2021 OC 50: Building An Expressway to Wall Street

In the past 18 months, 10 local companies have gone public, some via traditional IPOs, others by reverse mergers using the increasingly popular SPAC (or special purpose acquisition company) route, among other means. It’s the largest collection of area companies to go public in such a span in well over a decade. Those companies now have a cumulative valuation in excess of $20 billion. Included here and page 54 are the CEOs for five of those cash-flush firms. 

TANYA DOMIER
CEO
Advantage Solutions Inc.
Irvine

Nasdaq: ADV

BIO: Longtime head of food- and retail-focused marketing behemoth, which counts more than 3,500 clients, including Amazon, Walmart, Target, Kroger, PepsiCo, Bayer and AT&T. They are supported by thousands of employees, backed by more than 400 data analytics experts funneling the insights used to inform brand strategies, sales plans, merchandising, e-commerce and other services Advantage bills its customers for.

NOTABLE: Advantage, long one of OC’s largest private companies by revenue, went public last October through a reverse merger with Naples, Fla.-based Conyers Park II Acquisition Corp. The deal was among the first for an area company using the increasingly popular SPAC route. It came several years after the firm first looked to go public via a traditional IPO. Firm now valued at around $4B.

QUOTABLE: Seeing an uptick in business as pandemic subsides. “We are helping consumer goods companies and retailers navigate out of COVID, and our service to them has reinforced their trust in our essential sales and marketing services.”

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JOHN HO
CEO
Landsea Homes Corp.
Newport Beach

Nasdaq: LSEA

BIO: Runs the fast-growing Newport Beach-based homebuilding arm of China real estate company Landsea Group. Builder was launched from scratch seven years ago, and is now the largest publicly traded homebuilder based in OC. The 250-employee business had north of $700M revenue last year. Business Journal’s Businessperson of the Year in the real estate sector.

NOTABLE: Went public early this year via the SPAC route, and now counts a roughly $450M market cap. Expanding to Texas and Florida through April’s $54.6M acquisition of Vintage Estate Homes. New developments just announced for sites in Anaheim, San Juan Capistrano, alongside existing Lake Forest’s Iron Ridge community.

QUOTABLE: “I built it one land acquisition and one employee at a time, and it’s been an incredible seven years,” he said in late December. “Being a public company will only continue that.”

JOHN KAO
Founder, CEO
Alignment Healthcare Inc.
Orange

Nasdaq: ALHC

BIO: Created provider of increasingly popular Medicare Advantage insurance plans. Plans are required to cover traditional Medicare expenses such as doctor visits and hospital costs. They also offer extra coverage for needs like vision, dental and hearing exams, and prescription drugs.

NOTABLE: Late March IPO raised nearly $500M in proceeds, and company is now valued at close to $5B. IPO proceeds will be used to expand Alignment’s reach beyond the three states—California, Nevada, North Carolina—it currently covers.

QUOTABLE: “Becoming a publicly traded company marks a milestone in Alignment Healthcare’s journey to reinvent healthcare as we know it,” he told Business Journal. “It allows us to reach a much larger audience, with the trust, support and backing of our new shareholders and investors. Together, we will reimagine, recreate and restore healthcare delivery to one of the most important populations in America—our seniors.”

TIM VANDERHOOK
CEO
Viant Technology Inc.
Irvine

Nasdaq: DSP

BIO: One of three brothers on executive team of Irvine-based ad tech company, which is positioning itself to grab a larger share of the digital advertising market, helping advertising agencies and marketers get placement for their customers across a variety of channels, including desktops, mobile phones, connected TVs, streaming audio and digital billboards.  

NOTABLE: Viant burst into trading on Feb. 10 priced at $25 per share, rapidly climbing to $64 in the following days and closing the first week with a market cap around $3.8B. The company’s valuation had settled back to around $1.5B as of last week. It raised about $250M in gross proceeds from the IPO.

QUOTABLE: Started company in parent’s home in Yorba Linda; prior to IPO firm was best known for buying social media site MySpace a decade ago. “We continued to grind it out through good times, bad times and now to be able to go public and hopefully with a great future.”

WILLIAM WANG
Founder, CEO
Vizio Holding Corp.
Irvine

NYSE: VZIO

BIO: Runs No. 1 American TV brand, and a top sound bar seller. Growing role as media company, offering streaming services, targeted advertising to users through its smart TVs. Last year, the company brought in over $2B in revenue.

NOTABLE: The firm’s March 25 IPO comes as Vizio aims to sell investors, consumers and advertisers on its abilities beyond simply a TV maker. Now valued at nearly $4B.

QUOTABLE: “My dream was to make the home everyone’s favorite place,” Wang said in the company’s prospectus. “I kicked off this dream by creating Vizio to make home entertainment accessible to everyone. For the next 18 years, working closely with channel partners and suppliers, my team and I have built Vizio into one of the leading entertainment brands in America.”