A written plan to build something far bigger, with someone who has taken 17 companies public.
The Four Levers Program is 30 days of one-to-one work on what you're building, whether you're scaling a business, buying them or starting one. You leave with a written playbook for pulling capital, talent, opportunities and acquisitions harder than a private company can, including whether going public belongs in it and how. $10,000, fixed, with no obligation to do anything after.
Led by Joel Arberman: an equity analyst in New York, a partner at a 700-person investment bank at 22, and 17 companies taken public since, several of them his own.
Pick your starting point.
Scaling a business
You've built something that works and you're not done. The playbook shows how to grow faster than profits and bank loans allow.
Building by acquisition
Your plan runs through buying other companies. The playbook covers the capital, the people and the currency that make sellers say yes.
Starting something new
You have a specific business in mind and capital or backers behind it. The playbook sets out what has to exist before a listing makes sense, and in what order.
Ambition isn't the constraint. The toolkit is.
Most founders grow the way private companies always have: with profits, a bank loan with a personal guarantee, or investors who can't sell for years. Each lever gets pulled one at a time, and each one stalls at the size of the balance sheet.
Public companies play a different game. Their stock has a price and a market, so it can raise capital, recruit people who would never join a private company, and help pay for acquisitions. Strangers can verify them, so larger customers and partners say yes. Pulled together, the levers feed each other.
On its own, money is the weakest reason to go public. Early-stage companies that list only for capital rarely make it. Capital funds growth; the other three levers create it, and they are what move valuation.
It's also expensive, it takes most of a year, and it's wrong for most companies. So before anyone spends hundreds of thousands of dollars on lawyers and auditors, it's worth knowing exactly what the plan would be for yours, from someone who has done it 17 times.
Two copies of your business.
Imagine making a photocopy of your company today. One copy carries on as it is: growing at its current pace, funded by profits and the bank. The other follows your playbook: it raises capital, recruits with stock, wins partners who can verify it, and buys other businesses. Five years out, which one is worth more, and which one would you rather own?
On our home page, we picture two identical copies of a hypothetical business with $1.5 million in revenue. After five years, the founder's stake on the second path is worth roughly eight times as much: about $10 million against $1.25 million. It's an illustration, not a client result. In the program we run that comparison on your numbers. Yours may look better or worse. Either way, you see it before you decide.
What a $100 million company is actually made of.
It's less mysterious than it sounds. A public company earning $5 million of operating profit and valued at 20 times is worth $100 million. At 15 times, it takes about $7 million, and 15 times can be conservative for a fast-growing, high-margin business. The real question is what gets you from where you are to there, in what order, and with whose money and help.
And you don't have to get there only by growing. Most of the world's largest companies, including Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta and Nvidia, built their value partly, and often largely, through acquisitions, as have many companies in the S&P 500 and Nasdaq. You can reach the profit that supports a $100 million valuation by buying businesses as well as by growing them.
That's what the playbook maps: the revenue and profit it takes, the acquisitions that could get you there faster, the people you'd need and how you'd pay them, the capital at each stage, and the risks that could stop it. Laid out step by step, a number that sounded like a fantasy becomes a sequence of decisions.
Some people finish the 30 days convinced, and able to convince the people around them to invest, join and help. Others decide it isn't for them. Both are good outcomes for $10,000.
What you get in 30 days.
Four one-to-one working sessions with Joel, and a written playbook built around your situation, not a template.
A straight verdict
Whether going public belongs in your plan now, later or never, and what would need to change if the answer is not yet. The test is simple: which of the four levers would you actually use as a public company at your stage? If the answer is few, the answer is not yet.
The right route
Direct listing, reverse merger or IPO: which fits, what it costs, how long it takes and who has to agree.
Your four-lever map
What you'd do with capital, talent, opportunities and acquisitions over your first 36 months, and how each one feeds the next.
Your first raise, outlined
How much to raise, what it funds, how many shareholders you'd need, and who in your network to approach first. Sized to your next milestone, at a valuation you can support. Most raises that fall short asked for too much at too high a price.
A 90-day action list
The specific next steps, in order, so you finish knowing exactly what to do next. It usually starts with the foundation: books and records, corporate documents, a data room. Then the story investors will see. Then the first move on each lever.
Four sessions with Joel
One-to-one working calls, on audio if you prefer, with your playbook delivered in writing at the end.
After 30 days, you decide.
The program stands on its own. When it ends, the playbook is yours and you owe nothing further.
Stop here
Run with the playbook yourself or with your own advisers. Most of its strategies work for a private company too, just not as effectively, and they can still add very substantially to what you build. Some of the most valuable verdicts are "not yet," with a list of what to fix first.
