When cloud storage company Dropbox Inc. went public this past March, its success surprised the market, with shares’ prices surging past the company’s private market valuation.

But that success didn’t happen overnight. The journey to San Francisco-based Dropbox’s initial public offering was a long one, led by the company’s vice president, corporate legal, Mary Anne Becking. She said two years of team building, careful planning, communicating with employees and utilizing new tech went into knocking the company’s IPO out of the park. “I think [the planning] had a lot to do with the success … hiring veteran talent far in advance is something I would really recommend companies do,” Becking said. “Not just legal talent, but people on the comms team, the finance team, accounting team. Giving those people time to get to know the business, get to know each other and develop trust.”