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Post by rodge on Apr 14, 2021 2:56:04 GMT
A company I’ve been working with over the past 2 months has been privately funded since it’s conception 10 years ago.
They are raising funds and are going public in about 6 weeks time.
While I’m not someone who has a lot of money to throw at things, I do like to invest in good businesses and in good opportunities and would be willing to put some money into this place.
I don’t have any insider information, I’ve just seen the tech and it’s game changing.
The technology they are working on is excellent and I can see them going far.
Has anyone here been part of an IPO as a small investor and how did you go about doing it?
I have an account with Robinhood and they do it for some places but I doubt they’ll be aware of this place.
Any suggestions?
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Post by bryan on Apr 14, 2021 6:53:35 GMT
I was part of an IPO when they floated Royal Mail. They ran a scheme where employees could invest in shares upto a limit. Maybe you could see if they plan to do something like that?
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Post by garry on Apr 14, 2021 7:34:37 GMT
I was head of products for a company that floated on the nasdaq in circa 2001. We were in that dot com era and peaked at a valuation of $6Bn (for a company with revenues of about $100m!).
There are typically some investor events where the business will present their offer. Companies like Hargreaves Landsown have a trading platform you can use - typically you register interest.
Be careful though - great tech doesn't always win out. I'd be more interested in their commercial capability
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Post by rodge on Apr 15, 2021 6:05:43 GMT
Thanks guys.
Garry, that’s good advice about the tech and commercial capability.
I’ve seen the applications of their product and it has a lot going for it- I actually have a sneaking suspicion that they are building it in conjunction with another company I’m working with but can’t mention it to either.
Time will tell!
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Post by garry on Apr 15, 2021 6:52:22 GMT
I spend quite a bit of time as an advisor in the vc space for tech start ups. If the tech you’re looking at is aimed at the b2b market think of assessing it using three criteria
1. Does it solve a pain? Great tech is for nothing unless there’s a customer at the other end waking up at 3am and worrying about the problem it can solve
2. Are there barriers? What stops others stepping into the market. Is there ip, or scale, or skill - anything that builds a barrier to entry to competitors
3. Can they operationalise? The tech start up road is littered with very clever people who had very clever ideas who could get no where near decent commercial execution.
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Post by johnc on Apr 15, 2021 7:57:54 GMT
Being part of an IPO is no different to buying shares in any company. I tend to use Interactive Investor (ii) for these kinds of thing but you may need to get a US broker/online broker to get access to it.
What you really want is some kind of employee share scheme that lets you buy the shares at discounted rates before the IPO.
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Post by Tim on Apr 15, 2021 8:23:59 GMT
If the shares are in a relative start-up then any gain may come a while down the road when someone bigger comes along and buys it up.
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Post by franki68 on Apr 15, 2021 13:06:24 GMT
My old business floated around 4 years ago,I was/still am a major shareholder .
I have done very nicely out of it but aside from the actual price they pay out a very healthy dividend ,but it’s a profitable business ..the trouble with a lot of companies that float us they never make money ,and to be honest I find the whole share thing very corrupt and share prices are influenced by so many factors many of which are Just stupid .
Personally shares are just a form of betting ,like horse racing and it is equally as bent IMO.
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Post by garry on Apr 15, 2021 13:37:14 GMT
My old business floated around 4 years ago,I was/still am a major shareholder . I have done very nicely out of it but aside from the actual price they pay out a very healthy dividend ,but it’s a profitable business ..the trouble with a lot of companies that float us they never make money ,and to be honest I find the whole share thing very corrupt and share prices are influenced by so many factors many of which are Just stupid . Personally shares are just a form of betting ,like horse racing and it is equally as bent IMO. What market did it float on? |
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Post by franki68 on Apr 15, 2021 19:50:16 GMT
The main market .
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Post by ChrisM on Apr 15, 2021 20:08:19 GMT
I've never been lucky with shareholdings at places that I work at, when I've had the opportunity they've usually gone all the way, or most of the way, down the pan :-(
Ditto with building societies that became banks and paid out, never had an account with any of them
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Post by rodge on Apr 17, 2021 7:12:30 GMT
The company has come up with a new type of rechargeable battery.
One of many I’m working with in this industry, it’s already got 2 major backers- multi billion dollar companies have been part of the early investment rounds, and they are scaling for production quickly.
Their current capacity will increase by about 500x when they get the line up and running later this year.
It’s wearable tech that they are doing, and is focused on larger capacity while having a smaller form factor.
It’s also not your typical startup that’s been around for 18 months and has a load of people running it who aren’t even shaving yet, this place has people in their 30’s-50’s running it and growing it. The culture of the company is also very strong.
Very interesting to see their plans and what they’re doing.
I’m not working for them, but working with them as a vendor.
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Post by Stuntman on Apr 17, 2021 19:38:30 GMT
Go with your gut feelings. If you think it's a good company and you know what the tech does, then it probably is, and will probably increase in value when others see what you see.
So you then just need to work out how you can invest in its shares (and how soon - can you buy at the offer price or do you need to wait until the shares can be publicly traded), and how much money you are willing to invest, speculate with, or lose.
Good luck.
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Post by alf on Apr 27, 2021 11:42:49 GMT
No, but when I sold semiconductor design engineer services, most of our UK clients were startups and I got the full pitch from the owners each time. They were very impressive but I don't think any of them ever made any money or even survived the 2008/9 recession. They used to dramatically over-egg the "game changing tech" they had developed, sometimes to a ridiculous degree. One - in Bristol - claimed to have some sort of Cicso-killer chip design, but of course someone that big will buy them out, copy them, vexaciously sue them, or whatever - the commercial world is very dog eat dog and commercial, not technical.
In this instance Rodge you must know them well so yes go with your gut, but never invest what you can't afford to lose....
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Post by Stuntman on May 6, 2021 20:07:29 GMT
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Post by rodge on May 7, 2021 1:49:32 GMT
That’s good advice, thanks! Probably going to hold off buying. A combination of not having the funds and the timing being not great as opposed to anything else. |
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Post by rodge on Jul 16, 2021 16:56:31 GMT
The company went public yesterday.
I bought 10 shares- a tiny amount to be honest, but I know that Tesla is very interested in their tech and could open up more markets for them.
Enovix is the name of the company, ENVX is the symbol on the Nasdaq.
Prices have been steady so far, will see how it goes.
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