One of the "easiest" ways to get rich, I believe, is through IPOs (taking your company public). Yet it is something that very few people ever consider. A search through the forums here gets me 0 results for "IPO" - shocking for a "get rich" forum 
I'm FAR from a specialist on the topic, which I why I want to discuss it. But I've been lucky enough to be part of a company (a few years back) that was on track to an IPO.
I had a few misconceptions prior to that, which I think most people share:
MYTHS:
1. You need a super glamorous business, or to be in tech, to do an IPO
2. You need to be huge, big profits, have hundreds of employees, be in fabulous offices
3. You need a genius idea (ie be a Google, Youtube...)
4. You need a rock star management team (MBAs galore)
Those myths, for me, meant that never in a million-years would I have seen myself as capable enough to create a company and take it public. It just seemed overwhelming. Not my world.
What I saw in my former company changed my mind:
FACTS:
-The company wasn't in a glamorous sector
-It had less than 200 employees
-It was only a few years old and making a few millions turnover a year
-Our offices were so-so
-Management was NOT very bright. Greedy and cunning, yes, bright, no ;-)
Bottom line: many small companies go public, every year. From all sectors. Most of them do not look incredible from the outside. Nor do they raise hundreds of millions. They raise a few millions, or a few tens of millions. Enough to make the founder pretty rich and pretty fast indeed.
The point is, if you can see yourself building a small business with a few tens of employees and a few millions billing a year, you CAN think about taking it public. Most people do not realize that. It's not part of their reality.
If you read How to Get Rich, by Felix Dennis, he says the IPO process is a long legal nightmare, but that it made him very rich indeed. He says it's akin to having the right to print your own money.
Here is an example of a very small company going this route:
Tattoo removal firm aims for IPO as black ink flows - Los Angeles Times
Note that:
-the idea isn't new
-they are just branding it and expanding it into a chain with standardized process
-they are still very small (3 locations) and yet already going for it
The irony is by stating their far-fetched intention to go IPO next year, they will probably attract lots of private capital eager to "get in on the ground floor" and make lots of money at IPO time. It's kind of a "think and grow rich", virtuous circle.
I would like to get everyone's thoughts on this. Also, do you know of an "IPO tracking" site? I would like to read more stories like the one above. Techcrunch is good for tech stories. But I don't know of a place where you can get a steady streams of such stories from "normal" companies for inspiration.
I'm FAR from a specialist on the topic, which I why I want to discuss it. But I've been lucky enough to be part of a company (a few years back) that was on track to an IPO.
I had a few misconceptions prior to that, which I think most people share:
MYTHS:
1. You need a super glamorous business, or to be in tech, to do an IPO
2. You need to be huge, big profits, have hundreds of employees, be in fabulous offices
3. You need a genius idea (ie be a Google, Youtube...)
4. You need a rock star management team (MBAs galore)
Those myths, for me, meant that never in a million-years would I have seen myself as capable enough to create a company and take it public. It just seemed overwhelming. Not my world.
What I saw in my former company changed my mind:
FACTS:
-The company wasn't in a glamorous sector
-It had less than 200 employees
-It was only a few years old and making a few millions turnover a year
-Our offices were so-so
-Management was NOT very bright. Greedy and cunning, yes, bright, no ;-)
Bottom line: many small companies go public, every year. From all sectors. Most of them do not look incredible from the outside. Nor do they raise hundreds of millions. They raise a few millions, or a few tens of millions. Enough to make the founder pretty rich and pretty fast indeed.
The point is, if you can see yourself building a small business with a few tens of employees and a few millions billing a year, you CAN think about taking it public. Most people do not realize that. It's not part of their reality.
If you read How to Get Rich, by Felix Dennis, he says the IPO process is a long legal nightmare, but that it made him very rich indeed. He says it's akin to having the right to print your own money.
Here is an example of a very small company going this route:
Tattoo removal firm aims for IPO as black ink flows - Los Angeles Times
Note that:
-the idea isn't new
-they are just branding it and expanding it into a chain with standardized process
-they are still very small (3 locations) and yet already going for it
The irony is by stating their far-fetched intention to go IPO next year, they will probably attract lots of private capital eager to "get in on the ground floor" and make lots of money at IPO time. It's kind of a "think and grow rich", virtuous circle.
I would like to get everyone's thoughts on this. Also, do you know of an "IPO tracking" site? I would like to read more stories like the one above. Techcrunch is good for tech stories. But I don't know of a place where you can get a steady streams of such stories from "normal" companies for inspiration.
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