A Rocket Ride is simply financing for rapid growth that goes from a startup to $100 million or more in a few years.
Rocket Ride accomplishes this in a seamless, integrated set of steps. It uses techniques that are individually well known (seed capital, venture capital, IPO), but at Rocket Ride they are all part of a path to provide the fastest possible company development, not just a failed mess of separate transactions with the partner who is most convenient at that time.
Beginning with the concept, the company is positioned for growth in an exit strategy. Strategic buyer prospects are studies about their needs and what they would find most valuable. Public stock markets are studied as to what would bring the best market value as an initial public offering. These elements are integrated into the concept and growth plan.
From the ground floor, the company must be set up correctly. That means using sophisticated legal documents that prepare the company to go public or be sold from the start.
To create an ongoing process, you need to develop the founding documents, articles of incorporation, bylaws, incentive plans, labor agreements, and corporate governance rules for the exit strategy, whether or not it goes public. or a sale to a strategic buyer.
Then the growth plan and each stage of financing can be planned. However, planning is not enough. Everybody has a good plan; it is execution that separates the dreamers from the successful.
When you have the plan, the need for managerial talent for the team will be easy to see.
history of rocket travel
My work in the investment business began at the OTC trading desk, where everything from wild penny specs to boring top maker speculations were traded. More importantly, this is where most publicly traded companies began operations.
Rising to vice president of trading at a New York investment bank, I not only made markets in our IPOs and the other houses’ public offerings, but I also had to read the prospectuses and attend all the dog shows.
This experience was like a continuous stream of business school case studies in corporate finance. It was also an education on what investors will avoid and what they will buy.
As I became an investment banker, I developed more and more techniques for venture companies, and that inevitably led me to start running them.
Make no mistake, this was the school of hard knocks: you get spanked hard if you’re doing something that doesn’t work and you figure out what works and what works like crazy.
Eventually, this morphed into the idea of a process, not one disjointed transaction after another.
The limiting factor in the growth of most companies is their own decisions. At the beginning, the company has infinite potential. Bad ideas limit growth. It takes experience to build a strategy that can take you all the way.
My experience tells me that the Rocket Ride is for you if:
You have a public or private risk company
You have an overwhelming desire to succeed.
you are always optimistic
you are extremely impatient
You are a fan of your company.
you are a visionary
You are tenacious
You are willing to work hard to get results.
You are demanding with others.
You put your business first, knowing that success will bring you all the rewards you desire
You are willing to share the fruits of your efforts with others.
you are a leader
Is willing to do whatever it takes to get the job done and get it done on time
You secretly have your company logo tattooed on your arm
You want to grow your business at the fastest rate possible
The steps of the Rocket Ride are performed by a team. Management is knowledgeable about its core business, but may not have the experience or time to conquer Wall Street. Teams are needed for the company to grow really fast. Each function, such as finance, must support the core business.
The first financing is seed capital. Then more rounds of financing. It is critical to schedule these rounds to minimize dilution. Then the main financing.
One of the benefits of doing this correctly is that you don’t have to redo any of the work to prepare for an IPO or sale of the company. This minimizes the use of management time. Management has to work on the core business. The money has to be there when it is needed, leaving management to focus on what they are actually doing. Finance is, after all, just a support function.
Finally, the exit strategy. Most venture capital deals plan to do an IPO or merge with a large company. If this is done well, the company is prepared from day one to present itself to many strategic buyers, perhaps at auction. Strategic buyers have been properly educated on the key importance of the company in maximizing price.
If the company is going public, there is the process of finding an underwriter, valuing the company, negotiating terms, and marketing the issue. The process does not end there, as the company must do well in post-market trading for the founders to be able to get paid or not and can look back with great satisfaction on the entire journey as a true success. That’s what you really want, isn’t it?
