It is great that you are taking the initiative and want to learn more about the capital market and how it can be highly beneficial to your company!

It was in the year 1999 – more than 25 years ago – that as a 32-year-old, I sold the majority of my mobile communications company (which was a boom industry at the time) to a telco group from the USA that was listed on the technology stock exchange NASDAQ. As a result of these first experiences in the capital market, I became acquainted with SEC compliance and the possibility for a listed company to pay parts of purchase prices for acquisitions with its own shares, or to use the shares as acquisition currency.

In 2005, as founder and CEO, I led a third-party logistics company with 340 employees to the General Standard of the Deutsche Börse. During this time, I became familiar with the process of an IPO project via a “Going Public” with a so-called step-up procedure (capital increase in kind), and subsequently, through “Being Public,” the annually recurring cycle of post-listing obligations and related Investor Relations and Public Relations measures.

In 2008, I “switched sides” and have since worked within a Munich-based auditing/tax advisory firm as a Partner for ECM (Equity Capital Markets / Investment Banking) and capital market service provider. I am a Listing Partner for various stock exchanges and accompany companies that I acquire through a structured process to the stock exchange, subsequently providing growth capital from professional investors. In over 50 IPOs for issuers from various countries with a total emission volume of well over €1 billion, I have gathered experience specifically with the Deutsche Börse (Frankfurt), German regional exchanges, the Vienna Stock Exchange, and the Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE). The issuers – entrepreneurs like yourself – are micro- and small-caps with market capitalizations between €20 million and €120 million.

Since then, I have also led my own holdings as a shareholder to the stock exchange several times – including in so-called RTOs (Reverse Takeover transactions). This means that to this day, I am repeatedly “on your side of the table” as an entrepreneur and speak from my own personal experience. Furthermore, I have served several times as a member of the supervisory board of listed companies and have chaired annual general meetings in this capacity.

In all these years of experience in the capital market as an entrepreneur and service provider, I have practically never met an issuer who regretted their IPO and was not able to leverage the advantages of the capital market and the institutionalized, permanent access to interest-free equity, among many other benefits.

An IPO is far more than just a financial step – it is a strategic milestone that elevates your company into a new league!

You have built a strong foundation, established a product or service, gained the trust of your customers, and built a team that shares your vision. The next logical step is now to scale this potential. By going public, you open your company’s access to significantly larger capital, enabling growth spurts that are hardly achievable privately or through banks and pure debt capital: international expansion, high-level innovation, and the ability to occupy new markets early on, or even the currently necessary digital transformation of your company using agentic AI systems with massive savings potential.

At the same time, you increase the visibility and reputation of your company – a stock exchange listing creates trust among partners, customers, and talent, who are significantly more likely to commit long-term to a transparently managed, listed company that follows EU-harmonized compliance. You secure the future of your company by giving it a broader financial base and making it more independent – especially independent of banks. An IPO does not mean giving up control, but gaining influence: over new opportunities, new resources, and a sustainable position in the competitive landscape.

Now is the moment to transform your previous success story into an even greater growth story that reaches far beyond today. With an IPO, you send a clear signal: This company is ready for the next phase – and you are leading it to where you receive the highest possible valuation for your life’s work and access to interest-free growth capital.

I would be delighted to accompany you on this path as an entrepreneurially experienced partner with a multitude of successful transactions and as a capital market service provider. I can plan and set up the IPO project with you and lead it to success in an implementation-oriented, pragmatic, and cost-efficient manner (Open Books method).

Let’s talk,

Yours, Jörn Follmer – IPOConsultant