i'm sure they are for you as well when you make comparisons to today and the times of 1999, more than 100 times sales, that is not one red flag, that is like 50 red flags, is it not? >> you know, i've said many times on your show you can't be a growth investor if you are focused on the next 12 months. as mike said, we're focused on the next three, five, seven years for snowflake. we're absolutely convinced that this is one of the most iconic products, iconic software companies of the next decade we have such an incredible leadership team. you know, from the product team led and the sales team, and let's not forget all the people i do think when we look back ten years from now, just like we breathless in the early ipos, ultimately these companies that are iconic businesses will grow into their valuations and if you are looking at the next 12 months and i'm watching your show, i think that you really have to look out further to understand why this is >> and you are not the only player, right, in the space. and i noticed an article in which an oracle executive was throwing shade at the company and i want to read this quote in terms of talking about the competitive landscape going forward. and i would like to get your reaction to it if i could as well this is from an oracle executive to fortune magazine. snowflake took a number of short cases to bring its single purpo purpose product to market quickly. customers don't want specialli ed databases how do you respond to the shade being thrown in direction of the company today? >> you know, first i'd take a step back and say that you will have competition and the competition will come and come again. so we humbly go out and try to build the best are product and solve customer's problems as best we can. we'll have competition and it will keep coming so we know that is true and we'll keep on working hard and innovative and serving customers as best we can with respect to specifically saying we took short cuts, that is nonsense. we have the best technical team on the planet, i think we have the best product before and great security and architecting for the cloud from the ground up, we were able to build a product that is quite a bit better than anything else. >> not that snowflake needed any additional cred additional credibilitcredibilita ask the berkshire investment do for you? >> the salesforce investment and partnership is proceed found when you think about analytics, you want to find all the different variables that drive the desired outcome. and that is sales. and a lot of the sales day take is in salesforce so that partnership is actually fundamentally a good thing for our customers and for the customers at salesforce.com. and of course warren buffett is the greatest investor on the planet and we're humbled that berkshire is making a bet on snowflake and we'll work hard to make it woort thit worth that b. >> and both of you deserve a congratulatory wish from me. it is just a big day for you so congratulations i know, mike, it is a long time coming and anytime you own 20% and brad you own 15%, it will be a big dayno doubt for you as an investor so congratulations it is certainly well in order. i do want to hear from other members of our investment committee too. jim, do you want to get in on this action? >> well, obviously this is a fabulous story and it is an intersection of a space that is hot with people who are on the management board of directors who are well-known value creators so it is not a surprising result i think the question hangs out there, what does this say about the market overall i'm not worried about the market overall. first off, there aren't enough ipos like this out there that is what this demand is showing. there isn't enough m&a activity out there. and what i'm trying to address is some people would look at a double on the ipo as indicate of it of froth in the market and i'm just telling you i don't think that there is enough signs elsewhere in the market to give you concern. this is a specific case of a fabulous aproduct run by fabulou people >> and joe, the narrative has also been out there this morning about this idea of looking for growth beyond the big five and that is one of the reasons why you see those numbers in the upper right hand corner of your screen now for something priced at 120 now indicated at 225 to 230. people are hungry for growth and they are hungry for it perhaps out of the most marquee of names. >> and i think that that is why investors like brad, investors like p have really communicated really mining for these growth opportunities in the private markets. and what comes to fruition is a day like today where brad can celebrate the success that he will he will enjoy but scott, this is a nearly perfect ipo. it was talked about in the prior three weeks. i can tell you that i received multiple text messages and phone calls from individuals asking me about snow i'm not surprised about the strength of where this company will come out. and clearly you have t congratulate the management team for developing these fundamentals surrounding the business this is a unique circumstance as it relates to data warehousing understand how antiquated and how disruptive snowflake has been in that space the ability to scale and to leverage and allow for cloud