The Journey to Going Public: Insights from Navan’s CEO on Building a Successful Fintech Company

The Strategic Advantage of Being a Public Company in the Payments Industry

When Ariel Cohen, Co-Founder and CEO of Navan, decided to take his AI-powered travel and expense platform public after 11 years of operation, he did so with a clear understanding of the strategic advantages this move would bring. Despite the company’s stock price experiencing a 50% decline from its peak market capitalization of $6.2 billion, settling between $4-5 billion, Cohen remains convinced that going public was the right decision, particularly for companies operating in the payments space. The ability to raise capital as a public entity, he argues, far exceeds what private companies can accomplish. This access to capital markets isn’t just about having more money available—it’s about having the flexibility and resources to scale operations, invest in innovation, and weather market uncertainties. Beyond the financial benefits, public status brings enhanced visibility and credibility that can transform how a company operates in its market. The increased transparency required of public companies, while demanding, actually serves as a powerful tool for building trust with customers, partners, and suppliers. This elevated status opens doors to partnerships that might have remained closed to private entities and allows for negotiations from a position of greater strength. The regulatory requirements that come with being public, though often seen as burdensome, actually contribute to improved corporate governance, creating systems and processes that make the company more resilient and better managed in the long run.

Why Timing the Market for an IPO Isn’t Always the Answer

One of the most counterintuitive insights Cohen shares is his perspective on the conventional wisdom surrounding IPO timing. Many companies spend years waiting for the “perfect moment” to go public, trying to catch the market at its peak or waiting for investor sentiment to swing in their favor. Cohen challenges this approach directly, suggesting that attempting to time the market is “really, really hard” and may not be the best strategy at all. Market conditions are inherently unpredictable, influenced by countless factors ranging from global economic trends to sector-specific disruptions that no one can fully anticipate. Companies that delay their IPOs waiting for ideal conditions may find themselves missing critical windows of opportunity for growth and expansion. Instead of focusing obsessively on external market conditions, Cohen advocates for companies to concentrate on their internal readiness—building strong business models, ensuring operational excellence, and achieving financial stability. A successful IPO, in his view, depends far more on the strength of the underlying business and the quality of its execution than on catching the market at exactly the right moment. When a company is operationally sound and financially prepared, it can weather the inevitable fluctuations of public markets and build long-term value regardless of short-term market sentiment. This philosophy requires confidence in your business fundamentals and a willingness to play the long game rather than seeking quick wins based on market timing.

Redefining the Market: Navan’s Unique Competitive Positioning

What sets Navan apart in the crowded corporate travel and expense management space isn’t just its technology—it’s how the company fundamentally defines its market. Rather than positioning itself as a direct competitor to established players in a narrowly defined segment, Navan has adopted a broader vision: servicing all frequent travelers, regardless of whether they’re booking through corporate channels or making personal arrangements. This market definition is deliberately expansive and allows Navan to capture opportunities that competitors focused on traditional corporate travel might overlook. By not limiting themselves to competing head-to-head with established players using conventional strategies, Navan creates space for innovation and differentiation that aligns with emerging trends in how people travel and work. The rise of remote work, the blending of business and leisure travel, and the increasing expectations travelers have for seamless, personalized experiences all support Navan’s broader market approach. This positioning isn’t just about capturing more market share in the short term—it’s a long-term strategy designed to establish Navan as the leader in a redefined category that better reflects how travel actually works in the modern economy. Understanding this unique market positioning is essential for investors and observers trying to assess Navan’s growth potential, because it means the company is playing a different game than many assume, with a potentially much larger addressable market than traditional competitors.

