Common Negative Misconceptions About Being A Public Company
Common Negative Misconceptions About Being A Public Company
Rob Bernshteyn – CEO of Coupa (NASDAQ: COUP) – shared a post on Fortune titled “Forget Snapchat and Blue Apron—Here’s Why Going Public Is Still a Good Idea.”
Bernshteyn says that going public was absolutely worth it and shares some common negative misconceptions about being a public company;
Opening Your Financials To The World Is Bad – According to Bernshteyn “Being public forces us to open up our financials for everyone to see—prospective customers, shareholders, employees, partners, and yes, even competitors. Transparency is a good thing. Embracing this transparency and authenticity, rather than feeling fiscally constrained, yields an extraordinary level of openness and trust with prospective customers.”
Quarterly Earnings Are Bad For Companies – According to Bernshteyn “Take the quarterly reporting of company earnings. I have found this to be a positive thing for our company. It provides a structure, rhythm, and cadence to the ongoing task of monitoring the pulse of the business. I want the level of organization, teamwork, and attention to detail that quarterly reporting demands.”
Being Public Increase Management Pressure – According to Bernshteyn “There’s a common perception that once you go public, the stakes are higher and therefore the pressure intensifies. I don’t see it that way. As a startup, we made a commitment to a small group of investors to do certain things and run the business in certain ways. As we grew, we made more, similar commitments to a bigger group of investors.”
Public Company Missteps Get More Attention – According to Bernshteyn “As a public company, you might worry that any missteps will attract a lot of negative attention. And that’s true: If you stumble, it will definitely be more public. But anybody who’s built a company to the point where it could go public has openly stumbled many times, overcome setbacks, and survived.”
Bernshteyn concludes that “going public brings a new level of responsibility and stakes to your business. But if you’re ready to push your company to achieve its full potential, an IPO might be your best option.”
Read the full article HERE.