computing opportunities that were measured in the hundreds can it now be measured in the thousands by utilizing this software so i think that this is a great day for the capital markets, for inve investors that mine for the opportunity, and i would sgenext fundamentally that it will grow in its valuation for many years to come. >> these kinds of ipos, leslie, don't come around very often you can count them really on one hand in terms of size, but also of interest and oh, by the way our data team says that on cnbc.com the top ticker search this morning for interest is snowflake. you have a lot of views there. just gives you an idea of what we're talking about as you followed this story certainly towards this day >> yeah, i think we've mentioned the word scarcity a few times. and i think scarcity is really the best descriptor. scarcity in terms of float this company is floating 10% and a lot of that is already being purchased by big investors it is scarcity in terms of ipos growing at this size that has also brought investors to the table and also scarce in a kind of market where you see so much concentration around five big tech name. so investors are saying where can i turn to help outperform the market and they are looking at ipos as a way to do that. and when you have this momentum and this buzz, when you hear from different syndicate desks that people are trying to get that allocation and doing whatever it takes to get it, that creates a lot of this momentum one thing that i would caution is that scarcity itself, it may be a short term short term investing thesis, this company is coming out at what it indicates to open about 70 times forward revenue. that actually makes it the most expensive software ipo going back at least ten years. so, you know, when we look at valuations like this, we have to also assess what the long term potential is and the ability to really grow into those valuations >> brad, do you want to speak to sort of the scarcity value, this idea -- because you are a ♪ ♪able tenotable tech investor. you have to get growth somewhere other than the big five, don't you? >> search the case but i don't want to understate the insights that investors have here i've received a lot of investment mem he knows over the course of the last couple weeks from world class investors who are building their five to ten year forecasts for this business doing a traditional discounted cash flow. and all of them raised their hand and said based on that, we want to own more of this at the prices that we're talking about today. so ultimately the company knows the expectations are high, it is a world class management team. and while it may get ahead of itself depending on your point of view, i think for investors like berkshire who take a much longer perspective, altimeter is both a buyer into the ipo today and we intend to beholders and partners with in company for a long time to come. so if you are just taking that 12 month view and looking at the price to sales, i think that you will constantly be disappointed in not only markets like these, but all markets. you really need to take a much longer term perspective and be willing to tolerate drawdowns in this stock if rates go up, you could see all software multiples come in by 20%, 30%, and if you are not willing to tolerate that, you shouldn't be investing in growth companies. >> not every investor has the luxury or discipline to be able to do some of those things there are 12 minute traders and there are 12 year traders and in between. and jon fortt, we're waiting for frank slootman wans the stooncek opens. >> and what i'm trying to do is shift my thinking so that i'm thinking about the retail investor now who is watching cnbc, not the people who got it at 12 or even earlier and who oechb huge stakes in the company, but investors trying to decide where to put their money. what makes sense i wonder, mike, what you think the most important metrics are for a company like this at this stage. is profitability even entering your 3450i7bd whenmind when youd off microsoft, google, oracle, all the biggest names in the space? or are you really just focused on product quality and top line growth >> of course in the long term the value of a company is dko de cash flow. so of course we care but the best way to be profitable in software is to be big and win the market so revenue is very important, but as frank oftentimes says, there is a cost to getting revenue and you need to be smart about it profitability is not the current focus, the current focus is to drive to a business that can generate a lot of cash flow in the future be very significant in the marketplace. this is a market where it is not winner take all, but there are a handful of big winners and we're working to be one of them. and we do need to focus on the cash flow, but right now, the focus is to build an incredible product, serve customers well, grow market share and do it responsibly. >> steve, do you want to address the idea of scarcity as investors are trying to figure out where the best bets for the money is >> are i think one of the most interesting points about this, if you go to any dictionary and you look up the term value investor, you will see warren buffett's name yet here he is investing in this company very visibly