At this stage, many companies are not profitable and will not be by the time they go public, but need have a plan towards profitability. Overreliance on manual processes causes a drag on growth and resources and operational readiness is a pre-requisite for the company to go public.

Companies must be adept at selecting the right investments. Advanced scenario-enabled modeling techniques make profitability projections possible. Manual processes and unscalable tools can be eliminated through smart tooling and robust (but lean) FP&A process transformations. Mezzanine or bridge financing is an excellent choice prior to an IPO, as further equity dilution is avoidable.