Founded in 2009 and based out of Mountain View, California, Pure Storage primarily focuses on flash arrays, which they simply name FlashArray followed by a number or letter signifying difference in models. Pure Storage also offers a unique upgrade plan titled, Evergreen.
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Flash storage is more expensive than traditional hard-drive storage but is faster and can speed website and application response. Cloud storage service Box (BOX), New Relic (NEWR), which makes cloud-based analytical software, and data center software provider Hortonworks (HDP) all went public below their private valuations.
Pure Storage appears to be the fastest growing company in the history of the storage industry, according to an analysis posted by Renaissance Capital, which tracks the IPO market.
Pure Storage (PSTG) made its trading debut on Wall Street on Wednesday, but its stock price was down more than 4 percent by midday, to $16.29.
For now, Pure Storage has the capital that it needed to continue its growth. It has already made $159 million in the first half of this year, putting it on pace to hit almost $300 million this year.
Over the 12 months that ended in July, Pure Storage booked $274 million in revenue, according to Renaissance. Riverbed wound up with $236 million in revenue in its third year, which was in 2007.
Pure Storage’s investors include T. Rowe Price, Tiger Global Management and Index Ventures. And that’s a deliberate gambit by the company. But it reported a net loss of $183.2 million as it lifts spending on research and development and sales and marketing.
“We’re not experts on the valuations of the business”.
As of January 2015, Pure Storage employed more than 800 workers. “We anticipate that our operating costs and expenses will increase substantially for the foreseeable future”. About a year ago, it had 600 employees, he said.
Other risks: The company notes that it has grown rapidly, but might not be able to maintain or properly manage that growth.
Dietzen also told CNBC he’s confident in his company’s ability to do well among competitors in the storage industry. Gartner ranked Pure Storage third in the flash storage market, behind EMC and IBM.
Dietzen added that the company is “two years ahead of the rest of the market”, which he estimates is $24 billion in size.
“This market is under 10 percent penetrated today”, Riiters said.
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“We believe all the mechanical disks in the market will move to solid state”, he said.