so value is where you perceive it to me this company represents this value longer term and that is why when you take it in conjunction with the who's who investing in it, a brilliant technology ceo in salesforce and buffett, then the ped crew of the people involved, that creates the scarcity effect. so you have a pure play in cloud. amazon is a great company, but not a pure cloud play. microsoft's cloud businesses may not be all that profitable here in a software company you have tremendous profit ability going forward. and it seemed like their cost of sales is actually shrinking relative to what it was, but we're still in the infants city of it, so maybe that goes higher >> are leslie, you want to bounce for a couple minutes? all right. we're still waiting for snowflake to open. back right after this. the indication right now 230 to 235. biggest ipo much 2020 still waiting to open. introducing stocks by the slice from fidelity. now you can trade stocks and etfs for any amount you choose instead of buying by the share. all with no commissions. stocks by the slice from fidelity. get your slice today. for skin as alive as you are... don't settle for silver ♪ gold bond champion your skin so you're a small gbor a big one. you were thriving, flourishing, but then... oh. ah. okay. time to think, plan, pivot. how do you bounce back? you don't, you bounce forward, with powerful connectivity. serious and reliable internet that lets you go bigger and better, with more sharing, more making. whoa. more that. more talking. ... the entire time, you got this! okay, less talking and more doing. all driven by the largest gig speed network in america. and even if the power goes down, your connection doesn't. but what if no one's in the office? bring the office to them. but is it secure? sure it's secure. okay, sounds great. so how do i do this? you don't do this. we do this, together. bounce forward, with comcast business. this is a momentous day in the history of the ipo the process. and liz young, you've heard a lot of the conversation. put it in perspective for our investors out there. how should we be thinking about what is occurring today? >> first i want to talk about just the ipo market? general. and what has happened over the last few years and the fact that companies are going public later in their lifecycle, which not only going public when it is more transparent, but private equity has worked out a lot of the kinks that ufssually public markets have to work through so i think that is part of the force that is at play here and i want to go back to what brad said that you can't be a growth investor if you are only thinking out the last 12 months. and that is absolutely true. if you look at what has catapulted growth, we have low long term rates. it continues to be about long term rates so in the face of that, growth still has room so the positivity here doesn't bother me at the all >> mike and brad, this question is for both of you and it is going to admittedly feel like a big left turn if you will, but i want to ask this question anyway, brad, because we've dealt with this issue with you specifically in recent days and weeks and that is diversity and inclusion on corporate boards you as our you viewers i hope remember have started the board challenge. it is my understanding that snowflake doesn't have any african-americans on the corporate board. is that right? >> scott, thanks for asking actually i want to answer that question, but before i come, in the last week since we've come on your show, we've had almost 50 companies contact us who want to partner with us to add a black director to their board and take the challenge. and so we're working hard from some of the biggest private equity firms in the world to mid size and small private companies who are all taking the pledge. so we're still very much all over it. and of course i talked to frank and mike about the board at snowflake. i think that they have done an incredible job of balancing it over the course of the last year and with all of that change, it is understandable that they don't want to make more change right at this point in time. but the company is absolutely committed to iversity. and that includes all types of diversity, not just black directors, but vie dersity throughout texecutive team and o the board. >> mike, i want to give you a chance to answer that question as well. it is an important issue and we're thinking about it in way that's we unfortunately didn't enough in the past how are you thinking about it and is it frankly a mistake, a missed opportunity not to have a black director on your board with somebody who is leading a challenge like brad is on a day where you are having such a momentous occasion >> you know, i think that brad answered the question well it is something that we take seriously and we're working on and the board has made quite a bit of change in the past six months already and we're looking at it at all times. and i think that it is a good question, a question that beer looki -- we're looking at and take seriously. >> did you take the board challenge pledge that brad has >> you know, i'm not -- i got the note from brad i don't know that we've taken it or not i'll have to talk to the team about it >> brad, do you know you should know. >> yeah, i