I’m starting to hear things that I haven’t heard in a very long time. Startups are beginning to talk about “Going public” again. I haven’t heard this kind of talk since around 2000, before the startup nuclear winter set in.
Raindance went public in 2000 in an event that is best described as the last company that grabbed the helicopter skid out of Saigon. We were fortunate to get out and only by the sheer will of my cofounders Paul and Jim did it happen. My only involvement was back in Colorado holding down the fort and constantly applying the defibrillator paddles to my self.
To borrow from Monty Python, “Going public is not your messiah; it’s a very naughty boy”. Being a small cap public company is in my opinion, little to no use. Its harder to be acquired, it removes all doubt about what the value of the company is, it provides key employees little to no liquidity, and layers on about 3 million dollars a year is senseless SOX spending that in my opinion doesn’t help the investor at all.
I respect people that want to do it. It is a great learning experience. In fact I would like to do it again but for more selfish reasons. Having been there I think I could do a better job the second time around. I look at it more of a personal challenge, then a “good idea”.
Comments