The year of WeWork could reshape the IPO market in 2020

For VCs, 2019 was a year filled with more high-profile public offerings than ever before. But as 2020 begins, it's the unicorn IPO that didn't happen—the one that instead turned into a truly spectacular failure—that's still on the tip of everyone's tongue. The collapse of WeWork shook up Silicon Valley, and it will likely mean elevated levels of scrutiny for any unicorn that's planning to go public in 2020, a list that could include names like Airbnb, DoorDash and GitLab.

Taken as a whole, the debacle was the single biggest cause of a reckoning among VCs and startups that occurred in the final months of the year. It brought a renewed focus on profitability (or at least the potential thereof), as well as questions about whether VCs have become too founder-friendly and pushback against SoftBank-style excess used to finance explosive growth at all costs.