Taking a company public is one of the most powerful ways to accelerate growth, but many founders overlook the strategic advantages it provides. The transition from private to public markets offers more than just capital, it creates opportunities for expansion that can fundamentally change a company’s trajectory. Peter Wright, who has worked on both sides of the investment table, has spent years helping companies navigate this critical evolution.
Highlighting Why Capital Strategy Gets Ignored
Wright sees the same blind spot repeatedly. “So often, founders are focused on how they make money by selling their product or service and optimizing their growth and margins and capitalization around that,” he notes. “What is often the most overlooked part of creating value is properly capitalizing your company.” The transition from private to public isn’t just about raising money. It’s about accessing cheaper capital, attracting larger amounts of funding, and getting a second currency for acquisitions and talent retention. His background gives him an unusual vantage point. Twenty years as a research analyst on both the sell side and buy side taught him what actually moves institutional investors. The last five years in banking showed him how deals get structured and capital gets raised. “Having been on both sides, and specifically the experiences that I had at Fidelity on the buy side selecting stocks from an institutional perspective, helps me position others in a way that will resonate with institutions,” he explains.
Understanding the Monopoly Advantage
Wright believes timing matters more now than ever. “We’re living in the Second Gilded Age where monopolies rule,” he states. Companies with first-mover advantage need proper capitalization to defend their position. Tesla, Amazon, Uber—they didn’t just build better products. They secured funding at costs their competitors couldn’t match. “Why did these leaders quickly become monopolies? It has to do with very quickly scaling to a cost of capital that no competitor can compete against, so that you can continue to invest and scale your position cheaper than anyone else,” Wright explains. This principle applies beyond the big names. Hundreds of companies in smaller markets face the same dynamics.
Outlining Three Critical Non-Negotiables
Wright’s approach centers on three elements that he thinks are non-negotiables:
Get The Right Quantum of Capital Early
Wright’s first principle focuses on capitalization timing and amount. Being public means raising more money at lower costs, and that advantage compounds over time as competitors struggle with higher capital costs. “Companies that have first-mover advantage can really only capitalize on that in their given market space with proper capitalization,” he explains. The goal is stepping ahead of competition before they can match your resources. This creates a widening gap where you invest and scale cheaper than anyone else in your space, eventually making it nearly impossible for others to catch up.
Build a Team That Manages Quarterly Expectations
The shift from private to public requires different management skills. “As a private company, you dream the dream. Attracting venture capital is about selling the dream of a 10 bagger five years out,” Wright says. “As a public company, you need to manage expectations on a quarterly cadence.” Private companies have episodic funding moments where excitement matters most. Public companies trade daily, so never needing to buy today because the same stock is available tomorrow means that momentum is built based on results. You need executives who set realistic targets and beat them consistently, creating a track record that builds confidence over time rather than overpromising and underdelivering.
Invest in Investor Relations and Storytelling
Wright’s third element focuses on process, specifically how you communicate with markets. “People don’t just come and pay attention to companies and invest in them on their own. Said another way stocks are sold, not bought,” he points out. Without someone actively marketing your story to the right audiences, your valuation lags behind competitors who simply communicate better. Delivering great fundamentals is a important, but the multiple that investors pay for those fundamentals is based on how investors understand what you’re building and why it matters. Companies that ignore this function watch their multiples suffer regardless of actual performance.
The SPAC boom gave Wright unusual exposure to what works and what fails. About 900 SPACs came to market in 2021 through 2023. “There have been both successes and failures. You learn as much, if not more, from failures as you do from successes,” he reflects. That pattern recognition is hard to get any other way. His analyst background shapes how he structures deals differently than most bankers. “I’ve looked at stocks from the perspective of both the sell side analyst promoting stocks and the buy side analyst buying stocks,” he says. Similar to selling any product understanding what investors want matters when positioning companies for public markets. Wright’s message is straightforward. Going public works when you get three things right: enough capital raised efficiently, a team built for consistent execution, and processes that keep investors engaged. Miss any of those and the transition gets messy.
Connect with Peter Wright on LinkedIn to explore more insights on capital strategy and public markets.
