NASDAQ Overpowered, Facebook Overvalued. What We Can Learn From the Facebook IPO Fiasco.

Many expected a huge turnout once Facebook finally became a publicly-owned and operated machine. Much of the fanfare came that Friday morning, as Mark Zuckerberg rang the opening bell for NASDAQ. Many Facebook followers and fanatics made their long-anticipated move. The NASDAQ was packed wall to wall with hopeful investors. Unfortunately, found themselves trapped, unable to rapidly sell their recently-purchased stock which quickly dropped in stock value.

Over the weekend, the stock dropped 12%. NASDAQ was in a total spin. Robert Greifeld, CEO of NASDAQ, voiced his humbling embarrassment to the Wall Street Journal, “This was not our finest hour.” The system was downright slammed with Gizmodo reporting a record-breaking 2.7 million shares being sold per second. 100 million shares were traded within a span of five minutes. Gizmodo also compiled a funny list of things you should’ve spent $41 on instead of Facebook’s stock.

Several days later, the recovery is gradual, but it’s got many people thinking, “Facebook is so popular? How could it fall in price? What’s going to happen to social media?” Don’t worry. Facebook isn’t going anywhere and Mark Zuckerberg is still super rich. In fact, he sold enough shares to pay a massive amount of taxes. There was even a widget released by the Wall Street Journal to help track how rich Mark Zuckerberg is. Spoiler alert: he’s really rich.

The truth behind it all was that the stock was overvalued. When it comes to pricing IPOs there’s no real science to it. The purpose of Facebook going public wasn’t to make more money, but to establish a great selling price for its existing shareholders. The price of a share is about adjusting it to a more practical price.

All in all, while Zuckerberg is enjoying his billions, you can’t help but wonder how much he values his first vision in designing the first Facebook in a college dorm room. What does this mean for you and your business? Instead of a 30 minute camera session, a new pair of Levi’s or a tank of gas, the best way to get something built is to sow the seeds and grow it yourself. Get a good service, make better connections, build your clientele and customer base with a social media campaign of its own as well as a vanity number branding for the best in accessibility. Success isn’t always about strapping up to a bandwagon (though Facebook shares may actually pay off in the long run), it’s about being your own Zuckerberg. The rest is history.