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Can a small company go public?
Yes. There is no minimum revenue, profit or size to become a public company, and a company formed tomorrow can start the process. Whether it should depends far more on the founder than on the numbers. More than a dozen of the 17 companies we have taken public had no revenue when they started.
Joel Arberman, Meraki Partners · Reviewed October 2026. Based on 17 companies taken public since 1999: 11 by direct listing, 4 by reverse merger and 2 by IPO.
Is there a minimum revenue or profit to go public?
No. Registering shares with the SEC and trading on the OTC market has no revenue or profit test. Nasdaq and the NYSE do have financial standards, which is why most small companies start on the OTC market and move up later.
The practical minimum is money. Going public has a one-time cost, and staying public costs an earlier-stage OTC company about $300,000 to $500,000 a year. A company either earns enough profit to support that, or raises enough before listing to cover it, plus 12 months of being public, plus capital to grow. See the ongoing costs of being public.
Can a pre-revenue company go public?
Yes. More than a dozen of our 17 listings were pre-revenue. What made them work was the entrepreneur: growth-minded, experienced, disciplined and serious about building a business, not someone waiting for things to happen to them.
Being public amplifies effort. It gives a company better access to capital, talent, opportunities and acquisitions. It does not fix a business that would not succeed as a private company.
Can a company start the process before it is incorporated?
Yes. We have started working with entrepreneurs before their company existed, building the public-company path into the plan from day one. That works when the founder has the right team, access to financing and a clear strategic direction. For founders without the background, experience or access to capital, the better fit is a business that already earns enough to support being public.
Can an LLC or S corporation go public?
Use a C corporation. An LLC can technically go public but we don't recommend it, and an S corporation cannot, because it is limited to 100 shareholders and one class of stock. Convert before you start, so your investors buy shares in the company that will become public.
How big does a company need to be to list on Nasdaq?
For a US IPO on Nasdaq or the NYSE, an underwriter generally needs to raise $15 million or more for the company to qualify under current exchange rules. Few small companies start there. The usual path is to list on OTCQB first and uplist to Nasdaq once the numbers support it.
Who should not go public?
We say no when the founder has no history of executing, even as a private company; when the people who know the founder won't invest, because they may know something we don't yet; when the plan doesn't hold up; or when the business harms people or animals, directly or indirectly. Often the honest answer on a first call is that going public isn't right yet.
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Want to talk it through?
Tell us where you are, and we’ll set up a first conversation about whether going public belongs in your plan and what it would take. If it isn’t right for you, we’ll say so.