Data analytics firm Domo closed up more than 30 percent after a shaky first morning on the public markets Friday.

Shares opened at $23.80 and initially rose as much as 16 percent before paring gains. The stock hovered around single-digit gains for much of its first hour of trading and then recovered to a session high above $26. Shares closed out the session up 30 percent at $27.30.

"There's ups and downs. I don't know anything that's just smooth up and to the right," CEO Josh James told CNBC's "Squawk Alley" Friday. "These are just pricing events; these are just financing events. What really matters is what does this look like in 24 months?"

Domo, once valued above $1 billion, is now worth less than $700 million after the public debut. That's based on an outstanding share count of 24,953,806 shares, reflecting a 15-to-1 reverse stock split that happened on June 15.

The Utah-based company sold just over 9 million shares, raising $193 million in the offering. The stock trades on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol "DOMO."

The company sells data analytics software and competes against heavyweights such as IBM, Microsoft and Oracle. It's burning cash, according to SEC filings: The company posted negative cash flow of $148.7 million for the year ended in January and has only $71.9 million of cash on hand.

"The important thing is what you're doing for your customers," James said. "What we're seeing from our customers is just amazing things that we believe no one else can touch."

Domo's IPO follows standout tech public offerings earlier this year such as Dropbox, DocuSign, Zuora and Spotify.

— CNBC's Jordan Novet contributed to this report.