Introduction and Announcement
Mark Fasken: Hi, everybody, and welcome to a special episode of Winning IR. If you haven't seen the news, Irwin has been acquired by FactSet, and we wanted to share with you, our community, some of the history, how we got here, and where we're going. Today, I'm sitting down with Irwin's CEO and my co-founder, David Whyte, who's never been on the podcast before.
So, this is fun. Dave, I wanted to start with a little bit of the history. Some people haven't heard all the history of Irwin and how we got going. And some people probably don't know that you actually started Irwin a few months before I joined.
The Inspiration Behind Irwin
Mark Fasken: And so, I wanted to start with the inspiration behind Irwin, sharing a little bit about your experiences and what got you going with the idea of getting Irwin started.
David Whyte: Yeah. Thanks Mark. Happy to finally be here. I am obviously an avid listener, so I am excited to kick this off. I started Irwin just under eight years ago. My prior experience was on the buy and sell side, primarily working in institutional equities and, most recently at Credit Suisse.
My role there was really centered around connecting the markets, connecting the buy side with investors, and really playing that intermediary role between the two, somewhat known as corporate access. As I got to know that business more and more, I realized that there was a lot of friction in the system and that it wasn't working nearly as well as it probably did 20 or 30 years ago.
And so much of that was driven by regulatory and technological change. But either way, it was clear that, as the intermediary, I was acting much more as sand in the system versus oil. And both sides were frustrated, and it was clear that the future of how capital allocators and capital seekers connected was going to change. So that's really the founding vision or genesis for Irwin whereby it was clear the future was one that was much more connected, like a marketplace or an infrastructure of sorts, and I got frustrated enough in my current role that I left to start Irwin.
The other thing that was happening at around that same time was that these changes were acting as headwinds for the issuers primarily. And so as a result, IR was going through a transition, one that shifted IR from more of a marketing, PR, and administrative role to one that is now sales strategy and analytics and very much mission critical to the success of the public company. And so sophistication was going up, the typical IR seat was changing, and the tooling wasn't keeping up.
We decided to start with this grand vision of building a new infrastructure for these relationships by starting on one side of the market, that side being the issuer side. And that is the Irwin that we've built over the last seven years and we'll talk more about that. That's really how we started.
Mark Fasken: Yeah.
Early Challenges and Market Research
Mark Fasken: And I was reflecting back the other day, just thinking about when we originally met and started, and you had this grand vision for creating this infrastructure. And we spent a lot of time calling on the market, right?
I remember dozens and dozens of calls, cold calling and cold emailing IROs to try and understand, what were people using? We were aware of the incumbent solutions in the space, but very early on, we spent a lot of time talking to IROs and just understanding what do you use? What do you like? What do you not like? What are the gaps in terms of capabilities? So for our listeners, a little bit of background on me.
I've spent a lot of my career in software companies like Irwin, right? These higher growth software companies. I've always been used to having a lot of really modern tools. Everything's integrated, everything talks to each other. And we just found that wasn't really the case in IR. There were a lot of these CRM platforms that didn't really integrate with any of the other tools that IROs were using.
Through all those conversations with these IROs, Dave, I remember it becoming apparent. There were a few calls we had where, afterwards, we looked at each other and said, "There's something here. There is a need for a more modern, easier to use, integrated solution." To your point, back then, there were all these headwinds, but they really had a stronger effect on a lot of the small mid-cap companies.
We're sitting in Toronto. A lot of small-cap mining, tech, resources companies in general, I remember calling on so many of those folks, and them telling us the same thing. There's not a solution out there for me. And we really grabbed onto that, and we were really fortunate that there were a bunch of IROs who were willing to help us and frankly, even take our calls in those early days,
David Whyte: Yeah, really fortunate.
Building Relationships and Product Development
David Whyte: It was that group of companies that were most affected by these headwinds, and many felt like they were being left to their own avail. And so when we came around offering them a solution, and really actually listening to them and hearing them out and offering a solution that fit the bill for not just now, but also the future of IR and what they could see as well, they really grabbed hold.
We're obviously extremely thankful for all those early folks who saw the vision with us and supported us along the way. And I think they were also instrumental in helping us identify early on what could be the main product differentiators for us. You and I have always felt very strongly that software has tilted a little bit too far away from the human element.
