Going Public
The process by which a private company offers its shares to the general public for the first time through an initial public offering.
What is Going Public?
Going public is the process by which a privately held company transitions to a publicly traded company by offering its shares for sale to outside investors for the first time, most commonly through an initial public offering (IPO). The process typically involves selecting investment banks as underwriters, filing a registration statement (Form S-1) with the SEC, conducting a roadshow to institutional investors, setting an offering price, and listing shares on an exchange such as the NYSE or Nasdaq. Going public enables a company to raise large amounts of capital, create liquidity for founders and early investors, and use publicly traded stock as currency for acquisitions. The tradeoffs include extensive regulatory disclosure requirements, quarterly earnings pressure, underwriting fees, and the discipline of serving public shareholders.
Example
When Instacart went public in September 2023, it priced its IPO at $30 per share, raising approximately $660 million. The company had been valued at $39 billion in a 2021 private funding round but went public at a $9.9 billion valuation — a stark example of how the public market can reprice a company's value independently of private venture capital marks, and how going public requires accepting that valuation is set by market forces, not internal projections.
Source: SEC EDGAR — Instacart S-1 Filing