How is capital raised before going public?

About half of our clients do not want to raise any capital before going public. They are already bootstrapped by management or funded by investors. If they want to raise more capital, they prefer to wait until after they are publicly listed so they have a higher valuation and less dilution. These clients want to go public to make acquisitions, attract the best possible talent, close more deals and to significantly increase their business valuation. Raising capital is not even a factor.

About half of our clients need to raise capital before going public. We help these clients prepare their investment deck, pitch and offering documents so they can raise capital faster, easier and with less dilution. Capital is raised by the entrepreneur from their friends, family, business associates and sometimes through advertising on Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, various investor related websites, email and direct mail. We call this a "pre-listing" offering because it gives everyone they know an opportunity to invest before their company goes public.

People want to invest in entrepreneurs they know, especially ones who have a clear path to a public listing. In the first "pre-listing" round, entrepreneurs generally raise growth capital and enough to pay for all of the costs to go public. However, if the first private placement doesn't raise enough capital, we structure a second private placement or an equity crowdfunding offering, for our clients to advertise on social media, search engines, direct mail and by other means. While a 'marketed offering' can be costly and time consuming, it is a way for companies to raise capital from a larger audience when necessary.

If an entrepreneur needs someone to raise capital for them, that's not what we do. The only 'exception' is if a company has solid business metrics and can go public by IPO. In those instances, we have and can bring investment bankers that can raise capital for clients.