So are we really – are you, even though the IPO market’s not back, are you sort of operating now at that optimal mix?
Kelly Rodriques: I think the optimal mix is probably a range. We haven’t seen two-thirds buyers and – to sellers since 2021. If you look back over the data, anything that’s between 50-50 and 60-40, demand in the 60 has been a good time. But we are coming off really quite a different period. And you remember from these calls that we had in 2022, late 2022 and early 2023 in particular, it was completely inverted. And in fact, there were times where we were down with less than a third buyer. So this definitely is one indicator. And so we needed to continue. And if it drops to 50-50, we’re great there too. But I think the other factor that Mark pointed out relating to activity in the IPO market, in particular, with the interest rates still high are what we remain watchful of. We don’t obviously control that. But I’d say that the over 60 is the first time we’ve seen that since the decline really started to happen at the second half of 2021 and early into 2022.
Mark Lee: Hey, and let me add a few more comments to Kelly’s. I mean, I think as we’re all generally aware kind of out there in the funds space venture and late-stage private equity, there’s a huge demand for liquidity right now from LPs. So there is still kind of a very strong demand on the sell-side. We still have record levels of sell-side interest across a record level of issuers. And so I still think there’s – I still think that an increase in the number of buy-side interest is very welcome and will act as a catalyst. I would want to caution that there’s not a one-to-one relationship between kind of IOI activity and culminating in trades. So I would want to be a little careful there. But the increase that we talked about in terms of a 45% increase in IOIs quarter-over-quarter really came from the buy-side, really a doubling of the buy-side interest as opposed to very steady and strong sell-side interest.
And it was the highest level of buy-side interest that we’ve seen since Q4 of 2021. So I think it’s really encouraging. So sorry, let me go back. It’s the highest level of buy-side interest since Q3 of 2021. The overall number of IOIs is the highest since we’ve seen a Q4 of 2021. So all of these metrics going back to being compared to levels we saw back in 2021, whether it’s total IOIs or buy-side IOIs, I mean, it’s extremely encouraging for us, but we don’t want to get out too far over our skis in terms of assuming that this will translate into doubling out the number of trades that we’re going to see next quarter, for example, right? That’s not what we’re meaning to indicate.
Ken Worthington: Thank you for that. And then I wanted to follow-up on your comments on sort of inorganic growth. It seems to me like the industry, you and your competitors, it’s probably ripe for some degree of consolidation. I guess, what would it take to actually see that consolidation? Do you feel you’re in a good position to actually be a consolidator with the public currency? So I don’t know, just take me through your thoughts here and why haven’t we seen this level of consolidation given we’ve come through a pretty challenging period over the last couple of years?
Kelly Rodriques: Yes. Well, first of all – this is Kelly. First of all, I think if you look at valuations in the public versus private market, we’re the only public player in the space. And I think as many of you on this call know, we’ve been coming to these earnings calls now for two years. And from early 2022 through the first – end of the first quarter in 2023, we have been reporting steadily decreasing revenues. And starting in Q2 of 2023, we started to climb back out of this. And I think we are now four quarters in. And our expectation would be that as we recover, our stock price recovers, that public currency gives us the ability to be an attractive acquirer for those who are still private. I think we’re patient, and I think one answer to the question is our share price recovery is one of the most important tools we have in providing a compelling offer to consolidate really interesting competitors.
I also believe that the general state of capital raising in the private market is still pretty impaired. And so the combination of our stock recovering at the same time that you’ve got impairment in capital raising, particularly in earlier to mid-stage private companies, means that it’s just kind of a matter of time until we get that convergent point where we’re starting to see recovery in our stock and the private companies that we’re interested in become more meaningfully lined up with the strategy that I mentioned earlier. So it’s a timing answer, I think. And we’re watching and just waiting for that moment to line up for us.
Ken Worthington: Okay, great. Thank you very much.
Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Owen Lau with Oppenheimer. Please go ahead.
Owen Lau: Good afternoon and thank you for taking my question. So last month you launched Forge Europe and hired four executives in London and Germany. Could you please talk about your next step? What is your hiring plan there and how to grow the business further? Thanks.
Kelly Rodriques: Yes. So Owen, thank you for the question. I think in the short-term, at least, for the next two quarters, we’re focused on two things there. One, getting our [indiscernible] application fully approved, so we could expand and also apply for our European passports. So we’ve got a regulatory track that we’re on. And until then, we are really revenue focused right now. So any significant staffing that we’re going to do is going to be trailing the success of starting to print revenues sequentially from now through Q4. So we’re being very cautious. Let’s not forget the comments Mark made about headcount, which includes Europe now. So at the same time we’ve committed to keep our headcount flat and to keep our burn decreasing.
We apply that same discipline to the way staffing will expand in our European operation. So for us to keep the overall Forge plan for headcount flat to down, we need to be very cautious about the velocity of staffing against the European revenue model. So what we’re going to be focused on, I can tell you, is printing trades, expanding the global order book that we’ve built over the last decade to provide access to European investors who haven’t had access to this before. So there’s a whole bunch of little competitors running around Europe trying to be a second competitor or being a participant in the private markets. There isn’t another competitor in the region that’s got the strength of access to the integrated global order book that was API connected this last quarter to Europe.
So we think we’re in a unique position to go out there and start printing trades. So we’re going to be totally revenue focused between now and Q4 with very modest hiring that tracks against revenue traction as we move through the year.