can tell you that they are super passionate about it, they have made massive changes to the board including gender diversity and i had a great conversation and i understand not all boards, you know, can move at the same day cadence. but i'm confident that frank slootman and the rest of the board are committed to continuing down this path. it is not a conversation that we'll stop, it is not a question that we'll stop asking all companies in silicon valley and beyond we think everybody needs to be committed to more diversity. and we're all passionate about it i don't think that it is a missed opportunity, i think it is a matter of timing. but i'm glad that you are calling me out about it and asking the question. and i hope that we ask every ceo, every board member who comes on if they have taken the pledge, if not, why not. we need to stay on it. >> and we certainly will and brad, the clock is ticking and we are waiting for snowflake, biggest software ipo ever to open, and the indication keeping even higher. 240 to 243 so the range is getting a wee bit tighter, so maybe we are edging closer to actually seeing one of the biggest tech ipos ever open for trade. and you also have a spach. it seems like everybody has a spach and we'll show you who else has a spach because we now have a wall in which we're calling it spach a pew lieuspaca do you want to tell me about yours? it is somewhat of a mania. but there you go what does it say about where we are? >> well, scott, you know, i hate to say this, but i can't comment specifically except to say that the innovations in the financial markets are important. they will continue there will always be good and bad investments that get made. and so i promise you this, when i'm able to talk more about it, i'm many to come on and talk about all the innovations, traditional underwritings like we're seeing in snowflake, direct listings like spotify and i'm certain that there will be other innovations like the spacss that will lead to good outcomes but i can't dive into it more today. >> let's see pretend that you don't have a spac. i'm curious what you make of the fact that it seems like everybody now does and it is like the spinning du jour as a way to take the company public and what it means for how companies will be going public in the future >> you know, geagain, scott, i have my general counsel sitting here to my left and i can't talk about it today but i'm really passionate about this, i started my career as a securities lawyer, i've thought more about private placements and spacs and ipos than most and i promise you i'll come back on the show and we can take a deep dive >> i was trying to thread the needle for you, however until successfully apparently. i totally understand and i hope you bear with me for me trying to at least do that. because i go thido think that t a moment in time that we may look back on and say that was an interesting period i also want to ask about facebook giving news of the ftc reportedly close to opening up an anti trust case against facebook and it is your top holding do you want to react to that >> you know, scott, like i've said before, it is an iconic company with a management team doing the right thing. when you serve over 3 billion customers on a global basis, a lot of difficult challenges. but i think that they are incredibly well intentioned. if the u.s. government for whatever reason told me tomorrow that they were going to break the company up and i was going to own equal parts of whatsapp, instagram and facebook as a shareholder, i'd be fine with that so i think that it is a manageable risk in an investment that i think is undervalued, continues to be undervalued. and we'll look back on it again five years from now and we'll realize that these creative buying opportunities so we're not changing anything about our facebook thesis or investment today >> and i'll respectably say good-bye to you, i need to get ready for flrank slootman. congratulations are in order and we'll continue to follow this very important story mike, appreciate your willingness to be here today as we see the range tighten even further. we'll talk to you again tonight. 241 to 243 is where we currently see it brad will stick around because i want his opinion once we see how it currently trades. we're getting closer, right? the spread is narrowing and that is an indication that we're getting there. >> yeah, absolutely. so i al allocated an priced hundreds of deals. it is a tough job. you have to weigh the demand, selling interests, and i specific that there is not a lot of selling interests so pricing it for where it is going to continue to trade up or at least hold it keep in mind that the bank has to put their capital up to support the deal they don't necessarily want to do that. so they will make sure to the best of their ability that it is a successful ipo and that it doesn't give up the pricing where it comes out >> leslie, we're waiting here. and again 243 now to 245 >> so $2 a part. and i'm texting with investors who were told that it is a few minutes away from opening at this level of course if it opens where it is indicated to open right now, that would imply a more than doubling of its ipo. you know, in terms of indications about demand, we sometimes look to oversubscription