Welcome to the Arena from ICR – Conversations with Today's Innovators & Business Leaders

Tech companies are having to work harder than ever to prove their resilience in an increasingly noisy market. For investors, the pandemic has highlighted the need for sustained growth and detailed future planning when choosing where to put their capital, and communicating these avenues of value to investors needs to be a part of every company's core strategy.

Joining me today on this episode of ICR Industry Reports is Partner Greg McDowell, Head of Technology Investor Relations. Greg has spent the last 25 years fully immersed in software, spending 10 years at Oracle as an Account Manager, then moving to JMP, an investment bank based in San Francisco. He's seen the sector change over time -- everything from the dot com crisis through the pandemic re-writing the tech rule book.

In this episode, we discuss the fluctuating nature of tech stocks, how investor requirements are changing, and how resistance, detailed forward planning and high-quality communication are all key to successful growth.

Show Notes

Summary:

Tech companies are having to work harder than ever to prove their resilience in an increasingly noisy market. For investors, the pandemic has highlighted the need for sustained growth and detailed future planning when choosing where to put their capital, and communicating these avenues of value to investors needs to be a part of every company's core strategy. 

Joining me today on this episode of ICR Industry Reports is Partner Greg McDowell, Head of Technology Investor Relations. Greg has spent the last 25 years fully immersed in software, spending 10 years at Oracle as an Account Manager, then moving to JMP, an investment bank based in San Francisco. He's seen the sector change over time -- everything from the dot com crisis through the pandemic re-writing the tech rule book.

In this episode, we discuss the fluctuating nature of tech stocks, how investor requirements are changing, and how resistance, detailed forward planning and high-quality communication are all key to successful growth.

Highlights:
  • Greg talks about the work culture at Oracle (3:58)
  • Greg breaks down the work he does with tech clients at ICR (5:22)
  • Greg lays out the landscape of tech stocks and investor sentiment (8:09)
  • As a tech company, how do you prove the durability of your revenue growth to investors? (12:13)
  • Greg discusses the durability of software companies in a market dependent on them (13:57)
  • Greg talks about the importance of telling your story to investors (15:49)
Links:
ICR Twitter
ICR LinkedIn
ICR Website
Greg McDowell LinkedIn
Greg McDowell Bio

Feedback:
If you have questions about the show, or have a topic in mind you'd like discussed in future episodes, email our producer, elizabeth@lowerstreet.co.

What is Welcome to the Arena from ICR – Conversations with Today's Innovators & Business Leaders?

In the increasingly crowded and competitive corporate and financial ecosystem, it’s harder than ever for companies to break through the clutter and be heard. The media, investors, agenda-driven influencers, even customers and competitors, are defining your business story on their terms. Therefore, it is imperative that companies take control and proactively drive the conversation with stakeholders in an effort to build & maintain equity value.

In Welcome to the Arena from ICR, Co-Founder & CEO of ICR, Tom Ryan, interviews key business and financial players who influence the fate of public or aspiring public companies in the capital markets. As a former Wall Street Journal ranked sell-side equity analyst and the founder of one of the largest strategic communications firms in the world, Tom understands what it takes to navigate this complex environment.

This is a forum for CEOs, CFOs, institutional investors, sell-side analysts, financial journalists, private equity professionals and other financial community participants to share their stories and give advice in an open and candid conversation.

For more information, visit http://www.icrinc.com