Keep going
If your plan calls for a raise and you want help, the next step is Raise-Ready: strategy, investor deck, lawyer-reviewed offering documents, a mock investor meeting and 90 days of support while you raise. $15,000, fixed, and only if we both think you're ready.
Companies that raise the capital can go on to a listing. There we work on a monthly fee plus equity, so we do well only if you do.
Every step is optional, and each one is agreed in writing before it starts.
From a $3.5 million listing to a $240 million sale.
When this company went public, it had about $1.5 million in revenue and a starting valuation of $3.5 million. The founder raised about $100,000, mostly to build the shareholder base it needed to start trading. Over the next seven years he made three acquisitions as a public company. One added technology. One did not work, and he closed it. The third took hold. He sold the original business, put the proceeds behind the one that was working, moved the company up to Nasdaq, and sold it for $240 million in cash.
The business that sold was not the business that went public. The listing is what let him buy his way into it. It’s our best outcome, not a typical one: what happens after a listing depends on how the founder executes.
revenue when the company went public
starting valuation
growing as a public company
all-cash acquisition
How it works.
Four steps, about 30 days from your first session.
Apply
Tell us about you and what you're building. It takes about 10 minutes, and Joel reads every application personally.
First conversation
Free, and honest. If this isn't right for you, we'll say so on that call, before you pay anything.
Four working sessions
We work through your business, your goals, the routes open to you and the numbers, about one session a week.
Your playbook
A written plan with our verdict, your four-lever map, your first raise outlined and your next 90 days in order.
We're advisers, not brokers. We don't raise capital for you, introduce investors or sell securities.
Is this you?
A good fit if you
- Have a specific business in mind: one you run, one you plan to buy, or one you're starting
- Want to build something far larger over the next 5 to 10 years
- Have real traction, a capable team and a growth mindset
- Have capital of your own, or people who know you and would invest
- Can invest $10,000 in the plan without it being a stretch
- Want a straight answer, even if it's no
Probably not a fit if you
- Want someone to raise the money for you or introduce investors
- Are hoping a listing will fix a business that isn't working
- Want a group course or a seat in a seminar
What it costs.
$10,000, fixed. That covers the four sessions and your written playbook. There's no monthly fee, no equity, no percentage of anything you raise, and no obligation to continue.
- The Four Levers Program: $10,000 fixed, about 30 days
- Raise-Ready, optional: $15,000 fixed, 4 to 6 weeks plus 90 days of support
- Listing, optional: a monthly fee plus equity. Third-party costs typically run $300,000 to $600,000, more for an IPO. Those costs buy the audited, public disclosure that makes customers, lenders, partners and sellers comfortable dealing with you
You can stop after any step and owe nothing further.
Nothing here is a promise of any result. What you build with the plan is up to you.
You'd be working with me.
I'm Joel Arberman. I started as an equity analyst at asset managers in New York and, at 22, became a partner at a 700-person investment bank, where most of my time went to valuing companies and helping early-stage companies raise capital and go public.
In 1999 I took my own company public, writing the registration statement myself because nobody would help a company that small. Since then I've taken 17 companies public through direct listings, reverse mergers and IPOs. Most people who ask me about going public, I advise not to. When it's right, this is where it starts.
Questions people ask.
Do I need to own a business already?
No, but you need a specific one in mind: a company you run, one you plan to buy, or one you're starting with capital behind it. A company with no operations can be treated as a shell, which brings heavy restrictions, so the playbook is direct about what has to exist first and in what order.
Will you raise the money for me?
No. We're not a broker-dealer and we never contact investors on your behalf. If your plan calls for a raise, you raise it, usually starting with people who already know you. We prepare you to do it well.
Is this a course?
No. There are no videos and no group calls. It's four one-to-one sessions with Joel and a written playbook specific to you.
What if the verdict is that I shouldn't go public?
Then you'll hear that, with the reasons, and the playbook covers how to pull the four levers without a listing, or what would need to change first. A clear no can save you several hundred thousand dollars.
The usual reasons for "not yet" are a milestone you should hit first, gaps in the team, a product that isn’t ready to scale, or an approval you’re still waiting on. You’ll leave knowing which applies and what to do about it.
Am I committing to anything beyond the $10,000?
No. Each later step is optional, priced separately and agreed in writing before it starts.
How is this different from Prepared to Raise?
Prepared to Raise gets a company ready to raise capital privately. This program starts earlier, with the bigger plan: whether and how to use a public company to grow. If your plan calls for a raise, that preparation is the optional next step.
Ready? Apply below. Joel reads every application personally.
Which growth stage are you in? Answer 5 questions to see which levers matter most for your company. Find your stage
Apply for the Four Levers Program.
Tell us about you and what you're building. It takes about 10 minutes. If it looks like a fit, we'll set up a free first conversation. No obligation.