确保IPO成功的十大关键

    6.上市前，强化资产负债表。既然你能从IPO中筹集到相当的资本，在此之前寻求现金看起来似乎违背人们的本能。但你必须没有任何明显的、可能导致失败的“单个缺陷”，这一点很关键。公众投资者不习惯为运营亏损提供融资。如果你需要拟在IPO中筹集的这些现金，公众投资者可能会回避投资，或要求相当低的估值。现金充足的时候启动IPO，能让你在公众投资者面前有底气，一旦他们知道自己投资的现金并不是短期运营亟需的资金，大多数投资者会感到更放心。

    7.进行IPO推介时，不要创造任何指标。团购网站Groupon对此深有体会。Groupon曾经竭力向公众介绍调整后合并部门运营利润（ACSOI，即“调整”剔除网络营销费用)，但公众投资者一看到新的衡量指标，就倾向于做最差假设。如果投资者搞懂了如何预测你的表现，他们只会购买你的股票。因此，要让帮助公司内部预测的关键推动因素指导你披露的指标。指标要尽可能简单——不要用那些说不清的指标让投资者感到头昏脑涨，就算这些指标再诱人也不行。

    8.财务预期一定要适度打折。要成为一家成功的上市公司，创造长期价值，需要持续不断地达到、甚至超出预期。IPO之后要通过控制预期，确保公司能够超越预期，同时提高多个季度的预期。很多公司在向分析师提供IPO前预期时，会将内部模型数据砍掉25%。如果你每个季度都超出预期太多，等于是在告诉投资者忽略你的预期，市场预期就会随之变得不可理喻。管理团队持续兑现预期，知道如何应对华尔街，这些至关重要。

    9.准备好为投资者关系投入大量时间。我调查过很多新上市的公司，经常听到它们的CEO和CFO在上市后第一年在投资者关系上投入20-30%的时间。如果要投入这么多时间，公司内部需要有一个强有力的团队，可以在你外出教育投资者的时候接替你的工作。

    10.IPO定价不应只看一步。如果你的股票价格在首日交易中较IPO价格上涨了25-50%，那么你显然是留下了一些本属于你的钱。但建立正确的投资者群体完全可以弥补募集资本略少一些造成的损失。努力吸引那些真正的长期投资者，这些投资者已经做过功课，了解你的业务。一旦上市，你就不能阻止短期投资者倒卖你的股票，但如果能拥有的长期投资者越多，情况自然越好。

    就是这些。准备IPO时，请把上面这几条记在心里。（财富中文网）

    本文作者格林•所罗门是纪源资本的合伙人。他近期的投资包括Pandora、Successfactors、Isilon、Square、Zendesk、Quinstreet、Nimble Storage等公司。作者为胸怀大志的成长期创业家们撰写了一系列文章，本文是其中一部分。欲阅读全系列文章，可访问www.goinglongblog.com。

    译者：早稻米

    6. Boost your balance sheet prior to your IPO. Since you'll raise significant capital in your IPO, it may seem counter-intuitive to seek cash beforehand as well. It's critical that you not have any obvious "single points" of possible failure however. Public investors are unaccustomed to funding operating losses. If you need the cash you propose raising in your IPO, public investors are prone to either shy away or seek a very aggressive valuation. Commencing your IPO with full coffers will give you a position of strength as you approach public investors, and most will be more comfortable knowing the cash they're investing isn't critical to fund near-term operations.

    7. Don't invent any metrics as you market your IPO. As Groupon (GRPN) famously learnedwhen it tried to popularize Adjusted Consolidated Segment Operating Income (or ACSOI, which proposed "adjusting" out online marketing expenses), public investors tend to assume the worst when they see new metrics. Investors will only buy your stock if they understand how to forecast your performance, so let the key drivers that help you forecast internally guide what metrics you disclose. Keep it simple -- don't overwhelm investors with metrics that aren't telling, even if they're sexy.

    8. Make sure your financial projections are sufficiently haircut. To be successful as a public company and create value over the long term, you'll need to continually meet or exceed expectations. Set yourself up to beat numbers and raise guidance for several quarters after your IPO by keeping a lid on expectations. It's not uncommon to see companies haircut their internal models by 25% when providing pre-IPO guidance to analysts. Conversely, if you beat guidance numbers by too wide a margin every quarter, you'll teach investors to ignore your guidance, and expectations will run wild. Earning a reputation as a management team that delivers and understands how to manage Wall Street is critical.

    9. Be prepared to devote lots of time to investor relations. I've polled many newly-public companies, and I routinely hear that their CEOs and CFOs spend 20-30% of their time during the first year as a public company on I.R. To be prepared to devote this kind of time, you'll need to have a strong team internally who can step in for you while you're out educating investors.

    10. Price your deal to move. If your stock price closes its first day of trading up 25-50% from its IPO price, you clearly left some money on the table. But the price you'll pay in raising slightly less money than you would have otherwise will be more than compensated by building the right investor base. Seek to attract serious, long-term investors who have done their homework and understand your business. You can't keep short-term traders from trafficking in your stock once you're public, but the more long-term oriented your investor base, the better.

    There you have it. Keep this list in mind as you build toward your IPO ...

    Glenn Solomon (@glennsolomon) is a Partner with GGV Capital. Some of his recent investments include Pandora, Successfactors, Isilon, Square, Zendesk, Quinstreet and Nimble Storage. This post is part of a series for growth stage entrepreneurs who are thinking big; the full series can be found at www.goinglongblog.com.