levels. they are a little fuzzy because you can put an order in for an ipo, you are not legally buound to purchase that and i'm told that this one was about 40 times oversubscribed which is among the highest that you have seen this is just one data point as we look testify momentum and demand for this company. you are also seeing j frog kind of apples and oranges here, that stock is surging up 61% in its deb debut. so as we see this kind of onslaught of software companies hit the market, there certainly appears to be demand at least from the investor side to buy into some of these days. >> jon fortt, you will say some people say that snowflake left money on the table but the fact of the matter is, you know this too, it is hard to price these kinds of things. >> yeah, it has to be a pretty big table with the amount of money that they actually made to still have left money on it. >> it is like a table in floyd money may weather's house. >> it must be. >> and there we go jon fortt, snowflake is now open for business you see where that stock is currently, $254 a share and change that is up 111%. the biggest software ipo ever. the biggest ipo of this year, the fifth biggest tech ipo ever, a raging success to say the least. >> and oftentimes you see these big, big deals don't often double on their first day of trading. that is usually reserved for some of the smaller deals that we cover so rare to see a doubling of a company like snow 234r5flake. one thing that is also different about 2020, just this interest among retail investors and who serves as the incremental buyer on day one oftentimes, it is retail investors who didn't get that allocation in the ipo >> and the man of the hour of course is the ceo, frank slootman jon fortt, all your. >> thank you, scott. welcome, frank boy, congratulations you have come a long way since october when i first had you on "squawk alley. i see you have the picture there. $3.9 billion i believe was the valuation you had then and you are well before that now today i don't know that i have 00 ever seen higher expectations for a newly public company biggest software ichlgt company ever and above the market cap of vmware is snowflake's story going to be even broader than the one you told in the prospectus >> well, we stick to obviously what we said in the process psp. but we laid out as best we could what we think is the full potential and scope of this opportunity. and you know, we talked all week to investors about what the full ambition is of this company. and obviously, you know, people are excited about that they want to be a part of this journey and so that brings us to where we are today >> got to mention it halted for volatility right after the open, so quite a bit of activity there. you got a lot of spending on sales and marketing. more than revenue. so tell me how you are measuring success over the near and even medium term. is profit and a thing that you should be talking building and i -talking about or focused on growth and product >> we're primarily frocused on growth, but not growth at all costs. and you can see our numbers over the last year, certainly since mark and i joined the company that we have significantly intended t intended the curve we're driving up our gross mar begins and our operating efficiency in every part of those expenditures is going up in leaps and buntsds as well you can see sales and marketing, it is coming down very fast. and we're focused on that. we think that lot of leverage will come from sales and marketing. that is just the type of business this is >> frank, you operate on multiple clouds, aws, azure, et cetera but to what degree are amazon, michael crow soft and google dangerous to you as they try to do some of the things that you do in their own clouds when would you say to investors who are concerned about that and wonder about the true legs of this multicloud story? >> you know, i think that the public cloud companies are also sort of finding their footing and bearing certainly at lower levels in the organization sometimes the hostilities break out. when you talk to the people who are on top of these organizations, they understand their platforms need to have innovation, they need best of breed, they need choice, right because if they don't have that, they become less competitive against their competitors. so it is sometimes a bit of an ambivalent situation but as we learn collectively as an industry, you know, sometimes we partner, sometimes we compete. competition is not bad what makes all of this better, the customer benefits. so you can't make too much of the fact that sometimes it gets pretty intense out there in the marketplace. >> and this is the third company that you are taking public as ceo. there was data domain, there was service now, there is now snowfla snowflake. i think a year ago when we talked, i asked if you were open to doing something besides the are a digts al traditional ip on tho and he sa. so why did you go with this and how does it affect the opening trade and the amount of money you're taking back to the company? >> as you said, this is the third offering that our cfo and i are doing together and when we joined, we said that we would assemble the consortium of investors that we want as a company very early on, listening before