Will Shu is right not to be too greedy on Deliveroo float price

Credit where credit’s due. Deliveroo could have priced its float at the very top end of the range, giving Will Shu bragging rights for the rest of his days of saying his baby fetched £9 billion.

Company founders are not shy and retiring types.

After years of blood, sweat and, in Shu’s case, bike grease building their businesses, monster valuations from the stock market serve as a validation of their genius. The bigger, the better.

But Shu has licked a finger, held it up to the wind and felt it wasn’t going in his direction.

The hullaballoo over workers’ rights and the “I am Spartacus” act of City funds queuing to shun the float has apparently made him trim back his IPO price ambitions.

On top of all the negative words about his business in the press, if his shares had flopped on Day 1 of the IPO, it would have been a PR disaster.

Not just for Shu and Deliveroo, but for the London stock market. A Deliveroo turkey would have added to concerns voiced today by Alex Chesterman of Cazoo that London is a bad place for tech floats.

Trustpilot was not so savvy.

Its founder, Peter Muhlmann, doubtless egged on by his bankers, launched last week at the very top of his IPO price range only to find fall as the week went on.

Two-thirds of US tech IPOs did the same last week, so perhaps it wasn’t just down to Muhlmann’s founder greed.

Anyhow, having struggled on the PR front lately, Deliveroo got this one right. As they say in the City, when you’re doing a deal, book a profit but leave something in there for the next guy.