When startup entrepreneurs think about going public, they typically think about gearing up for an initial public offering (IPO). Going public via a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), commonly referred to as a reverse merger process, is another route that’s becoming more popular and is also worth considering.
When Manish Patel, one of Shift’s board members, first suggested that I learn about SPACs back in 2019, I had no clue what he was talking about.
Now, just over a year later, we’ve almost completed Shift’s SPAC process. I hope that what we’ve learned from our experience is useful for other CEOs and founders considering a SPAC.
Shift announced its SPAC in June 2020 and is expected to complete the process of going public later this year. Here are a few of the things you and your team might want to get in order if you’ve decided that a SPAC might be a fit for you and your business:
Be prepared to become a SPAC expertSPACs have been around for a number of years, but they have become en vogue in recent months, especially given how well the public markets have held up in the COVID-19 era. Even still, don’t expect others to understand the SPAC process right off the bat.
If you go the SPAC route, you’ll need to become an expert at financial engineering. When we first started the process, I had to spend a lot of time educating our investors and team about how SPACs work and their validity. So I’ve had to come to the table with examples of when SPACs have worked and why, with a lot of data to back up my claims. Keep in mind that going through a SPAC will likely be a new process for all of them too. Even if you’ve been through a successful IPO process, you’ll still need to educate yourself — the SPAC process and the IPO process are completely different.
