JD Durkin: Paul LaRosa. He is Executive Managing Director at Maxim Group. Paul, really nice to see you here today. Let’s talk all about your highly anticipated Growth Summit. It’s set to take place next week. What is it, and who are you most expecting will be in attendance?
Paul LaRosa: Yep. Thank you, JD. Pleasure to be here. Yeah, so we’re excited to have our two-day Growth Summit next week. It’s in New York City at the Hard Rock Hotel in Midtown.
And we’re going to have 100 companies there over two days, where they’ll be meeting with investors. We have 250 investors coming really from all over the world: Europe, Israel, Asia, Australia. And we have 1,100 meetings set up.
We have a bunch of panels: consumer lifestyle, minerals and mining, the shifting landscape of AI, data centers and infrastructure. So a lot of the current themes in the market.
Ron Johnson is our first-day keynote speaker, very well known. And the second day, we have former Mayor Eric Adams, who will give some good views on the city and the new administration and how that affects, you know, maybe the investing landscape.
JD Durkin: That’s very cool to hear. Ron’s a financial broadcast legend, so we’re looking forward to it. Between the companies who are presenting, all of those hundreds of investors who are attending, what do you most hope that they actually walk away with?
Paul LaRosa: Yeah, I mean, I think it’s just, you know, first of all, it’s networking. In addition to having packed days, we’ll have some fun. We have Flo Rida presenting and performing the first night.
So it’s a way for people to get together: the issuers, the investors, the lawyers, the IR firms, the TV stations. It’s just a great event.
We find that the investors find it very helpful, where they can meet with, you know, 10 companies in one day. If they stay for two days, it’ll be 20. And I think they get just a wealth of information. Hearing the panel experts is always good, too. But I think it’s networking and collaborating and getting information.
JD Durkin: To be honest, you had me at Ron and Sonia. But now that you say Flo Rida is going to be there as well, I’m extra jealous.
We’ve got a lot of big IPOs that are back in the headlines, the Anthropics, the OpenAIs, and so et cetera. Is the capital-raising window opening back up for smaller growth companies at the same time?
Paul LaRosa: It’s definitely slow, JD. You know, over the last probably three to four months, we are still seeing interest. We’re getting reverse inquiries. We’re doing deals. It’s just they’re a little smaller. They’re a little more difficult to price than it was a few months ago.
I think interest rates have been a big issue. Obviously, the conflict in Iran and the election coming up. This is typically a very weak time, you know, going into the midterms.
But if you look historically, after the midterms, the market has been up about 17%, both in the six-month and one-year period following the midterms. And it’s been up every time, 20 times in a row.
JD Durkin: Paul LaRosa, Executive Managing Director at Maxim Group. Best of luck with next week’s event. Enjoy your time with Flo Rida, and thanks for being on the show.
Paul LaRosa: Thank you, JD. Appreciate it.