And so, from a very early stage, we focused a lot on how do we bring that back to the solution? How do we make sure that our customers are feeling the human side of Irwin? And they were also instrumental in helping us with that.
Mark Fasken: So this was 2017, most of 2018 and 2019 was basically us calling on IROs.
Understanding what they need and building out the initial versions of the product. We were very fortunate that in the early few years, we were able to raise some financing to support the development of the platform. But we got to maybe 12 people in an office around 2020.
Navigating COVID-19 and Growth Opportunities
Mark Fasken: And then COVID hit, and I remember thinking a few weeks in there, what is going to happen here?
I remember a lot of IROs that we were talking to, and who are our customers, saying we don't know if we're going to be doing marketing, we don't know how we're going to talk to investors, and how this all is going to work. And so the future was pretty unclear for everybody at that point for a few weeks.
But reflecting back on it, it's pretty impressive how quickly that changed. I think people went from, "We have no idea what we're going to do," to everybody getting their Zoom or Teams subscriptions up and going and getting on virtual road shows and all that stuff. And I feel like every NIRI and CIRI event was about virtual NDRs for a three-year period.
But eventually, things come back to normal. But really, COVID ended up being an amazing opportunity for us. Everybody went digital. We were able to hire a ton of remote people, just some amazing talent. There was some consolidation in the space, which ended up being an opportunity for us. And through that period, we really cemented our reputation as a quality new entrant in the market. And so that's a little bit of a history, but there's obviously been some pivotal moments and milestones along the way. And so I wanted to touch on a couple of those.
Pivotal Moments in Irwin's Journey
Mark Fasken: And so Dave, for you, when you reflect on the last seven or eight years, what are some of the pivotal moments in Irwin's growth that you're particularly proud of?
David Whyte: Yeah, just before getting to that, I remember, to come back on the COVID piece. I remember two things from that period. I remember one, us leaving the office and you saying, "Ah, we'll be back in two weeks. This is just a little bug, and we'll be back." No big deal. And then the other piece I remember, our pipeline completely disappearing for at least a month or two months.
And as a non-cash-generative company, that was terrifying. And luckily, it came back really quickly. But those are definitely cemented in my memory. In terms of the pivotal moments it's funny how a lot of this blurs together. But I remember the high-level aspects of different categories.
So one would be, just the people that we've had along the journey with us. That will be something that I'll never forget. And we've been very intentional from the beginning about the people that we've partnered with, the early employees to today. We're very careful and intentional about who we bring on.
We really don't hire people just to fill a job. We hire and continue to hire these people as partners. And they really are partners in the business, people that we would go to war with, and people that we really want to represent the company, both personally and professionally. Internally, we talked about this as the driver versus passenger mentality, and ultimately, they're the people that show up to work every day and add incremental amounts of value, maybe 1 percent better every day, which compounds amazingly well.
It's been such a blessing to work with those kinds of people, and when you bring those people together, it does compound amazingly well. So that's been a big moment for me. I understand how important people are to a business, and I'm really excited about what our future brings there.
The next one will be our relationships with our customers. I think again, you and I from the very early stage, picking up the phone and talking to the market one-on-one, we've never lost that. And I think we've instilled that in the business as well. And I'm incredibly grateful for the relationships that we've built with customers. They know these folks on a personal level as well, and they really understand: How can we make their day-to-day better? I think we've executed on that. But there's a long way to go, of course.
Fundraising has also been really interesting. As an IR-based company, we have our own version of IR, and it's been really interesting to apply the things that we talk about in the market to our own business.
One thing that I think we've done really well is, we have also been very intentional about when we raise money, and who we raise money from. We've been very careful not to get misaligned expectations because, as you and I have seen, that can easily kill a business. And so it's interesting because I think we've done that very well.
As a result, the investor relations part of our job has been relatively easy because we've targeted these investors from a very early stage, maintained really good relationships with them, and, as a result, they have really converted into amazing partners for us throughout the journey.
A few other pivotal moments. I actually went to NIRI when the company was a company of one back in 2017, and I remember being blown away by the overall vibrancy of the IR community. You could really feel, you could feel the energy, and it was really awesome for me to see that and feel that.
