Those investors can still end up doing just fine over the long haul. Witness Grimes’s initial stumble with Facebook: The stock suffered technical glitches as trading began, then tipped into a months-long slide, losing half its value. But ultimately, it roared back and is now worth almost five times its initial price.

A spokeswoman for New York-based Morgan Stanley declined to comment.

‘Talking Their Language’
Grimes clinched Uber’s IPO with a pitch to its board that showed he was fluent in the same lingo spoken by employees, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be named describing the talks. Goldman Sachs, which started wooing Uber’s leaders years ago and even bought a stake, was listed second on the deal, followed by Bank of America Corp.

“You could put him in the room with Sundar or Satya or a young unknown founder, and he’s immediately talking their language,” said Jim Goetz, a partner at venture capital firm Sequoia Capital, referring to the heads of Google and Microsoft Corp. “Most of the time, bankers lead with financials. For Michael that’s an afterthought, and that’s a blessing in Silicon Valley.”

The mandate adds to the pile of money Morgan Stanley is collecting from ties to Uber. The bank is set to reap at least $41 million as the IPO’s lead underwriter. Regulatory filings show the firm previously pocketed fees for privately raising money, such as by selling stock to its wealthy clients in 2016.

It all underscores how important Morgan Stanley’s main business of tending money for investors is for the bank’s dealmakers.

“Morgan Stanley’s large wealth management business gives them an enormous competitive advantage over rivals like Goldman in pitching for IPOs,’’ says Tim Loughran, a professor at the University of Notre Dame who has studied stock offerings.

Still, the practice is a “double-edged sword,” he said. “A big problem could occur for Morgan Stanley if the IPO share price tanks after pushing the shares on their unsuspecting wealth-management clients. I am confident that investors who purchased shares in the hot Uber IPO at $45 are disappointed.”

There are also Grimes’s unusual habits and courtship strategies, which have made him something of a character in the industry. A computer science and electrical engineering major, he’s known to go to great lengths to understand the gadgets and apps produced by companies he woos.

During a successful pitch to handle Ancestry.com’s IPO in 2009, he showed executives a family tree he had created with his mother. Before leading Zynga Inc.’s IPO in 2011, he mastered its “CityVille” game on his phone. For Uber, he moonlighted as a driver. And when traveling, he relies on Airbnb to book accommodations and rent out his house. Many expect the home-sharing startup to go public next year.