The roadshow is all virtual now. We talked to 32 different investors in 4.5 days. I tried to push for in person but almost everyone preferred Zoom and it was probably for the best because we could meet more people. The downside is it feels more transactional vs building a relationship. We still had to pay the bankers the same amount even though there was no private jet provided. What a rip off!

RE traditional IPO vs Direct Listing, you hit my rant!

The traditional IPO process sets you up to massively underprice your stock. Instead of selling your stock directly on the open market, investment bankers sell it for you. They're incentivized to give public market investors a "good deal" by advising you to price your stock low (because they do repeat business with them even though we're the ones paying for their services!). As a result, on average in 2020, companies that went through the traditional IPO process underpriced their stock by 50%.

As a CEO I could never sell a dollar for 50 cents. It's against my fiduciary responsibility to my shareholders. I once heard one public company CFO call it "the largest arbitrage opportunity in all of finance". Why would I want to be on the other side of that?

I strongly encourage all other CEOs at taking their companies public to go through this path.

IPO underpricing data: https://site.warrington.ufl.edu/ritter/files/IPOs-Underprici...