When meeting investors – if possible – meet in person
I have recently worked on a few transactions where a discussion about a roadshow or meetings was brought up.
A roadshow traditionally is where a management team or the CEO makes the rounds of the financial centers to drum up interest in a transaction or a company.
When I was a banker I would routinely bring in a CEO and set up face to face meetings with institutional investors. We would start with breakfast and do back to back meetings usually ending with a dinner.
It was tiring – running around the various cities, flights, taxis, etc. Pitch books needed to be printed – the whole nine yards.
With Covid – and the rise of Zoom – my banking contacts in NY universally say that “we don’t do things that way anymore”. The roadshow is gone.
The bankers blame it on the institutions – that the fund managers – the analysts don’t want to bother with visitors to their office. I think it is a combination of fund managers as well as the bankers not wanting to go to the trouble of setting up a roadshow – travel around, get into a suit – and everything else.
I disagree!
I think it is imperative to make the effort to meet as many of your actual or potential investors face to face. There is no better way to communicate to investors that management is passionate and committed about a business than communicating that enthusiasm in person.
Bring back the road show.
marcus laun 