The post that was banned by LinkedIn

So this is my 4th attempt at posting this blog. For some reason LinkedIn Pulse didn't like my previous 3 attempts. Don't know why as they won't tell me. They keep telling me that they can see all my previous 3 posts and the content within when I have shown them countless comments and messages from people saying that not only can they not see the post content they can't even see the post. Are the words IPO and NASDAQ that controversial?

This is the post in full but all i have done is change the headline above....4th time lucky! Both Candice Galek and Callum Laing have had similar problems this week. Candice even ironically changed her headline to this and it was posted! Ironic! Microsoft's technology platform and resources clearly can't come quick enough to rescue LinkedIn's creaking platform.

Enjoy!

My journey from 0 to NASDAQ in 3 years

What a week it’s been. Black Marketing - Enabling LinkedIn For You listed on the NASDAQ as part of The Marketing Group. But the journey began 3 years ago with a film aboutAlibaba.

Three years ago I met Callum Laing. We were both invited to an inspiring screening by Porter Erisman all about his journey to IPO with Alibaba. The film was called “The Crocodile in the Yangtze”. 

When I created Black Marketing 6 months later I was already in touch with Callum. We became a partner of his KPI program. We kept in touch overLinkedInas always.

As Black Marketing grew from me to employing people and then over a million dollars in revenue I often consulted Callum on ways forwards. One day he introduced me to Jeremy Harbour and the Harbour Club. This was a small gathering held periodically of entrepreneurs who were interested in harnessing their company value, buying other companies and making their company grow faster, to enable their companies to give them financial independence.

That meeting in May 2015 was the first time that The Marketing Group agglomeration was first discussed. See my earlier blog on the subject.

Being the only marketing company around the table it was an obvious step to start talking with Jeremy. This was at the very early stage of the idea about having a marketing roll-up of like minded independent profitable, debt free marketing agencies as a plc under the banner of The Marketing Group (TMG).

Jeremy’s model was different to that of WPP and others in that the companies keep their independence and don’t get slapped with large overheads. The founders of the company also form the board again unlike WPP and others which are one step removed. 

I introduced him to Laurent Verrier whose company 1-9-90 i knew well as Laurent, via LinkedIn of course, had offered me my first role in Singapore 7 years ago. We had always kept in touch and I knew his business complimented mine. Other companies involved were Nice and Polite and Creative Insurgence, the four founders, myself, Laurent, Nick and Aaghir are below:  

The group was formed quickly, by October 2015 we were ready. We had our first board meeting and were discussing future acquisitions. We expected to float that year or in early 2016. No one realised the scale of trying to IPO and the amount of paperwork and legal work that has to be gone through. As Jeremy said on more than one occasion, “you couldn't run a company and IPO at the same time”.

This way was win win. Jeremy, Callum and the amazing Unity team ran the IPO. The founders kept focusing on building their businesses. The IPO had many delayed dates. Jeremy even suggested he get a t-shirt with “next week” on it as his answer as to when we were going to IPO for 6 months was “next week”.

Finally 3 weeks ago we had a date. June 8th in Stockholm on the NASDAQ First North exchange. Why Stockholm?

Many reasons ranging from them having an excellent reputation of supporting tech startups and entrepreneurs to being more long term investors and less reactionary.  As a global company it didn’t actually matter where we floated it just mattered that we were able to partner with the one exchange that we felt best suited our needs and long term ambitions.

So last week the founders and members of Unity (who were intrinsic to putting the whole thing together) all arrived in Stockholm and we listed on June 8th so much joy and relief. The expressions of happiness and satisfaction after a year are plain to see on the video of the bell ringing, even if Laurent got a bit carried away and broke the bell!

Of course it couldn’t have happened without a hitch. Sure enough after ringing the bell and opening the champagne the exchange notified us that they had made a mistake.  

NASDAQ listed us in Swedish Krona rather than Euros. This mean that they had to suspend trading and reboot the system after trading had finished for the day….so although we were officially listed no one could buy or sell our shares. It was a bit like dating a girl for a year and then on your wedding night she fell asleep before you consummated the marriage! We didn’t let it spoil our day and drank champagne for the remainder of it!

NASDAQ event arranged for us to be featured on their bill board in Times Square! 

We of course shared everything on social media and just to show that you don't need sponsored posts to get 10's of 000's of impressions, my post on my Black Marketing page has generated over 30,000 impressions so far. Organic beats paid for in my books: 

Next day we began trading and the share price rose 23% in the first day. Amazing. My shares increased in value by 23%. All our shareholders increased their value by 23%. It was a great day. We had to pinch ourselves.

I combined the day with meeting a series of Swedish entrepreneurs (as I had done the previous day too before the float). I had set up meetings by using Linkedin’s Sales Navigator. I used the search criteria of entrepreneurs/founders/owners of small medium enterprises (SME’s). I wrote a personalised message saying that I was visiting Stockholm and that I would like to meet them. I was expecting 4-5 people to agree.

I got 45 positive responses. I could only fit in 30 in the days I was there and not busy with the IPO, I was overwhelmed. I was meeting people from 7.30am in the morning to 7.30pm at night at every hour. It was inspiring. These busy entrepreneurs were genuinely interested in what we did at Black Marketing, how we helped entrepreneurs achieve their business goals using LinkedIn and sharing their experiences with me.

Thank you to all but especially Olle Neckne,  Joakim Jansson and Philip GozziandTomas Anderson (all below) for meeting me with such great enthusiasm and sharing snaps of the event with their followers.  

 I learnt so much about Swedish business and the amazing entrepreneurs there. Thank you all for your time, insights and openness.  

Shares went up 41% on the Friday, up 87% this week. What an incredible journey.  

Stockholm is amazing place to list. Now the hard work begins to justify our value and reward our shareholders. Thank you for your support. We have only just got started.