But I was alone, and I remember being very lonely, and being intimidated by the scale and the energy of the market. And then being able to come back a few years later as a top sponsor of NIRI, and have you actually, as the co-chairman of the event—that was a particularly proud moment for me. And to see Irwin on the railings and the hotel and whatnot, plastered everywhere. That was really neat.
And then just the consistent development of our product is something that gets me particularly excited. I think at our core, we are innovators, and we really get excited about inventing, and that's something that's never going to change.
We're really proud of the inventions that we have brought to market. The cool thing is that it really feels like, the vision and the possible inventions that we can bring to market are getting clearer and clearer by the day. So it's almost like that muscle is compounding itself. And I'm really proud of that as a team as well.
But yeah, what about you, Mark? You've had a lot of similar experiences and you've achieved a lot of milestones yourself on your teams. Curious to hear what you think.
Mark Fasken: Yeah, I think I share a lot of your feelings. But we've always tried to build a reputation as not only having a quality product but also having a high-quality team, and you just talked about the team and people that we bring in. So I think one of the greatest things for me has been watching our reputation grow, our contribution to the NIRI and CIRI communities, and our starting to expand that out to other markets.
But it's just been great getting to know the community in IR. There's so many people that are willing to help each other. That's always been something that's been very rewarding.
Major milestones from a business perspective—certainly the launch of our partnership with FactSet last year has to be mentioned. It's been a huge success and part of the reason for the eventual acquisition. Our inclusion in the NYSE subsidy program this year. That was also a huge milestone for us, and something that has already started to contribute to the growth of our business in some very meaningful ways.
But I want to reiterate that the team is probably one of the most important ones. We've really been lucky to have brought in some amazing people. The team has grown in terms of size, but also, a lot of the people at the company have been with us since the very early years, and they've developed as individuals. We've seen people buy their first homes, grow their families, move to new countries. It's a pretty awesome experience. And so I feel very fortunate for that.
And, I think, ultimately we've been very fortunate to have then been able to grow Irwin to a point where FactSet was interested in an acquisition. And over the time that we've been running the business, we've seen a number of acquisitions in our space. And I'm sure a lot of people listening have questions about what this means for Irwin.
And at the end of the day, this is really why we wanted to do this recording.
The FactSet Acquisition: Why Now?
Mark Fasken: We really wanted to talk a little bit about what this means for Irwin moving forward. So I wanted to start with one of the questions that we've been asked: Why now? Why go through an acquisition now versus some time in the future?
And so Dave, I know you have some thoughts on that.
David Whyte: Yeah, we've been very fortunate in that we've been able to see what works and what doesn't work in this space from an acquisition perspective and learn from that, in a variety of different respects. I think the big difference for us here is this is an acquisition that is very focused and specific to what we do. And what we do at Irwin is solely focused on the IR workflow, and within that, the CRM, the targeting, monitoring, and reporting space. And that's been one of the key contributors to our growth and our success to date is really that focus. And so, we're not going to be changing that.
With FactSet, we found a partner that, not only didn't want to change that, but wanted to accelerate that and really bolster our efforts there. And the great thing is that we got to essentially date them for the last, call it 15 months or so, where we got to work together in essentially the same way that we're working together now as one company.
We got to go to market together. We got to build product together. We got to build a brand together, and speak to the market together. And that goes a long way because oftentimes, in acquisitions, you go in blind. In this case, we're both fully aware of who we are as companies, as people, how we think about product, how we think about our vision. And ultimately, how we think about servicing customers.
As we understood that more clearly, it became very evident that working as one would allow us to accelerate this further and faster. The market's response to our partnership has been amazing, and we have no doubt that the market's response to what we can do together as one company will also be amazing. In this case, it really is a function of one plus one equals three.
Some other factors include: we've been seeing an increasing amount of interest internationally beyond our core geographic markets, and FactSet, being a global company, can definitely help accelerate that interest and that market share capture.
So, I think that's really the why now. We got to know FactSet as people, as individuals, and it was really like looking at a mirror and understanding that within FactSet, we can continue to be who we are today and all the awesome qualities and traits that we've developed over the years as an independent company, we can maintain that while adding in fuel to the growth via FactSet, and everything that they bring to the table across capital, data, experience, distribution. And so for those reasons, it just became very clear that now is the time and so we couldn't be more excited.
