Varo Bank

In 09/2024 Varo Bank took steps to prepare for an IPO. The startup hired Allen Parker, former CFO at Zillow and a veteran of key financial posts at Amazon, to become the bank’s new CFO.

Walsh says Varo needed someone who could help the bank grow in the next phases of development, through and beyond going public. He admits the markets aren’t terribly friendly right now, but believes that may work to Varo’s favor.

“We have more runway in front of us yet, in terms of business maturity,” he explains. “If we get to profitability this year, we’ll want to continue to scale and show predictable results before going into the public markets.”

In this regard, Walsh says he is learning from pioneers’ experience.

“For companies that went too early things didn’t work out so well and you’re not going to want to have public market investors if you haven’t really matured the business to the point where it’s highly predictable.”