A fading share price, a young chief executive adjusting to life in the spotlight, and concerns that the tech company he leads has been overhyped.
This is the situation currently facing Evan Spiegel, the 27-year-old founder of the Snapchat.
Snap Inc, the messaging app’s parent company, has not enjoyed the start to the stock market it hoped for when it went public in March at a $24bn (£18.5bn) valuation, the biggest technology float for years. Shares spiked on the app’s debut but have since dropped below their initial offering price, the maiden set of results was disappointing, and analysts have turned bearish on the stock.
The share price is likely to come under more pressure in the coming weeks as insiders are allowed to sell their holdings for the first time. Many are likely to cash in.
At this moment, there might be few reasons to be positive about Snap. Growth is slowing and users are apparently flocking to rival apps. On current trends, much-maligned Twitter will be worth more before long.
But one case for the defence may lie in a feeling of déjà vu.
Snap’s early existence as a public company bears a remarkable similarity to another tech firm which endured a torrid first few months: Facebook.
Five years ago, the world’s biggest social network’s $100bn IPO had jaws dropping, but before long it was Facebook that was dropping. The rapid rise of smartphones, which the company had failed to spot, appeared to pose an existential threat to the social network’s business model of selling adverts on desktop computers.
Four months after its flotation in May 2012, Facebook’s shares had halved – a bleaker situation than the one facing Snap, whose shares are down a mere 15pc in three and a half months.
Expiring share lock-up periods for employees and early investors, which Snapchat is about to face, were disastrous for Facebook, sending its share price tumbling repeatedly.
However, its share price recovered the year after and then rocketed. They are now worth more than four times what Facebook floated it and the company has a valuation of almost $500bn. Mobile advertising, which was seen as its big weak spot when shares were falling, now accounts for 85pc of all ad revenue, a stunning turnaround.
The story should offer a glimmer of hope to Snap investors, who have now lost money even if they bought in at the IPO price. Even a poor imitation of Facebook’s resurgence would be welcome news.
But such an event is unlikely. For all the similarities in Facebook and Snap’s early months on the market, the two are not comparable.