the ipo was even coming out to the radar and then, you know, as part of that process, we had a tender offer, secondary offering earlier this year where we very specifically started to transition our cap table to the investors that we want even before the ipo and we set ourselves up for those people also to become big buyers in the ipo. so what you are seeing is a highly orchestrated process, this is an extremely heavy vetted company because all the investors have been doing work and researching and talking to our customers on snowflake for the best part of a year. you have to be able to direct stock and really enannual them enable them to build the positions that we want them to have so this is not a process where we have a one week ipo road show and then all of a sudden people put their orders in and it goes from there this thing has been in the works for the better part of a year. and that is why the ipo process really works for us. as frothy as it looks today, this is just a hot deal. and we'll just have to live with the consequences of that but we're focused on who are the long term investors that we want with us for the duration, three years, five years, ten years those are the people that we went after and we feel fortunate that they are a part of this deal >> the stock is back open again. trading a bit above $300 a share. scott, i don't know if we'll talk about this thing tripling, but that would be 360. >> this is just a hot deal the words of frank slootman. may be the words of 2020 given what we're seeing in this stock today. near $300 a share. frank, welcome back. nice to see you again. i want to sort of build off what jon was talking about in terms of your pedigree how long do you plan to be at the helm of this company i had mike spizer on who i know you know well. he talked you off the sailboat as i mentioned presumably the flip-flops will draw you back at some point. how long are you going run this company now? >> i literally have an indefinite horizon i have no time frame i get this question from time to time this is an incredible opportunity. we have so much fun building a company like this. it is a rare opportunity so you know, eventually somebody will rip the jersey off my back. but for the time being, we're here and we're not going anywhere >> and you view this always as a chance to just take another company public, not to obviously minimize what you are doing there in any way shape or form but i'm sure some people look at the pedigree and say data domain and service now, frank may only be there to take this company public and then who knows may run the ship but you're saying that won't be the case >> that is what i'm saying people that know me better know that the ipo is really not the highlight of my life it is a milestone. but we're here to build our business, to build our product that is what we're excited about. that is what we do and as you heard brad say earlier, you need to take a long term view. and that is what we're doing so we don't view the ipo as an exit ramp or anything of that sort >> i ask because you are one of the i think maybe rare ceos whereas people build their investment case as to whether they should invest in this company, your name comes up as one of the principal reasons why a bet behind a ceo can be a big and powerful thing let me ask you before i send it back to jon, right huh about $76 billion give or take if you will that is more than two twitters it is bigger than dupont and ford and gm and by io gegebiogee snaps. how did you view that in the current land sdap that we'scape? >> i don't get caught up in that stuff. the stock is worth what somebody wants to pay for it, no more, no less you know, it is like talking about the weather. there is not a damn thing you can do about it, it is what it is and stock markets get over their skis no pun intended from time to time. sometimes they are under but in the long term, they get it right and as a management team, you know, we feel the pressure to grow into it and to deliver on that potential i mean, we've been given an enormous vote of confidence and all that does is -- i'm thinking about tomorrow more than i do today. >> for certain again, thanks for coming on the program. jon fortt will take it from here >> and frank, it is a vote of confidence and i can't help but notice you are in the ballpark now of your service now market cap. tell me what do you say to employees? i know ceos always say don't gets can trage s c distracted by the stock price, but i think the entire market willistracted at least today. what does it mean for them and what it means for the mission of snowfla snowflake? >> they have already heard me say this a few times the only price that matters is the one you sell at. everything else is entertainment. the worst thing about volatility is that people get one or two very high prices, and when they go down, they feel like they lost something even though they never had it in the first place and it becomes a distraction we've seen it in the silicon valley, people are walking around with hunched shoulders. when the stock price is up, everybody has pep in their step. unfortunately, that's part of it as a leadership team, we need to focus on the work, not the stock price. we're building products, we're selling to customers, we're