E-commerce Startups Switch Gears as Shakeout Looms

Last fall, after marketing software company Klaviyo went public at a market value of more than $9 billion, leaders at rival Attentive were cheerful about their own initial public offering prospects.

At an all-hands meeting, executives told staff the Klaviyo debut showed that public markets could understand a company in the wonky business of email and text message marketing, according to a person who attended the meeting. Attentive executives earlier that year had said publicly they envisioned an IPO within 18 months.