Well...they don't call it the solar coaster for nothing? We have been on this ride for 13 years now and the last year has been the most intense and dramatic, for sure.
You might recall back in October while we were in Bulgaria for wrestling, Will announced his company was merging with another and going public through a SPAC. When that announcement was made we thought the process would be over before the end of 2022. Alas, it did not happen then. The date was pushed to March 2023 (because the SPAC expired then). Surprise, it didn't happen then either. The date was pushed to May, possibly the first week of June. We needed another quarter of revenue reported and there were hiccups with some of the previous partners the companies had agreements with. Shocker...May/June didn't happen. Will spent the entire month of June in Utah trying to get revenue up and robust. We thought the first week of July...nope. Finally, truly, madly, deeply, it would be Friday July 14th (Bastille Day). It was scheduled with the Nasdaq, plane tickets and hotels were secured.
The week leading up to that Friday was a mess. It seemed like the deal was off or falling apart at the seams. I can't articulate the full details. You can ask Will...he might remember. Basically, it came down to closing fees and who would pay what.
Wednesday me and all the kids boarded planes for NYC. Will stayed home...trying to salvage the deal. He left California as we were landing in NYC. The deal was not solid yet. Thursday was spent working and finally Thursday night the "truth" came out. The SPAC had been stalling trying to raise more funds to cover the closing costs. But there were no more funds to raise. It was off.
I can't really describe the disappointment. Failure so close to the finish line had always been possible. There had been so many delays...why wouldn't failure be an option at this point?
We had taken the kids to an observation deck as an activity Thursday. Will spent most of the event on the phone trying to fix the deal. On the way back to the hotel, Clare and Adell understood it wasn't really going to happen Friday morning. They were very sweet and supportive of their Dad.
Still, we had an appointment with the Nasdaq Friday to have a bell ringing and celebration...employees and executives had flown out. It was time to go through the motions.
We met in the hall of the hotel and told the kids the truth, this would be a show but hopefully the real closing would happen Tuesday the 18th. We walked over to the Nasdaq building in Times Square.
We took pictures and posed in front of screens. Will gave a lovely speech telling the employees and executives that it wasn't happening today...but would happen Tuesday. Then he got on more phone calls to try to make it happen. I know this is all super vague but I don't have the language to really describe the full picture. Some of it was exchanging fees for stock options, some of it was lawyers, some of it was moving money from international banks, some of it was agreeing to who would pay for what and when. All of it was hard and messy. But Will did it all.
These are the pictures from the professional photographer at the Nasdaq. Even though it really didn't happen that Friday morning, I am so glad we all went out for the show. I am so thankful my kids got to see their dad do this. These kids have been growing along with this business their whole lives. We jokingly call the company our sixth child, right between Adell and Colter.
Will continued to take calls and try to get the deal closed all weekend. There were moments it seemed like it would be canceled all together. But he never gave up. Vague, again, I know...
These are just a few of the moments Will was working on the deal. Phone calls, zoom meetings, meetings with executives who were in NYC for the bell ringing. On and on. He worked through the night and every day. It was hard.
Some of the calls were with new investors who were willing to invest if XYZ happened. Some of the calls were with existing investors who wanted to pull out because the promise of going public Friday wasn't met. It was stressful to listen to some of these calls. I cannot imagine how Will bore it.
Will is on the phone in this picture above, he stayed at the entrance of the observation tower and made phone calls while we went through the exhibit.
I won't say "long story short" because I haven't really told a story. I've just recounted events as best I could...with the amount of detail I had. Not a lot.
Will continued to work on the deal on the trip home and through Monday. Tuesday morning at 6:00 am we woke up to creep downstairs and watch the Nasdaq ticker. At 6:30 am PST (9:30 am EST) trading opened and CSLR started officially trading!!!
It really happened Tuesday July 18th. Sweet Lorien made confetti and threw it when the opening bell rang. It was darling. Three cheers for Complete Solaria being a public company!
Fun fact, it is exactly one year ago almost to the day that Will first started talking to the SPAC guys he ended up doing the deal with. We went to Paris last summer (the last week of July) to meet with them. We had a "celebratory dinner" in October in London to "close the deal". Oy. What a year!
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