A Digital Age Rite:The IPO Roadshow; A Former Post Reporter Chronicles His New Company's Successful Pitch to Underwriters, Regulators and Investors
Editor's note: "Going public"--that is, selling a company's shares to public investors for the first time--is the dream of many an entrepreneur and of the people who go to work for many of today's start-up companies. Mike Mills left his reporting job at The Washington Post in April to join one such firm as the company's vice president of business development. This is his story of participating in the company's venture into the public stock market.</br></br>Our company's chief executive is about to break one of the cardinal rules of an IPO roadshow: Never attempt a live demonstration of your product.</br></br>We've implored him not to do this. Should the product, for some reason, fail to perform, the presentation is finished. To drive that point home, our chief financial officer nervously recounts a legendary anecdote from his former employer: "The guy says, 'See our new Styrofoam cup? It's lighter but stronger! Let's pour water into it.' Then, whoosh! The bottom of the cup mysteriously gives out. Show over."</br></br>But the cautionary tale doesn't sway David Oros, president and chief executive of Aether Systems Inc. Rather, it merely strengthens his resolve. So there I stand, along the wall in an auditorium at Merrill Lynch & Co.'s Wall Street headquarters, wondering whether my boss's determination will pay off or do us in.</br></br>Though our actual roadshow won't begin until tomorrow, we were reminded beforehand that this meeting--to the entire equity sales staff at Merrill Lynch, our lead investment bank--is every bit as important as our direct pitch to investors. If the demo crashes, these sales agents will hardly be enthused to get on the phone and push Aether's first publicly traded shares out the door.