We dive into everything you need to know about SPACs — what they are, why they're a compelling alternative to IPO/DPOs, and how they might play an even more important role in startup financing going forward — with two of the very best people to teach us: Kevin Hartz and Troy "SPAC Professor" Steckenrider of the newly-minted $200m SPAC, AONE.
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Links:
- A* and ONE: https://www.a-star.co
- John Luttig's great Medium piece on SPACs: https://luttig.substack.com/p/spac-attack-everything-a-founder
- Bill Gurley on SPACs as an attractive alternative to IPOs/DPOs (posted after recording): https://abovethecrowd.com/2020/08/23/going-public-circa-2020-door-3-the-spac/
TLDR:
- SPACs are an alternative path for companies to go public, however until recently they were mostly obscure and little-known/used.
- Meanwhile, the traditional IPO process has become onerous and broken: it takes 9+ months of company time, yet investors get only 15 minutes of management access and must make a decision in
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