No ‘Sugarcoating’: Travel Startup Navan’s Turbulent Ride Toward an IPO
CEO Ariel Cohen takes a blunt approach to his job, from publicly firing executives to dropping F-bombs in an all-hands. The strategy has paid off for the business so far, but it concerns some current and former employees.
Ariel Cohen took the stage sipping champagne before 9 a.m. in front of more than 3,000 of his employees last month. Dozens of his travel software company’s workers, wearing purple pajamas, had just slept at the firm’s Palo Alto office. Another executive urged employees to get up and dance.
They were celebrating a rebrand of the company, formerly known as TripActions, to Navan. Executives viewed it as an important step on the road to an initial public offering, which the company is planning for later this year, according to people familiar with the matter.
“This is about being more aggressive, being more in your face,” Cohen told employees. The mercurial CEO has shown a tendency to bounce between charming some employees and insulting others. This all-hands meeting—which The Information listened to—was no exception. He laid into employees’ early designs of the firm’s new app. “It was bad; I’m looking at this and I’m like, ‘What the fuck is this?’” he said, dropping one of several F-bombs on stage.