DIY teeth straightening company 鈥檚 shares closed at $16.67 on its first day of trading on the public markets, nearly 28 percent lower than its IPO price of $23. The stock opened at $20.55 on Thursday, also below its IPO price.

SmileDirectClub set a price of $23 per share on Wednesday, higher than its initial price range of $19 to $22. The Nashville-based company raised $1.3 billion by selling more than 58.5 million shares before trading began on Thursday.

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The company鈥檚 shares, which trade on the Nasdaq, dropped to $20.23 by 12:15 p.m. EST Thursday. The stock was at $16.67 by the close of markets.

SmileDirectClub鈥檚 opening day didn’t match its optimistic expectations. That said, the company priced high, meaning that it extracted likely maximum value from its IPO fundraise. That鈥檚 good. What鈥檚 less good is that the unicorn is starting life off worth less than it, and its bankers expected. The market is saying that they got its pricing wrong, at least in terms of its real, or market-driven worth.

While we wrote this morning that the SmileDirect and Cloudflare IPO pricing runs felt bullish, SmileDirectClub鈥檚 first day鈥檚 trading blunts the sentiment. Falling as far as the company has on day one is simply bearish.

History

SmileDirectClub raised in total funding as a private company, and was last valued privately at $3.18 billion, according to 附近上门. So the company鈥檚 public valuation has greatly outstripped its private worth, but trading lower than the set IPO price is far from great.

SmileDirectClub was was founded in 2013, so it reached the IPO milestone fairly quickly. But the company hasn鈥檛 been without controversy–its at-home teeth straightening kits have drawn the ire of the dental community, most notably with the American Association of Orthodontists alleging that the company鈥檚 service is 鈥渋llegal and creates medical risks,鈥�

In other IPO news, will price this afternoon, and trade tomorrow morning. and are expected to go public next week. WeWork and Peloton are also working on IPOs.

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Over the past week I read through New York Times’ reporter 鈥檚 new book: Super Pumped. I wrote聽most of my thoughts in a review, but here are the three blurbs I left out:

1. Someone almost body-checked me on Market St. wondering how I got an early copy of the book.
2. I read this book while walking on Market St. It was that good.
3. I finished the book right as聽Uber set a new record low share price. Take that as you will.

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Speaking of struggling companies, WeWork, soon to debut on the public market, might stop its self-inflicted hype early. The coworking company is reportedly聽open to cutting its valuation in half ahead of its IPO. WeWork also said it聽plans to add a woman to its board聽after its IPO. And as our Editor in Chief聽聽noted, it鈥檚聽not the first company that will be going public at a discount聽this cycle.

Behind the IPO march, there鈥檚 a unicorn trot. Grove Collaborative raised a聽$150 million Series D, making it a new unicorn. Other nine-figure rounds include Canadian startup Clio raising聽$250 million for legal tech聽and San Francisco鈥檚 Getaround raising聽$200 million for car sharing.

We had a particularly busy M&A week as well. Microsoft聽scooped up a SaaS startup, Chegg, an edtech company,聽bought an online coding school聽for $80 million, and India travel startup OYO聽acquired a data science company.

Finally, read on Homebrew鈥檚聽听补苍诲听听颈苍听this week鈥檚 Seed Series. Learn about where they spend 51 percent of their calendar time, how a password protected video led to an investment (twice), and why they always co-invest.

Thanks for sticking with us this short week, we鈥檒l be back Monday with five days of fresh news ().

Talk soon,
Natasha

P.S. Follow me on Twitter ()

滨濒濒耻蝉迟谤补迟颈辞苍:听.

It may join in going public in the next few months, adding a second unicorn IPO to our to-do list.

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Postmates鈥� debut comes after ride-hailing startups and went public to disappointing reception, and while domestic on-demand rival is one of the hottest startups in the world.聽

It isn鈥檛 entirely fair to directly compare on-demand companies that focus on bringing food and other items to consumers, instead of moving those same consumers around. But there is an overlap when we look at how these companies balance market demand and a network of contract labor. Plus, Uber does have a large on-demand food business.

Postmates鈥� expected IPO comes after the firm , and . In its history, the firm has raised angel funding, seed capital, and Series A through Series F venture rounds.

To-date, Postmates鈥� equity fundraising looks like this:

In the meantime, a competitor is raising cash at a head scratch worthy pace: .

, the company raised a $600 million Series G at a valuation of around $12.6 billion. Months before that news, the company was valued at $7.1 billion as it raised its Series F. And when it was raising its Series E about a year ago, the company was valued at $4 billion.

Put simply, in about a year, DoorDash has used fuel brought on by investors to triple its valuation.

Investors鈥� seemingly insatiable hunger for DoorDash is a good signal for Postmates as it nears a potential debut on the public market. If there鈥檚 faith in the private market, the public market might see that and hop onto a similar sentiment when it has the option.

did not immediately respond for a comment, but we鈥檒l be back with more context if and when the company gets back to us.

For now, however, Postmates is trading Wall Street for sidewalks. The company just received conditional approval from San Francisco to start public trials of its delivery robot, Serve, on sidewalks across the city.

Update: Post and its headline were changed to reflect a September S-1 filing and a later IPO.

Illustration: .