I’m a New Public Company, Now What?

“i’m A nEw publiC CompAny, now whAt?”

I wondered what could I write to provide today’s microcap company C suite management teams some sage advice coping and dealing with investors, shareholders, media, and investor relations?

Iwrote an outline with my ideas and sent it to Michael Porter, of Porter Levey & Rose Investor Relations to join me in this endeavor. Mike added his 2 cents and turned my outline into this article. Mike has been doing IR for 55 years he refers to me as “the kid” since I only started on Wall Street 38 years ago. Anyway that’s 93 years of experience! I know some of you have ties older than that. For today’s CEO’s things have changed but, in many ways, they have stayed the same. Here are some insights for our readers especially company leaders, so keep this article like a blackjack player keeps a rules card of when to split, double-down, hit or stay. By the way, Porter and I are still close friends and speak every day! Most of all we love the microcap space and enjoy helping small emerging growth companies. Cheers to that!

You are now a listed company. Congratulations! It was quite a long road to get here, wasn’t it? Yes, but the rewards are worth it. We want to help you stay listed and grow and thrive. This means you need to manage your expectations and qualify your next steps. We want to help you. We understand the time and effort you, your staff, your attorneys and your accountants put in to making this happen, not to mention all of the costs it took to get here, but now your ticker symbol is live and good things are on the horizon, alongside numerous compliance risks, the relentless incoming service provider sales calls and emails, and the challenges you’ll face sharing your story with current and potential shareholders. This note is meant to offer some assistance in navigating these waters.

A listing guarantees very little, and your objective now is to differentiate your company as an investment vehicle not only from other opportunities in your niche or space but from the entire global investment ecosystem. This is no small feat. As a microcap company there are crucial dos and don’ts to which you must adhere to right out of the gate, in the first few quarters after your IPO. Here is a brief list:

• Establish your investor relations (ir) budget and figure out what you hope to achieve. This includes price ascension, liquidity, new shareholder engagement, market recognitions, M&A

opportunities, institutional investment, buying acceptance and the provision of guidance to current and potential investors. • choose a course of action. You need to decide how your company will interface with the markets. As a new public company, you need an investor relations representative, either a member of your team or an account executive from an outside agency, to serve as your first point of contact – this individual must be a gatekeeper, a diplomat, a detective, user-friendly and polite, informative yet compliant, and preferably familiar with the landscape. • cohesive messaging and branding. You’ll need to organize and categorize your marketing plan, since whatever you do and announce is now subject to SEC regulations and must be announced publicly via press release. It sounds simple, but this is where strategy plays a big part in your relationship with investors. The nuances of when, where, how, why and what of your press releases are many times so involved management, boards and professionals must participate for careful wording, compliance, timing and follow-up. In the end, your press releases will serve as your company’s semaphores, the message you send from the deck of your ship.

What can a strategic IR program do for your company? It will increase your visibility and influence key players in the global financial community – from institutional and retail investors to family offices – and ensure your messages are articulated accurately and disseminated as widely as possible to the right audiences. Given the amount of stock promotion on the Internet and the ever-increasing prevalence of opinion shared on social media, the investment community has become increasingly dependent on credible, reliable and responsive corporate liaisons to inform and educate them on a company’s investment thesis. A successful IR program combines digital communication practices an old-school commitment to relationships. The right IR agency will also help you nimbly navigate SEC rules and regulations – the agency should be fully versed in Regulation FD and Sarbanes-Oxley.

To be successful in the current market means you must ascend above the noise. One of the best ways to do this is to develop personal relationships with influential members of the investment community, as your company may not yet enjoy the luxury of coverage by banks and wire houses. Investors must be “courted” – they must be made to feel comfortable in weighing the potential growth of a company with the risk of investing in a “new” company.

In today’s marketplace, management credibility has to be established and maintained to attract longerterm holders who will help maintain the stock price and increase its value. Many U.S. investors approach companies with a “back the jockey, not the horse” mentality, and a sound IR program regularly highlights management’s achievements and pedigree – your ability to grow the business is a major factor in driving investment. Operational performance is quite important, but your credibility is your best card, one that will give you more long-term stability, through good times and bad. This credibility is core to a solid investor relations program, and the first step to building and concretizing this credibility is by committing to transparency and by educating the investment community. Your mission should be to make sure investors clearly understand management’s philosophy, appreciate its accomplishments and believe it can achieve its operational goals.

We believe good companies have an excellent opportunity, after listing, to establish themselves as exciting investment opportunities and to communicate their stories to the right audiences, those that can make a difference to their valuations. For more information, please contact skraft@snnwire.com and mike@plrinvest.com. And congratulations, again, on your achievement. We wish you immense success.

Michael Porter has been in the investor relations industry for more than 40 years and co-founded PLR in 1971. In addition, he has served on the board of several publicly held companies. In his earlier career, Michael was an analyst and portfolio manager for a NYSE member firm and major institution and has served on the board of directors of several companies. Michael earned a BS in Finance from Rider University and completed The Owners, Presidents and Managers course at Harvard University School of Business in May 2004. In 2009, Michael was appointed to the President’s Council at Rider University.

In his time spent on Wall Street as a retail stockbroker and OTC market maker, investment banker, author, and as President of Emanuel & Co., Mr. Kraft has met many incredible people. He retains many of those friends and contacts to this very day. In his early career in the Wall Street trenches he often wondered when he would finally reach the pinnacle of wisdom and understanding he so diligently craved; well here it is 2022, and he says: “I am still wondering.” He has had many great experiences, been an influencer his whole career and today supports the team at SNN Inc., SNN. Network, MicroCap Review Magazine (2022 is the 17th year publishing) now digital, and the popular in person event Planet MicroCap Showcase, May 3-5, 2022, Bally’s Las Vegas. Mr. Kraft’s legendary career stems from his devotion to MicroCap pubco’s and private companies, his over 10,000 CEO live video interviews, his writings and appearances, today Mr. Kraft remains one of the MicroCap Stock Market’s great ambassadors.