Not every company that wants to go public should, and Gregg Jaclin has built a business model that reflects that view. The founder of Exchange Listing LLC screens prospective clients closely, according to a BBN Times feature on how he runs his listing advisory practice.
“It’s really about making sure you’re betting on the jockey,” Jaclin said. “If the company is not going to get an IPO or the listing completed, then what are we doing all this for?”
That philosophy is written into how the firm gets paid. Exchange Listing structures part of its compensation as back-end equity, receiving restricted stock upon listing that cannot be sold for six months. The arrangement ties the firm’s outcome directly to whether a client actually reaches the exchange and holds up afterward. Under that structure, the firm’s upside depends on the client completing its listing.
Companies that cannot credibly project significant revenue and a path to profitability are steered in a different direction. Rather than pushing them toward a listing, the firm’s founder redirects them to private capital raises or crowdfunding first, giving them time to build the fundamentals a public market expects.
His caution comes from experience. Over years spent in OTC and pink sheet markets, Jaclin saw many businesses stall on the way to senior exchanges. “I think there were a lot of companies that were too small, raising not enough funds, and the stocks weren’t trading well because they were having to raise more money afterwards,” he said.
The current regulatory climate has only raised the stakes. Since NASDAQ adopted Rule IM-5101-3 in December 2025, the exchange’s qualitative review examines factors such as board composition, ownership concentration, and adviser track records. Jaclin has said the changes make him more selective, not less active.
For the Exchange Listing founder, careful selection is the point rather than a limitation. Choosing the right management team at the outset, he believes, is what gives a listing a real chance of success.