Enter IPO Prematurely Or Get Private Funding?

[bingbongbangbung]

I don't know if I should because going public means I have to be held highly accountable to regulators and shareholders, in exchange for theoretically unlimited funding and less responsibilities lol. I know that for a pre-revenue deep tech startup (or even one with some revenue), it'd be extremely difficult to go IPO prematurely but by merging with SPAC, I can do it much faster and easier. Also at least in Canada, there's 2 stock exchanges where they allow smaller and earlier stage startups to join, with much less requirements than say the main ones in Toronto or Montreal.

I'm fully aware that merging with such a shell company also means they'll have control over aspects of my startup that I'd retain had I not merged, and while I'm against merging and acquisitions generally that's an exception. Only agreeing to do this because most sources of funding are gatekept to more mature startups and/or don't provide that much money, which my startup would need to truly take off. I did consider going to angel investors, but the ones I found required startups to make 10x the investment within 5 years, while only providing at most a few dozen grand.

I can't even pay 1 full time employee with that, let alone a small team of them; realistically, I'd need a small investment in 6 or even 7 figures, so sadly only going IPO prematurely is realistic. The startup I'm in is automation, which includes AI, but also goes beyond it with stuff like robotics, IoT, MR, etc as I'm wise enough to know the generative AI bubble that began in late 2022 is eventually gonna burst by the end of this decade. I'm also fully aware that going public means certain investment firms like Blackrock and Vanguard are gonna try to force pushing their agendas down my throat, which I'm prepared for by not giving a fuck about them.

Enter IPO Prematurely

Go For Private Funding

Enter IPO Later On

[Anonymous]

I don’t know much about this, but I do know you need an investment bank if you want to do an IPO. I’m also glad to hear that the AI bubble is going to burst eventually.

[bingbongbangbung]

That's just one way of entering IPO, although it's safe to assume a SPAC or equivalent would already have that set up

[bingbongbangbung]

SPAC or Special Purpose Acquisition Company is a public shell corporation that has no business operations, yet has tons of investor funding and experienced COs ready to merge with a private startup with high growth potential

[Opinion Owner]

Interesting. Sounds very useful.

[bingbongbangbung]

The best analogy to such an entity would be like a talent scout; said individual themselves are sought after because they have the skills to find the best athlete, model, actor, or musician to become famous

[Opinion Owner]

Very useful indeed