Investor Relations Services: How To Truly Dominate The Public Market
If you have a public company or are in the process of taking your company public on the OTCBB or any other reputable exchange the reader must realize that going public is the easy part, having a successful public offering and preserving the longevity of your public entity is another topic all together. As a corporate strategies and public offering facilitator our firm is often called in after a company has a disastrous public offering or they’ve teamed up with the wrong service solutions that pump and dump their equity positions.

Here is the problem that most companies make when they are going public: companies don’t budget properly for general corporate publicity or solid investor relations strategies for the first year that their company is public. Investor relations and publicity stock promotion activity should be at the forefront of every public CEO’s mind.

If you are signing a large contract, publicize it with press releases, viral promotion and TV and radio expert panel discussions. When we take on a company for serious investor relations our campaigns are obviously completely customized but here is the skeletal structure of a prototypical campaign: strong viral publicity strategy consisting of video, article and press release submission, social and news book marking, logo and image posts and after this information has assimilated we get the client on prominent TV expert panel discussions with their name, company name and stock symbol on the screen.

Lastly, we then run two simultaneous 30 day stock promotion intensives with a massive injection of investor promotional concepts on both sides each day which consist of newsletters and stock alerts to ultra-active investors and other strategies daily.

The important thing to remember is that the above must happen monthly for the first six months to a year in order for your company to successfully trade. There is no other way around it, you must budget for your investor relations campaigns or your venture simply will not work.

Our firm gets around 200 calls per day from prospective clients and more than half of them are start-ups and the call typically starts off like this, I say “So Tell Me About Your Company” and can usually gage the multiple crucial ‘tells’ from what follows. What I have found is that people who are looking for money typically try to portray the opposite of their actual reality. If they act extremely confident they are making up for overwhelming insecurity and they will eventually crack. If they try to act excessively serious and intellectual they are most likely trying to reinvent themselves and coming from a background where they are not taken seriously. If they try to push the value of their ‘idea’ it is usually in the development stage and just that, an idea, to a VC that means…RUN!

So my job is actually quite simple when it comes down to finding those diamonds in the rough to structure and take public; just have the conversation based on the understanding that I am only hearing half truths and that the person on the other end of the line will say and do practically anything to get the capital that they feel they need. When it comes down to it there are very few entrepreneurs that can actually be taken seriously as a potential start-up that will be successful in raising capital, meet the expectations and deadlines of investors and function as a professional CEO when the company is public.

Oh, another thing when you talk to a VC never start off a sentence with “we are the first in the industry to…” or “we have an invention that is going to revolutionize the way people…” or “I have investors banging my door down to invest…”. These are tell tale signs of people on their last leg and you might as well fax the VC your talking to a bold text message that says “I’m A Loser, I’ll Waste Your Time and Lose Your Investors Seed Capital But Who Cares”.

I can’t tell you how many people have contacted me to tell me about their biotech, underwater, automatic cheese sandwich crust trimmer that they obviously believe is going to change the future of all mankind and when you ask them what their current occupation is, they are on some type of public assistance because 20 years ago they slipped on an egg in their kitchen and haven’t held a 9 to 5 job since.

Here is what I’m trying to say, when you call an angel investor or VC or consulting firm to sell them on taking you public or raising capital for your company, cut through the crap, we hear it every day. Nothing you have to say is shocking or unique, chances are, your undercover, ultra secret underwater basket weaving training videos have already been produced by someone 30 years ago and it was a flop (sorry but this is the reality you need to consider before trying to convince an investor that your basket weaving videos have a billion dollar, ready market and are going to feed the world’s starving multitudes with a 1% donation of the net proceeds). Yes, this article is ridiculous, it’s meant to be a bit silly while issuing a cautionary tale. If you have a truly good idea, I mean one that can make money and you have attracted some investors to help you develop your product or service enough to actually show a modest track record, purchase orders, distributor interest, reseller agents or anything else that would show the investor that your company won’t be an instant flop and that they will have a chance to not only recoup their investment but also make some money, only then are you ready to start posing your opportunity to funding sources.

Take Your Company Public: How To Virtually Guarantee A Successful Offering
So many companies dream of going public both as a growth and exit strategy but unfortunately few succeed with this process. The third party audit, sponsoring of the S1 and 211 by a market maker and SEC comments stage is just one of the obstacles involved with taking a company public. The attempt at going public and actually achieving a symbol are two entirely different things and if you are lucky enough to achieve a symbol there’s a completely separate area of expertise needed to keep your stock trading and to preserve a company’s longevity in the marketplace.

Here are some things you need to keep in mind when gearing up to take your company public. Forget everything that you’ve read and heard and pay attention to what you’re about to read because this is the straight forward, objective reality of the process. First, do not hire an attorney to take you public as they will take you on a long drawn out process to get as many billable hours as possible, instead, hire a consulting firm whose sole business model is to take companies public and take advantage of the relationships that they have with attorneys. This is the first rule: hire a consulting firm that offers a complete A to Z turn-key solution for taking a company through the process of going public, achieving a symbol and preserving the trade with a solid, ongoing post public investor relations strategy.

