Name: Michael Guthrie
Position: CFO of TrueCar, a platform that enables car buyers to obtain timely pricing information for new and used cars, and insight into what others have paid
Previous Positions: SVP business development at SharesPost; managing director at Symphony Technology Group; principal at Garnett & Helfrich Capital; co-founder of TPG Ventures
Notable For: Helping take TrueCar public on the Nasdaq Stock Market on May 16
His Take-Away: When we started the IPO process late last year, a board member asked me where I stood. I said there are three things that go into this company having a successful IPO; we only control one of them. We would prefer to have a good macro automotive market, which we clearly had. We would prefer to have a great stock market, which at the time we certainly had, in terms of new issues. And we would obviously want to have great financial results, which we had. By the time we hit the road, two of those things were still with us, but we had a more cautious IPO market. Still, we made the right decision. The stock is trading up, and we’re going to be a public company for a very long time.
The IPO process is wonderful, but it is a little grueling. The road show lasted two weeks. The highlight in terms of raw travel was the second day, when we stopped in five different states. We did that with only one plane flight; most of the trip was a caravan of SUVs along the Eastern Seaboard. I don’t know if that was a highlight or a lowlight, but it was a busy day for sure.