Snap plans to set a final price for its stock March 1, and will begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange the next day, according to the company's roadshow schedule, sources told CNBC.
The parent company of the Snapchat photo app will sell itself to investors with the angle that CEO Evan Spiegel is the product visionary, while chief strategy officer Imran Khan will present on the company's business opportunity. Chief financial officer Andrew Vollero will take a lesser role.
Spiegel and Khan will emphasize that users love the product and spend lots of time in it, rather than focusing on the number of users. This argument could be used to counter the fact that the company's user growth started to slow down in the last half of 2016, according to its IPO filing.
This slowdown in user growth could create a challenge for the company, VC Chamath Palihapitya told CNBC on Wednesday, as Snap will have to rapidly increase the amount of money it makes per user in order to keep growing its revenue at a rate that justifies its valuation and become profitable. The company's revenue grew almost sevenfold between 2015 and 2016, to $404 million, but it lost $520 million last year.
Snap sees its IPO pricing at between $14 and $16 per share, according to a regulatory filing released Thursday, which would value the company at between $19.5 billion to $22.2 billion. However, that price could change depending on perceived demand from investors.
— Reporting by CNBC's Leslie Picker and Sally Shin