The New Rules of the IPO

Silicon Valley Is Quietly Building Its Own Wall Street

Can a new stock exchange backed by the Bay Area’s most powerful players take on the NYSE and Nasdaq?

This story is part of The New Rules of the IPO, a multi-part special report.
Illustrations: James Clapham

On a drizzly San Francisco day in December, Eric Ries is stationed inside the Succession-worthy offices of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe. Here, at the billion-dollar law firm — whose clients include Oracle, Microsoft, Intel, Cisco, Pinterest, and Stripe — guys dressed VC chic in V-neck cashmere sweaters and soft loafers shush across carpeted floors. It’s a frictionless world, all potential irritants engineered away. If you want to be where it happens in Bay Area tech, this is a good place to start.

Ries, in black glasses and a chinstrap beard, looks like a poli sci professor who’s wandered in from Berkeley. The 41-year-old’s 2011 bestseller, The Lean Startup, introduced the masses to product/market fit, minimum viable product, and the pivot. It also vaulted Ries into nerd celebrity status, a coach and mentor to Silicon Valley’s elite. Between his speaking gigs — which now earn him upwards of $40,000 a pop — book royalties, and consulting…