This year is shaping up as one of the hottest IPO years on record, despite starting out literally frozen as a result of the December 2018 sell-off and the shut-down of the SEC entering the New Year. The west coast is in many respects leading the way, with more IPOs recorded in the first half of the year than in the past four years combined, according to the Los Angeles Business Journal. It is not surprising that the IPO wave is strong across multiple sectors that are the traditional strengths of the west coast market, including biotech, Internet and e-Commerce, and software.

Setting aside broader economic factors beyond the scope of this article, one factor contributing to the current IPO boom is the relative ease of preparing for the offering afforded by developments in the regulatory environment. The advent of confidential SEC review of registration statements, initially enacted under the JOBS Act of 2012 signaled the beginning of a far less risky way for private companies to prepare for the IPO. In the last several years, the IPO-friendly SEC under Chairman Jay Clayton, coupled with further reforms under the recently enacted FAST Act, have further streamlined the SEC review process for IPOs such that companies can now get from the organizational meeting to the roadshow faster than ever before.