What could the record ICONIQ-Truckstop.com investment mean for Idaho?

The most interesting part about ICONIQ’s investment in Truckstop.com – estimated at up to $1 billion – may not be the investment itself, but its repercussions for Idaho’s technology community.

ICONIQ Capital – the company said to represent Silicon Valley heavy hitters such as Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, former Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg and LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, though it won’t say so – announced on April 3 that it had made a majority investment in Truckstop.com, the New Plymouth-based trucking technology company.

While neither company revealed the size of the investment, industry publications estimated it to be almost $1 billion, based on estimated revenues of $110 to $120 million and an 8x-9x multiplier. Truckstop said it couldn’t confirm or deny the figures.

The ICONIQ investment could attract fresh attention to Idaho and the Treasure Valley, drawing the interest of other investors, said John Williamson, director of Idaho operations with venturecapital.org, a Salt Lake City-based nonprofit venture accelerator, and executive in residence for the College of Business and Economics at Boise State University.

ICONIQ is considered a family office, an organization set up to provide for ultra-high net worth families – that is, typically on the order of from $15 to $20 million to $400 to $500 million – who need someone to act as their own chief financial officer and chief investment officer, said Jefferson Jewell, chief operating officer of Caprock, a Boise-based family office that operates in California and Idaho. It is the only family office in Idaho that manages multiple families.

However, ICONIQ is different because family offices don’t often make such big investments, Jewell said. On the other hand, a family that includes the likes of Zuckerberg isn’t a typical family. According to Crunchbase, a website that tracks technology companies, ICONIQ has raised $2.8 billion across three funds since its founding in 2011, and has been involved in a number of major investments such as DocuSign and SurveyMonkey.

“There’s nobody else like them,” agreed Bill Connors, president and CEO of the Boise Metro Chamber. “They’re, well, iconic.”

Another change brought on by the ICONIQ investment is that ICONIQ itself might end up investing more in Idaho companies. Truckstop.com is the first Idaho investment the company has made, said Arvindh Kumar, general partner, but he said he had looked at other Idaho companies in the past, such as Clearwater Analytics.

As part of the investment, Kumar will be added to the Truckstop.com board, he said, meaning that he will be coming out to Idaho periodically to attend board meetings. That might give him the opportunity to meet with other Idaho technology companies and, potentially, invest in them as well.

“We’re interested in products,” Kumar said.

ICONIQ Capital itself is famously reclusive; its website consists of exactly four pages: a list of the four cities in which it operates, an email address for contact information, a terms of use page and a page for clients to log in. Even Kumar himself, speaking briefly at the formal announcement of the investment, joked about how this was more than he usually said in public.

Truckstop.com, itself, could also have an effect on the Idaho technology community. After the investment was announced, company founder Scott Moscrip gave all current employees a one-year salary bonus – which he paid for himself, not out of the ICONIQ money, said Matt Stubbs, senior manager for public relations and communications.

Truckstop.com expects to add more employees, and current Idaho technology employees – already thought to be in short supply – might be attracted by such largesse. Moscrip, with a sunny smile, joked that he had warned other Idaho technology companies that he was perfectly willing to steal their employees.