Starboard Group Review: Catching a Missed IPO Filing
Caught critical missing financials and ownership gaps in a peer's profile through experience-driven digging
Manan Shah
Private Equity Intelligence Analyst at Gain.pro
From their time as
Private Equity Intelligence Analyst
Gain • 2025
Overview
Manan was reviewing a company profile for Starboard Group when he noticed something was off. The analyst who had built the profile had left out key financial line items: revenues, EBITDA, EBIT, total assets, enterprise value, and equity value. Several ownership deals were also missing.
The Story
Manan was reviewing a company profile for Starboard Group when he noticed something was off. The analyst who had built the profile had left out key financial line items: revenues, EBITDA, EBIT, total assets, enterprise value, and equity value. Several ownership deals were also missing.
The reason those items were absent was not obvious. Starboard Group had gone through an aborted IPO, and aborted IPOs generate a specific set of filings that most analysts overlook. Manan knew from experience that the filing still existed, even though the IPO never completed.
He spent six hours on that single review, roughly three times his usual two-hour standard, digging through the filings himself to confirm what should have been there. He found it, documented the gaps, and flagged them directly to the analyst responsible.
He also made sure the associate handling the final review was aware, so the analyst's internal quality rating could be adjusted accordingly. The profile was corrected before it reached the platform.