A number of companies are planning IPOs this year: Uber, Slack, Levi’s, Lyft and Airbnb, to name a few. We’ve written a few articles on Uber’s compliance woes and the company’s response (including how they have hired a number of resources and taken steps to build a compliance program). Lyft has not seemed to have had the same issues. Neither has Slack, Airbnb or (thankfully) storied jean company Levi’s.

As avid users of these services and products, we want these companies to succeed. In the last couple of years, we’ve been involved with over a half dozen tech company acquisitions and building up their compliance programs. Every company needs something different. There is a lot of guidance out there from the government to figure out the key themes, such as Chapter eight of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, the FCPA Resource Guide, as well as the U.S. DOJ’s Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs, and the OECD’s Anti-Corruption Ethics and Compliance Handbook for Business and Good Practice Guidance on Internal Controls, Ethics, and Compliance (both referenced by the U.S. DOJ). And there is also guidance for companies on specific compliance processes, for instance, NASA’s Guidelines for Risk Management, COSO’s Risk Assessment in Practice guideline, and the ISO 19600 standard. It’s a lot to read, honestly. And we know these companies are busy focusing on making great products for customers, so we’ve done some of the work for them.