Unlocking the IPO process with Patrick Grove

From M&As to IPOs to SPACs, headlines in 2021 have been dominated by exit talk. It makes sense: Almost $45 billion has been invested into Southeast Asia’s tech ecosystem in just the last five years, based on numbers from Cento Ventures’ reports. Accordingly, investors, founders, and startups alike are looking to chart out their future growth and strategy.

Initial public offerings are notoriously complex and long processes, often needing millions of dollars in investment and taking up to two years to complete. Yet this is the favored path for many startups and founders as it gives them the chance to say that they’ve really exited, graduating out of the startup phase and joining the league of public companies.

As more companies in Southeast Asia approach this point of maturity and start considering exit opportunities, they will be seeking guidance and advice from the startup community as they navigate their way through such a watershed moment. However, we’re still building up tribal knowledge around exit opportunities in the region because, frankly, there have not been that many.

To help jumpstart this conversation, we asked one of Southeast Asia’s pioneering tech entrepreneurs – none other than Patrick Grove of the Catcha Group, iProperty, and iFlix fame – to share his experiences. Patrick now has six IPOs under his belt across three different exchanges (New York Stock Exchange, Australian Securities Exchange, and Bursa Malaysia) and distills these experiences exclusively for Tech in Asia subscribers in our new series called Unlocked: Patrick Grove on How to IPO a Company.

From making his debut in 1999 with one of the region’s earliest dotcom companies and riding the subsequent digital wave to getting involved in this year’s craze for special purpose acquisition companies, Patrick has lived through the fickle nature of public markets and remains a true believer and champion of Southeast Asia’s tech scene.

I couldn’t imagine a better candidate to share his wisdom, offering tips and lessons he’s learned from navigating the ins and outs of a traditional IPO process. Patrick discusses how to assess your company’s maturity and readiness for a listing by detailing how to handle the internal prepwork, select advisors, and survive the infamous IPO roadshow.

In episode 4 of our series, for example, he talks about how founders and startups can tap into opportunities that abound in the region’s fast-changing exit landscape. He also gives his take on the pros and cons of a traditional IPO versus a SPAC merger.

Patrick also brings a refreshing candor to this series. One memorable moment from the shoot involved enterprise resource planning or ERP. I had read that companies should implement an ERP system to ensure that their finances and operations are in order. When I asked Patrick whether companies should actually invest in this, he stared at me blankly and basically said that I shouldn’t waste my time or money. That’s the kind of straightforward advice that founders should hear when preparing for an IPO.

Hear more of these gems by diving into this four-part series – we’ve unlocked the first episode! We hope that you’ll learn a thing or two, be entertained, and get inspired. Happy watching!