supporting customers, we're trying to realize debt outcomes. we're very much a customer first company. let's take the focus off the stock price, because from time to time there is no rhyme or reason why try to understand or rationalize it tomorrow is another day. we'll see what that brings >> you can leave that to us on cnbc we will focus on the stock price and the fundamentals and trying to get the best intel from folks like you frank slootman, ceo of snowflake. congratulations first on cnbc. >> thanks, jon >> scott >> jon f ortt, thanks to you as well it's been fun having you play in this game today. brad, i'm going to say goodbye to you as well, but first leave us with something to think about for our investing community here as they look at a stock like this in a space that's hot like software and technology in general right now. >> focus on the long term. understand that there are real tectonic shifts that are behind these massive proliferation of data creation, a once in a lifetime shift to the cloud. but frank and i were texting this morning during covid he and i would get on a call, get on a zoom in the evening time with ceos of companies that were considering using as product, and we would have zoom sales in the evenings, and he and i are excited to get back to work to build the company. to be sure, an iconic company, iconic team at an incredible moment in time, and we're just proud to be a partner with all the folks around the table >> big moment for you. congrats again long time coming that's brad gerstner, altimeter today. we'll continue to watch daowflake out of the gates toy. better than 132% $275 a share is where that stock currently trades back after this. experience amazing at your lexus dealer. e♪ i keep working my way back to you, babe ♪ ♪ with a happiness that died ♪ i let it get away servicenow. the smarter way to workflow. i'm a verizon engineer. and i'm part of the team building... ...a powerful 5g experience for america. it's 5g ultra wideband, and it's already available in parts of select cities. like los angeles. and in new york city. and it's rolling out in cities around the country. with massive capacity. it's like an eight-lane highway compared to a two-lane dirt road. 25x faster than today's 4g networks. in fact, it's the fastest 5g in the world. from the network more people rely on. this is 5g built right. only on verizon. makes it beautiful. state-of-the-art technology makes it brilliant. the visionary lexus nx. lease the 2020 nx 300 for $339 a month for 36 months. experience amazing at your lexus dealer. xfinity is your home for the return of live sports. . biggest software ip ever there is snowflake $263 is where it currently trades that is a gain of more than 119% we'll certainly keep our eyes on that steve weiss, as we look to final trades, dave costin had a note of goldman sachs today saying the following, and i think it sums up this environment pretty darn well, and certainly what we're witnessing in snowflake today. growth is more valuable to investors than ever in the low interest rate environment and that is likely to persist for years. period, end of story, right? >> exactly, period, seend of story. farmer jim, come on board. you're missing out >> let's do final trades lisa, good to see you. what do you have for our viewers here today >> good to be here i've got eurozone equities coming off many years of disappointment and i think new cash off the sidelines will look for attractive valuations. >> the good farmer >> we didn't talk about the markets at all i know we don't have any time, but listen, value is doing great, and a name in that space that you know i like is alaska airlines, okay it's up 15% in a month it's up 6% in five days. it's breaking out. now is the time to get on it >> i'm glad you brought that up. the time had moved a little bit on us with snowflake, so we're following that, but it is a broadening rally, right? energy, materials -- >> exactly, exactly. >> -- industrials. i know all the hype today was around technology because, and rightly so, of snowflake but energy, industrials, materials in the banks they're starting to join the party and that is certainly an overall good sign, jim, for the overall market >> yeah. so take that, steve, you little smart mouth. >> now, now. >> actually, i started participating. i own dow calls and ups and expo doing phenomenal >> you got the final go ahead >> masco i bought it earlier this morning. >> interesting day for certain in the markets certainly as you're talking about one of the biggest ipo teches ever on a day that the nasdaq is coincidentally lower the dow is good for 200. there is the story of the day, though it is snowflake, the biggest software ipo ever, the biggest ipo of this year the fifth biggest tech ipo ever is open for business we're done "the exchange," though, starts now. thank you, scott hi, everybody. and he's right, it's one piping hot snowflake as the biggest software ipo of the year is now even bigger. the startup snowflake soaring and it's open just in the past half hour. the stock was even halted for volatility we'll have the very latest on its size and whether there is too much froth generally speaking in these ipos they are to announce the sale i

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