Culture as Competitive Advantage in the Fintech Landscape

In an industry where technological innovation can be copied and financial resources can shift between competitors, Cohen identifies company culture as perhaps the most durable competitive advantage a fintech company can build. His conviction that “our culture is what matters and that’s what will keep us around and that’s what will keep us a winner” reflects a deeper understanding of what sustains businesses through inevitable challenges and disruptions. A strong, positive culture does more than make employees happy—it drives engagement, retention, and performance in ways that directly impact the bottom line. In the highly competitive fintech landscape where top talent is constantly being recruited away, a values-driven culture becomes a powerful tool for attracting and keeping the people who will build the company’s future. Culture shapes how teams respond to challenges, how they innovate under pressure, and how they treat customers during critical moments. Companies with deeply embedded positive cultures demonstrate greater adaptability when markets shift or new technologies emerge, because their people are more invested in the company’s success and more willing to do what it takes to navigate change. For Navan, culture isn’t a soft concept relegated to HR presentations—it’s a strategic asset that influences decision-making, shapes customer relationships, and ultimately determines whether the company can sustain its position as markets evolve. This focus on culture as a competitive differentiator represents a mature understanding that in the long run, companies with strong cultures outlast those with merely strong balance sheets.

The Real Competitive Threat: Unknown Disruptors

When asked about competition, Cohen’s response reveals a sophisticated understanding of how markets actually get disrupted. The competitors he worries about aren’t the established players everyone is watching—they’re the unknown ones that haven’t emerged yet. “The only competitor that I’m worried about is the one that I don’t know about,” he explains, recognizing that the greatest threats often come from unexpected directions, from companies that reframe the problem in ways that make existing solutions suddenly seem obsolete. This awareness keeps Navan from becoming complacent even as it achieves success in its current market. Unknown competitors are dangerous precisely because they can introduce entirely new approaches that challenge fundamental assumptions about how business should be done. History is full of market leaders who were blindsided not by their known rivals but by startups that approached the problem from a completely different angle, often leveraging new technologies or business models that incumbents dismissed or failed to notice until it was too late. Cohen’s vigilance about unknown threats translates into a commitment to continuous innovation, substantial investment in research and development, and a willingness to question Navan’s own assumptions about its business. It also means building an organization that’s scanning the horizon constantly, looking for early signals of emerging technologies, changing customer preferences, or new entrants that could reshape the landscape. This proactive stance toward potential disruption, combined with strategic partnerships that can help identify and potentially neutralize emerging threats, represents a more sophisticated competitive strategy than simply trying to outexecute known rivals.

AI Advantages, Business Models, and Building Sustainable Moats

Cohen’s insights on several interconnected topics—AI’s undervaluation in public markets, consumption-based business models, the critical importance of distribution, user satisfaction as a retention driver, and the practical applications of AI in customer service—reveal a comprehensive philosophy about building sustainable competitive advantages. He observes that public markets aren’t currently pricing in the full significance of AI advancements, creating a potential misalignment between market valuations and the actual impact these technologies will have on business performance. For companies like Navan that have integrated AI deeply into their platforms, this represents an opportunity, as their AI capabilities may be significantly undervalued by investors who don’t fully understand the technology’s transformative potential. Navan’s consumption-based business model, where revenue is generated only when customers actually use the platform, aligns the company’s success directly with customer satisfaction in a way that creates powerful incentives for continuous improvement. This model differs fundamentally from traditional software licensing approaches and can lead to more predictable, scalable revenue streams while also encouraging genuine engagement rather than shelfware. But Cohen recognizes that even the best AI-powered, consumption-based platform needs effective distribution to succeed. Drawing on examples like Salesforce, he emphasizes that distribution capabilities—the ability to actually get your solution into customers’ hands—often matters more than the technology itself. This is where established software companies have significant advantages over newer entrants, regardless of how innovative the newcomers might be. User satisfaction completes this strategic picture, serving as what Cohen calls “the biggest moat” a company can have. Navan’s remarkable statistic—that of six enterprise customers they’ve lost, five have returned—demonstrates the power of this moat in action. When employees genuinely love using a platform, it becomes extraordinarily difficult for competitors to displace it, even with superior technology or pricing. Finally, Navan’s experience using AI chatbots to handle 55% of customer support interactions demonstrates that AI isn’t just a theoretical advantage but a practical tool that improves operational efficiency while maintaining or even enhancing service quality. Together, these insights paint a picture of a company that understands how to build multiple, reinforcing competitive advantages that create genuine sustainability in a rapidly evolving market.