Long-Term Stock Exchange, a Silicon Valley-based rival to NYSE, says Twilio and Asana will list their shares Thursday, the first companies to do so
- Twilio, Asana shares to trade on Long-Term Stock Exchange — CEO Ries says new exchange offers ‘access to ESG investors’ Source: Long-Term Stock Exchange .
Context & Ripple Effects
The Long-Term Stock Exchange has been a decade-long build: Eric Ries, the 'The Lean Startup' author, won SEC approval for the exchange in 2019 and it opened for trading in September 2020, but it had zero listed companies. In June, Twilio and Asana — both NYSE-listed — agreed to dual-list on LTSE, and Thursday makes that agreement real: they become the first companies to trade there.
The significance is proof of concept. An exchange founded on long-term-holding governance rules now has marquee tech names on its tape, and CEO Ries is framing the pitch around access to ESG investors — a differentiation argument NYSE has not had to answer for a challenger before.
First-order effects
- Twilio and Asana now trade on LTSE as the first listed companies, converting the June dual-listing agreement into actual volume on a venue that until now existed only with regulatory approval and infrastructure.
- Ries gets his first live validation: an exchange designed around long-term incentives has landed two high-profile software companies as founding listings.
Second-order effects
- NYSE now has two of its listed tech names carrying a rival exchange's brand and governance rules, forcing the incumbent to decide whether long-term-holding and ESG-framed listing structures are a niche or a competitive threat.
- If the dual-listing route works for Twilio and Asana, other growth-stage companies gain a template for adding an ESG-oriented listing without abandoning their primary exchange, lowering the barrier for the next cohort.
Third-order effects
- If more companies follow the dual-listing path, US exchanges begin competing on listing rules and investor base — long-term governance, ESG access — rather than purely on fees and liquidity, eroding the NYSE's default status for tech IPOs.
- The LTSE's model tests whether exchange-level rules can actually shift corporate behavior toward long-term horizons; its success or failure with these first listings will shape whether regulators and issuers treat listing-venue design as a lever on corporate governance.
The trend: US stock exchanges are starting to differentiate on governance and investor-base design rather than scale alone, with LTSE's first listings as the opening test of that model.