Mark Fasken: Another question that people have asked, that's related, and you hit on some of the points there, is how did we know that FactSet was the right partner, right? It's funny. I've spoken to a lot of people over the last few weeks that are like, "Yeah, it just made sense. It was so obvious that this was going to happen eventually."
So apparently, it was pretty clear to a lot of people. But as you mentioned, the longstanding relationship was a big one. Many of the folks that we are working with today on a day to day basis at FactSet, we have been working with those people for years. And so that's always great.
To your point, I think the vision is one of the biggest deciding factors. Going all the way back to the very early days where we were talking about an infrastructure for capital markets. How do you connect the buy side and public companies in the most efficient way? FactSet shares that vision, right? FactSet via their Workstation, has a massive amount of buy-side users. And so, we can find ways to connect those two groups. We've already started to build and release some of those capabilities. FactSet really shares and supports that vision.
To your point on culture. I think culturally, from a value perspective, there's a lot of alignment there.
Both FactSet as well as our team, we're very focused on the product and building a high-quality product, as well as the customer. How do we do right by the customer? Understanding what do our customers need? How do we make them more efficient? How do we save them time?
And not to keep banging on this drum, but I think it's really important. FactSet has been very clear that they want to accelerate Irwin's rate of growth and innovation, and really work towards building an industry-leading solution. This isn't one of those things where it's like, hey, we buy the product, and we put it on the shelf, and it just becomes a skew in one thousand skews.
This is a growth strategy.
Future of Irwin with FactSet
Mark Fasken: And so that actually relates to our next question, which Dave, I'm going to aim at you. People have been asking us what does this mean for the future of Irwin, for our product roadmap? For anybody who's listening to this and is a customer of ours, you're familiar with the level of support that we provide to our users. Dave, any thoughts on how that might change moving forward?
David Whyte: So the core tenants of what got us here are not going to change, including how we speak with customers, how we listen to customers, how we layer in our own ingenuity and innovation, and rethinking how IR and capital markets can work. And so that's just not going to change, as well as how we service our customers and employ that human element.
I think what's what we're really excited about is FactSet is a global business that owns data properties that we don't, that we can integrate into Irwin to offer a better solution that we wouldn't be able to do otherwise. Their user base is significant, and we're really excited about being able to plug into that.
But ultimately, our road map is going to continue to be our road map, and it's going to be driven by the same decision making that it's been driven by today. How we speak with the market isn't going to change. And again, how we service the market isn't going to change, other than the fact that we're just going to have more resources.
And so, everything that our customers know and love about Irwin today is just going to be amplified. And that's something that we couldn't do on our own on a standalone basis. And so, we couldn't be more excited about doing it as a part of FactSet.
Conclusion and Gratitude
Mark Fasken: So, for the benefit of everybody listening, I thought it might be helpful to just wrap this all up with a few key points. I think Dave, you and I both are really thankful for anybody who's listening, who's been involved in this journey over the last few years, who's got on a call and provided us feedback on the product, good, bad, or ugly. For anybody who is a customer, has been a customer, people who've done demonstrations, who've been part of content.
Really, it takes a village. And we’re so appreciative of everybody who's supported us along the way.
As we move forward, this combination with FactSet is only going to improve our product and the quality of support. And really it's ultimately going to be a massive benefit to our customers and any prospective customers.
We're going to continue to add to Irwin at the pace that everybody in the market has come to expect of us. The level of support that everybody's come to know, it's going to remain. In fact, we're looking at ways to make it even better.
The team isn't going anywhere. People have asked us, “Mark and Dave, are you guys still going to be around?” We're not going anywhere. We're in this for the long haul. We're super excited for this next chapter, and really, we look forward to continuing to be a part of the IR community.
Dave, this is something that you mentioned, and I think it's really important. IR continues to evolve. It continues to become more impactful. It has become a more important role within capital markets. And so, you know, we're really excited to play a role in accelerating the impact of investor relations and being a part of the future of this profession.
David Whyte: Absolutely. I just want to say thank you to everyone, all our customers and our partners for the opportunity to work with you and very much looking forward to continuing to work together.
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