Public Company

We have run finance inside public companies

Public company finance runs on someone else’s clock. The close has a deadline the SEC set, the auditors have an opinion to sign, and the board is asking questions that have to be answered in writing and on the record. Everest puts people in those seats who have done the job before. Our Managing Directors have served as chief financial officer, chief accounting officer, and controller at public companies, and have carried registration statements, restatements, and merger filings through to completion. When we come in, we’re not learning the requirements on your time. We work as an embedded team, not a report. We take the work, close the books, draft the disclosure, sit with the auditors, and stay until the period is behind you.

Where we come in

SEC reporting and technical accounting. 10-K, 10-Q, 8-K, S-1, and S-4. Revenue recognition, business combinations, stock compensation, and impairment, along with the memos that support each position. We draft the disclosure and prepare the support behind it.

Restatements and remediation. When a position has to be revised, we restate the periods, rebuild the policies underneath them, and carry those policies forward so the correction holds. We’ve done this work and stayed in the seat afterward, which is the part that makes it stick.

Internal controls and audit readiness. Control design, documentation, and the evidence an auditor will actually accept. We prepare the company for the audit instead of reacting to it.

Transaction accounting and the filings behind it. Purchase accounting, pro forma financials, opening balance sheets, and the S-4 or 8-K/A that has to go with them, coordinated with your auditors and counsel.

Interim leadership in the seat. Chief financial officer, chief accounting officer, controller, and technical accounting leadership on an interim basis, through a gap, a transaction, or a remediation.

Strategic alternatives and board support

Boards call us when the options are real and the timeline is short. We build the financial analysis behind each path, a refinancing, a sale, a wind-down, or staying the course, so the board is choosing between numbers rather than opinions. We manage cash while the process runs, and we carry the chosen path through to close.

This is work our operators have done from inside the seat, not advice given from the outside.

Proof

Calyxt, a publicly traded agricultural technology company, was burning cash faster than it could raise it, and the board needed a real read on its options. Bill Koschak, Everest’s Founder, was the company’s chief financial officer through it. He led the pursuit of strategic alternatives and ran three paths at once: a refinancing through a baby shelf registration, an orderly dissolution and return of capital to shareholders, and a sale. He built the financial analysis behind each one, ran the investor outreach for the financing, priced out the dissolution, and assembled the M&A materials to take the company to market.

Active cash management bought five more months of runway while the process played out. When a buyer emerged he negotiated the terms, prepared the S-4 and the related pro forma financials, coordinated with the auditors, and made every acquisition-related accounting entry. The result was a $750 million combination that closed eighteen months after the work started, carried from the first assessment of alternatives through the SEC filing to close.

When to bring us in

Your chief financial officer or chief accounting officer has left, or is about to. You have a filing deadline and a team already at capacity. A position has been questioned and it needs to be revisited properly. You’re heading into a transaction and the accounting and the filings have to be right the first time. Or the board has asked for an honest assessment of the company’s alternatives.

Frequently asked questions

Can you serve in the seat, or do you only advise?

We take the seat. Our Managing Directors have served as chief financial officer, chief accounting officer, and controller at public companies, and they carry the responsibility that comes with the title, through filings, audits, and restatements.

How quickly can you start?

Faster than a search. We put an operator in the seat while the permanent search runs, then hand off cleanly when the hire lands. Our team of more than 25 leaders means we match the person to the problem rather than the other way around.

Do you replace our auditors?

No, and we can’t. Independence rules keep those roles apart, and they should. We sit on your side of that line, draft the disclosure and the technical memos, and prepare the evidence your auditors will ask for.

We’re not public yet. Is this still for us?

Yes. The reporting rhythm, the controls, and the accounting policies a public company runs on take roughly eighteen months to build properly. Companies that start once the S-1 is being drafted spend the whole process catching up.

How is this different from hiring a consulting firm?

We close the books, not the deck. We work inside your finance function, on your close calendar and your filing deadlines, and we stay until the period is behind you.

Let's talk

If you have a deadline, an open seat, or a decision the board needs support on, let’s talk. We’ve sat in your seat. Now we’re in your corner.