- Leaders recommend preparing for an IPO well in advance and tailoring the process to a company's needs.
- The discussion was part of BI's event "The Road to IPO," in collaboration with Fidelity and held on September 19.
- Click here to watch a recording of the full event.
An initial public offering is a significant moment in any company's journey. It can mark a promising business model and boost its long-term growth.
Reddit recently made its successful debut on the public market, pricing its shares at the top of the expected valuation range. But Jesse Rose, Reddit's head of investor relations, told Business Insider that the company took some unconventional approaches to the launch, and the IPO process was long in the making.
Business Insider's virtual event "The Road to IPO," in collaboration with Fidelity, brought together a panel to discuss the key preparations, concerns, and decision-making strategies for business leaders looking to go public. Leaders from Reddit, Goldman Sachs, Brunswick Group, Latham & Watkins, and Fidelity Private Shares joined us as panelists. Akin Oyedele, BI's investing deputy editor, moderated the conversation.
Despite the whirlwind of issues that founders might be thinking about when launching an IPO, "readiness is the only thing to be focusing on because you can't control the markets, but you can control how you prepare for them," Elizabeth Reed, Goldman Sachs' global head of equity syndicate, said.
Conducting mock earnings calls, for example, is something companies can do to prepare for a public-market transition. "The importance of mock earnings calls is probably underappreciated, and what they do is they help you get into a public-company rhythm," said Rose.
"Two years of sort of a pause, or a wait, was one of the best things that actually happened to Reddit," he said. "It gave us a chance to really think to practice being a public company without actually being one."
Leaders also discussed the right time for launching an IPO. "One thing that people are often surprised by is how far in advance they really should be thinking about and preparing for IPO," said Kristen Craft, Fidelity Private Shares' vice president and business partner manager. "Generally speaking, we love to work with folks who are 24 or even 36 months pre-IPO."
Ash Spiegelberg, a partner and the technology, media, and telecoms global lead at Brunswick Group, added that part of preparing for an IPO is understanding how stakeholders — such as investors, customers, employees, and government regulators — are involved in the process. Companies should be aware of "how multistakeholder these transactions have become," he said.
Panelists emphasized the importance of aligning stakeholders with the company's objectives in going public. "While IPOs are fairly consistent, IPO to IPO, you can tailor your IPO to fit your company culture, your business needs," Rick Kline, Latham & Watkins' Bay Area partner and chair of the technology-industry group, told BI.
For example, Rose said that Reddit recognized it was a platform built on community, which prompted it to use company-specific features like "ask me anything" posts and subreddits to communicate with its audience about the IPO process. Diverging from typical IPO practices, Rose said, Reddit provided its eligible users with similar access to information on the launch as its management team and allowed them to buy shares at the IPO price.
Before and after going public, Rose said, the company has valued transparency with its employees. "We make it so that the folks see how their contributions are impacting the earnings process," he said.
Spiegelberg said that while the specific timing for an IPO is variable with every company, going public should be a stage that businesses look toward: "Getting into the public markets and getting on with it can just often be the best way to build a great company."