How to go public

Your startup's business is booming -- but do you have what Wall Street is looking for? Steve Goldman, IPO guru and CEO of Isilon Systems, has five tips to get you ready for a market debut.

Act like you're already public
Act like you're already public
It's not easy for seat-of-the-pants startups to become public companies that answer to shareholders and regulators. Goldman decided to ease the transition by putting Isilon through the paces more than a year before it filed for an IPO, gaining months of valuable practice in adhering to onerous accounting requirements.

"I can whine about Sarbanes-Oxley with the best of them," Goldman says. "But I think that when you complain about regulations from a leadership position, that sends a signal to employees that compliance is something you have to do, not something you should do."

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Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.