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// By Shelly Kraft and Michael Porter
“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?
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wrote 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
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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
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