Creative Approaches to Investor Engagement
By Michael Ferreter
Panelists:
Kiley Rawlins, Vice President, Investor Relations, Ulta Beauty
Matt Tractenberg, IRC, Vice President of Investor Relations, Wallbox
Moderator: Zach Hascoe, Co-Founder, Chief Commercial Officer, Say Technologies LLC
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Kiley Rawlins began by addressing the hottest post-pandemic question: in-person or virtual?
She noted that the nature of engagement is continuing to evolve and soon, her firm will host
its first in-office meeting since February 2020. Though investor enthusiasm for travel and
physical meetings is currently high, “the hybrid approach is still with us” and will be for a
while, she said.
- Matt Tractenberg prefers in-person investor meetings but acknowledged you can get more
done in a virtual environment. He advised flexibility and staying open to the hybrid mode. “If
people want us there, we’ll be there” in person, he said. He recommended tacking on IR
meetings to management’s travel for other reasons, such as customer visits or employee
events. Post-pandemic, fewer analysts are working in New York City so it can be difficult to
fill an entire day with investor meetings.
- On the topic of tools and technology, Tractenberg noted that the tool must solve a problem
beyond merely being a nifty tool. Rawlins mentioned the importance of competitive
intelligence and good customer relationship management (CRM) when evaluating these
tools on the market. Both agreed the size of the IR team will help determine which tools
make the most sense for any company.
- The panelists cautioned attendees to ensure you have a plan and strategy if your company
decides to pursue retail investors. Moderator Zach Hascoe was asked to briefly describe
Say Technologies (now owned by Robinhood), a fintech platform that offers proxy voting
services – and also crowdsources questions from retail investors to allow them to interact
with companies they own shares in during annual meetings, earnings calls and other events.