June 29, 2012
"jump start our business" is one thing, but relaxing oversight of accounting requirements of public companies has nothing to do with that. When I read a financial statement I need to know that it is real and follows a standard set of rules. I also need to know that management is reasonably compensated, not creating their own golden paycheck with my investment.
I have gone through the hassle of raising money for a private company and it is onerous and hard. But the reality is that if you have a real idea and you really understand business, you will succeed and those rules make a big difference in helping businesses that abide by them to succeed.
Shoddy accounting is all too easy to do. So is shady accounting. What I wanted as a CEO to make my life easy and what I was required to do by investors were different. What I was required to do helped the company succeed.
So:
Independent verification of a company's book for ALL publicly traded companies is a keystone for the public market. It MUST BE ENFORCED FOR ALL COMPANIES, IRREGARDLESS OF SIZE.
Executive compensation MUST BE REPORTED, PUBLIC AND TRANSPARENT, especially to the SEC and stockholders.
There can be differences in some levels of reporting based on company size, but when I read a financial statement, I need to know that everything is calculated using the same standards and independent auditing is the only way to know that is actually the case.