What to Consider When Planning an IPO

An IPO is a huge life event for a company.  It provides validation for a company’s business strategy, liquidity for investors, and personal satisfaction for the founders and employees.  Many factors can cause IPOs to become drawn out, costly, painful, or even unsuccessful. Many of these pitfalls can be avoided with advance planning, proper mindset, and careful preparation. 
This presentation will discuss the dos and don’ts of IPOs and how to prepare for them.  Some of the topics we will review include: 

• The value of planning ahead and being realistic about the cost, time, and effort required
• The criticalness of maintaining a complete and accurate capitalization table
• The necessity of having competent legal representation
• Alternatives to adopting public company accounting and reporting practices
• The importance of having a full understanding of accounting and reporting consequences of complex transactions
• The significance of timely completion of audits and reviews of financial statements
• The benefit of maintaining up-to-date independent valuations and the need to be objective about enterprise and stock valuation
• Proper staffing with appropriate internal or external resources
• and more

Course Key Concepts: Initial public offering, IPO, IPO readiness,JOBS Act, Security and Exchange Commission, SEC, Registration statement, Emerging growth company, EGC.