Home / What I Wish I Knew / Why you need to focus on investor relations in a pre-IPO company.

Why you need to focus on investor relations in a pre-IPO company.

Advisor and Former CFO at Cameo, Deb Schwartz, will talk with Airbase CFO, Aneal Vallurupalli, about how to build structure and consistency around an investor relations (IR) program.

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Most pre-IPO companies do not have a dedicated investor relations team, so the discipline, reporting, and storytelling fall directly to the CFO. In this What I Wish I Knew, Deb and Aneal will share ideas about effective communication strategies, what investors want to see, how to position risks and opportunities, and why an IR program is important. In the bustle of so many competing short-term demands, it’s important to remember that building (and knowing how to build) great relationships with investors is essential to your long-term success. With the right setup and plan, you can create an effective program that will serve you until you bring in a full-time resource. Join us to hear how.

Key takeaways.

  • Why are investor relations important to pre-IPO companies?
  • What are the requirements for an effective IR program? 
  • How does a company build an effective communication strategy?

About the speakers.

Deb Schwartz

Deb Schwartz

Advisor and Former CFO of Cameo

Deb is currently an advisor to Cameo where she had previously been CFO for 2+ years. At Cameo, Deb led several financings including a Series C and debt raise. Prior to Cameo, Deb served as CFO at Bustle Digital Group, where she assisted in the acquisition of six major brands, including W Magazine, and was instrumental in seeing revenue double. Beyond CFO roles, Deb has a wide-spanning net of experience. She has previously worked in equity research, banking, finance, and analysis. With experience at Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse, Google, and Groupon, Deb pairs institutional experience with big brand exposure.

Aneal Vallurupalli

Aneal Vallurupalli

CFO at Airbase

Aneal Vallurupalli is the Chief Financial Officer at Airbase. His background includes early- to late-stage corporate finance, corporate development, operations, and tech M&A. Most recently, Aneal was the Vice President of Finance & Operations at Mattermost, where he still serves as an advisor. At Mattermost, Aneal grew the company’s enterprise value, with a 4x increase in revenue growth and by leading the $50M Series B. He also managed the company’s fully distributed global growth by doubling the number of countries it operates in, and growing employee count by 5x. Prior to that, he was the Head of Strategic Finance at Mapbox, where he led the company’s $164M Series C round of funding from SoftBank, and was the founding member of the Corporate Development team at Guidewire (NYSE:GWRE), helping it to grow from a $800M private company to a $7B public company. His career began in technology investment banking at Union Square Advisors, completing a range of public and private M&A transactions, including buy-side, sell-side, corporate divestitures, and restructurings.

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