A Deep Dive into Going Public

Welcome Back!

We’re back with a one-off deep-dive newsletter - we’ll be back with another edition of The Wall Street Rollup on Thursday, but we got the chance the other day to take a deep dive on an investing show.

Going Public, the groundbreaking series where viewers can invest as they watch is back for a second season. The show allows customers and fans the ability to invest in companies as they seek preferred equity and equity financing.

Much like Shark Tank, the show gives start-up businesses exposure through pitching their companies on TV. Going Public takes this premise and expands it to allow the viewer the ability to invest. Show creators Todd Goldberg and Darren Marble created the show in order to give retail investors the opportunity to participate in fundraises by early stage companies that are at an inflection point for future growth.

So who’s the host of Going Public? None other than two-time NBA all-star Baron Davis. I wasn’t expecting to see a former Warriors and Knicks star make this crossover, but Davis has focused on entrepreneurship and investing in startups since retiring from the NBA.

Season 2 of Going Public has five episodes that are less than 15 minutes long. But Davis isn’t the only famous face on the show. There’s also cameos from celebrities from Floyd Mayweather. We don’t want to spoil it…but you do get to see Mayweather back in the ring… 👀 

For me personally, it was interesting seeing Floyd Mayweather talk about his desire to get into investing. Seeing athletes go from millions to nothing scared him so he vowed that it wasn’t going to be him.

The first season of Going Public premiered in January 2022, having featured four businesses looking for capital to help supercharge their growth. Across the 4 companies they raised $10 million! Those companies were Proven, Trebel, Hammitt, and NGT Academy. Proven has most recently raised an additional $12.2M Series A led by NewH2 Ventures in September 2023.

The latest season will feature the following three companies:

• Saleen Automotive: Saleen is a manufacturer of customized performance cars based in Corona, California. The company designs, engineers, tests, certifies, manufactures and assembles high-performance sports cars and various automotive parts used in performance vehicles, technical performance parts and customized cars. The founder is a former race-car driver, Steve Saleen, who is obsessed with building the best car he can. Saleen races his car on the show as well.

• Max International: Max is a nutritional supplement company working to help people live healthier lives. They have patented products focused on raising glutathione levels. Glutathione is a key part of working on improving the anti-inflammatory properties in your body.

• Cards and Coffee is a provider of sports cards intended to modernize sports card collecting. With 9 stores, the company specializes in buying, selling, and investing in sports cards with participation in daily box breaks of new sports card packs such as baseball packs, basketball packs, and soccer packs, enabling users to enjoy collecting sports cards and connect with fellow hobbyists. They even do Pokémon cards as well, as their mission to serve trading card fanatics. Current investors include Steve Aoki and Gary Vee.

Going Public is a combination of a show like Shark Tank, but it also gives viewers the opportunity to invest in the startups featured on the show. 

This was a pretty radical show…doing crazy things like hooking the CEOs up to lie detectors…as well as some other stuff I don’t want to spoil.

This was definitely a juiced up, new and improved version of Shark Tank and I definitely appreciated the spin that Going Public took.

It was nice weekend binge to watch, so we recommend checking it out.

Season two is streaming now on MarketWatch. Watch here!*

We’ll talk more on Thursday in the next edition of the Wall Street Rollup, but here’s some headlines and news updates in the meantime:

• NVIDIA’s earnings are coming up after the close on Wednesday…we’re hanging on for dear life here, waiting to see whether the bull market run will continue, or whether AI demand is getting ahead of itself.

• Other Upcoming Earnings:

  • Tuesday: Lowe’s, AutoZone, Toll Brothers, Macy’s, ViaSat

    Wednesday: NVIDIA, TJX, Analog Devices, Target, Snowflake, Williams-Sonoma, e.l.f. Beauty,

    Thursday: Intuit, TD Bank, Workday, Autodesk, Ross Stores, Dollar Tree, Deckers, Burlington, Ralph Lauren, BJ’s, RH, LionsGate

• Scarlett Johansson is suing OpenAI: According to the star actress, Sam Altman tried to get her to voice the ChatGPT 4 system. After declining the offer, she and others realized that the ChatGPT 4 voice that was recently announced sounds very similar to her, causing her to therefore hire legal counsel to preserve her likeliness.

  • Here’s the full statement.

• Jamie Dimon’s succession is nearing, with him alluding to the fact it's probably a few years away..

• Eli Manning is looking to buy an NFL team. With Private Equity now allowed to buy up to 30% of an NFL team, Manning has his eyes on making a deal.

Talk on Thursday!

Disclosures:

_{*This is a paid advertisement for Going Public. All solicitations of investors to buy securities are being made by, and all information included on the series and the website relating to the issuers and their securities has been provided by and is the responsibility of, such issuers. Should a person choose to invest or attempt to invest in an issuer, all such sales will be effected by the issuer. The company and the sponsors have no role in effecting such transactions. On Going Public, you will hear from different companies who are giving viewers an opportunity to invest through an exemption from registration with the SEC called Regulation CF and/or Regulation D 506 (c). These offerings have not gone through a registration process with the SEC and do not have the investor protections that it provides. The securities offered are speculative and illiquid, and an investor could lose the entire investment. Investors should read the relevant Offering Circular and consider the risks therein before investing. It should be noted, that just because the show is called “Going Public,” there is no guarantee that any company will in fact, go public, or ever list on an exchange. You need to know the risks going in. 17(b) Disclaimer: Click Here. Disclosure Regarding the Role of Going Public®, its sponsors and Crush Capital. Max International and Cards & Coffee are “testing the waters.” No money or other consideration is being solicited, and if sent in response, will not be accepted; No offer to buy the securities can be accepted and no part of the purchase price can be received until the offering statement is filed and only through an intermediary's platform; and a person's indication of interest involves no obligation or commitment of any kind.}