Next, when you’ve decided on a consulting firm evaluate their team, don’t ask for references to call to research their track record, better yet, ask for symbols of previous clients and links to the Edgar database to check out current deals in the comments stage. The proof is in the empirical track record, not potentially fraudulent phone references that are easily engineered and BS.

Now look at their team. Make sure that the consulting group has a solid legal team, market makers, investor relations team, auditing group and someone well versed in the comments stage response as this can be one of the major hang-ups in achieving your symbol in a timely manner. Also, most important, they absolutely MUST have a solid group of investors to fund the process for equity and to sell their shares into the marketplace post public to create a market for your stock as well as a network of market makers familiar with your deal to piggyback off of the sponsoring market maker’s 211.

About one month away from symbol achievement you’ll want to meet with your consultants to get a solid IR strategy together for a big offering début. You will want to set up a strategy for 30 day IR intensives every other month with general corporate publicity strategies in between. I suggest changing your IR firm each quarter to keep it fresh and open up your trade to a new network of investors.

One special note to consider is that when you are raising your initial round of capital from seed investors, the fastest way to do this is to have a fist full of contracts and purchase orders in hand to strengthen your position and publicize this reality with an arsenal of press releases. Its 100 times easier to raise capital if you are showing seed investors a handful of ‘soon to be’ cash than to solicit them empty handed.

Obviously there are a multitude of other issues that you need to take into consideration when going public so find a consulting firm that can help you make it happen. Don’t try to venture out into these waters on your own as you’ll be diving into shark infested waters and you’ll almost certainly fail.

Why Are You Writing A Private Placement Memorandum (PPM) To Raise Capital?
I feel like I have to put this out there as a corporate strategies consultant with a firm that is completely submerged in the industry of authoring business plans, private placement memorandums (regulation d rule 504, 505 and 506), facilitating direct public offerings to our database of investors and taking companies public on the OTCBB.

When I get calls about private placement memorandums it is typically one of two scenarios: 1. They want to raise capital and they are shopping around for the cheapest PPM author they can find. 2. They have made the mistake of using the cheapest PPM author they could find and now they can’t find an investor that will fund their 70 page stack of toilet paper.

It never ceases to amaze me when companies are trying to convince investors that they are ready for that next step in their corporate evolution, yet they are being penny wise and dollar foolish with the most technical document their company has ever had done. And why do people put the cart before the horse? I mean, why do people write the private placement memo before they know who their audience is? As a rule of thumb you should write for your audience.

A ppm that is being written for venture capital firms will demonstrate and cater to more of an equity control and technical audience whereas a ppm that is being written for angel investors, private investors and small private equity firms who want to be in and out of a transaction will typically want to buy low and sell high and will typically want to invest in companies that are going public in as short of a time as possible.

The investors in pre public companies and other ‘angel’ type investors have a minimal bankroll of $1m or less (usually) so they have to be in and out of a transaction fast, thus the need for a ‘selling shareholder offering’. This is a mandatory prerequisite for a company that wants to raise capital from angels and go public. With a selling shareholder offering you are setting up a scenario that ever investor dreams of.

You are giving them the ability to buy deeply discounted stock and 3 or 4 months later, when the company goes public, they can sell their stock into the market at an offering price that is typically 4 or 5 times what they originally purchased the shares at and the company is happy because the investor created a bridge for the company to go public and then created a public float.

Now, after reading this, you will see why writing a PPM before you know who your audience is and before you’ve contracted with a consulting firm is a critical mistake. Find a consulting firm that is well rounded as a capital raising facilitator and have them help you set a goal as an end result and then build your strategy from there.

Selling Shareholder Offering: The Key To Raising Fast Capital For Pre Public Companies
As a consultant who has taken many companies public on the OTCBB (Over The Counter Bulletin Boards), consulted on even more and turned around and structured more companies I can even count, there are a few common threads inherent in all of them.

Most of the companies pursuing capital from angel investors, private investors, private equity firms or small groups of professionals looking for a quick in and out situation with rapid capitalization did three things that made all the difference in streamlining their raise.

First the executives structured their entity to attract investors which by default strengthened their corporate infrastructure. Now they are proposing investment opportunities from more of a position of strength.

Second they chose a team (in these cases they chose our consulting firm) with a proven track record of success with organizing companies for acquisition, merger and taking companies public.

The third element that is common in most successful enterprises which are seeking a first round of seed capital to fund their ‘going public’ ambitions is demonstrating confidence to the investor with a “selling shareholder offering”. Obviously this last element tests the skill of the consultants going back and forth with the SEC during the comments stage but this demonstrates confidence and organization by the company wishing to raise capital.

A ‘selling shareholder offering’ tells the investor (if not purely in the initial documents then in the phone conferences leading up the a check being cut) that the company has an organized pre public and post public investor relations strategy, general corporate publicity strategy and a market maker that’s built to last (mostly the former than the later). By offering seed investors the ability for massive profitability by buying your seed shares for fifty cents with a public offering price anticipated at $2.00. What real investor would turn this down?

Offer your seed investors an ‘easy in, quick out’ funding option and watch them swarm to your offering in droves. Let these investors create your float and let your company’s performance and hardcore investor relations take care of the rest!

INVESTORS WANT ACCESS TO PRE IPO COMPANIES? CALL US AT 267-233-0183

When gearing up to raise capital it is typically a business owners first instinct to simply throw together a business plan and find the cheapest company to put together the private placement memorandum and then seek funding. What these professionals don’t realize is that they are doing things in reverse and often times a PPM is not a standalone solution to financial needs.

The first problem is the most companies will first write a business plan and cheap PPM and look for a capital solutions last, when strategically speaking, one should first find a full service solution who has a database of investors ready to fund properly structured corporations with well authored business plans and private placement memos. After you find a company that has a ready network of seasoned investors you will often find that this firm will also structure your business and documents so that you are able to attract the attention of these investors. Next, don’t make the mistake of hiring just anybody to write your biz plan. You need to find a professional author who is well rooted in the art of technical writing and has a solid comprehension of your industry.

Now it’s time to write the PPM. Here is a warning that will most likely go in one ear and out the other but you must never choose the cheapest service for your PPM you will regret it and this is a guarantee. Investors see these documents all day everyday and they know a template when they see it. Don’t believe for a second that you will get a viable private placement memo that will actually achieve funding for anything less than $3,000; it’s just not going to happen. There is too much work involved in putting a fund-able strategy together and you’ll never find an experienced firm to do it for cheap.

The moral of the story is to first find an investor finder solution with a solid network of investors, second have this company write your business plan and private placement memorandum to fit the needs of their investor base and lastly, talk to this consultant about helping you perform a DPO (Direct Public Offering) to their group. This is what separates the men from the boys in the venture capital consulting industry.

Legitimate consultants who stand behind their work will take your PPM directly to their investor base and help you raise capital quickly. In return for this service the company may want a modest equity position in addition to their fee but it is always worth it and typically they will take the final step and have their investors pay to take your company public. This is the ultimate for any company that is seeking a long term funding solution.

Remember the order: 1. Find an investor finder 2. Have that company write your biz plan and PPM 3. Convince the firm to perform a DPO for fast funding 4. Offer some equity to sweeten the pot so that they take you public!

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We never use our blog as an ad post but we’ve been getting a lot of questions from our blog readers about our new service so here it is:
1. we structure your company with a focus on corporate and executive infrastructure and organization
2. we help you select a board of directors that will enhance the overall appeal of your company to investment sources.
3. we will evaluate potential strategic alliances that will help you grow and stabilize the longevity of your company.
4. we will author a business plan and private placement memorandum that stands out to investors.
5. we will open up on proprietary and ultra responsive investor database to raise capital via Direct Public Offering also known as DPO
6. the next phase is to take your company public on the OTCBB. We have a third party audit completed, file and complete the comments stage with the SEC for your S1.
7. get your trading symbol, set you up with an Investor Relations firm so your market maker can sell your stock with ease and that’s it!

The process funds in two different stages, stage one with the PPM and DPO which will pay for the ‘going public’ services and facilitation and stage two which will bring in ongoing public funds from the sale of Stock!

any questions just give us a call at 267 233 0183

Princeton Corporate Solutions (www.princetoncorporatesolutions.com) is announcing it’s Direct Public Offering service to it’s Private Placement Memorandum clients. What’s the point in writing a PPM or using a DPO if you don’t have a ready audience to raise capital from? Many companies hire consultants to write business plans and private placement memorandums only to find it near impossible to raise capital because they are lacking the vital element that is necessary for all successful capital raising ventures, that element being accredited Investors.
Princeton Corporate Solutions is now making it easier than ever for qualified companies to raise multiple rounds of capital by offering Direct Public Offerings to our in house investor group who will also invest in taking your company public on the OTCBB. No other company can offer such a powerful package.
The process works like this: 1. Contact Princeton Corporate Solutions for a free consultation at 267-233-0183. 2. Find out in less than 24 hours if you qualify for our DPO/OTCBB public offering solutions 3. If you qualify we structure your company, help you qualify and set up a board of directors, evaluate any potential strategic alliances that can strengthen your position and put growth strategies in place (everything an investor wants to see in a company) 4. Author a Business Plan and PPM. 5. Open up the investment to our in house group of qualified investors via Direct Public Offering (DPO) 6. Start the ‘going public’ process. 7. Market Maker introduction and trading symbol. 7. Congratulations! You are now a strong, stable publicly traded company!
Contact us today if you would like to start raising capital and go public! 267-233-0183 or visit our website at www.princetoncorporatesolutions.com