Today, Andy Altahawi’s working practice is advisory: he advises companies listing on the national exchanges. It is the current chapter of the record — the one still being written while the grant is organized alongside it, and the work intended to fund it.
What the practice does
- Direct exchange listings — advising companies entering NASDAQ and NYSE without a traditional underwritten offering: existing shares registered for public trading, the opening price set by the market itself, no underwriting discount, no lock-up.
- Regulation A+ and registered offerings — guiding issuers through Tier 2 Regulation A+ offerings of up to $75 million and S-1 or F-1 registrations, and pairing a qualified offering with an exchange listing where the capital plan calls for it.
- Listing readiness — the unglamorous center of the work: corporate housekeeping, audited financials, governance build-out, and exchange quantitative standards, managed from engagement through the first day of trading.
- Cross-border coordination — international issuers approaching the U.S. markets, structured through foreign private issuer frameworks, with local counsel in every jurisdiction a transaction touches.
- Governance counsel — boards, bylaws, and reporting frameworks aligned with public-market expectations.
How the practice is framed
Mr. Altahawi practices listing advisory and consultancy. He is an international non-U.S. attorney; he does not practice U.S. securities law, and any matter requiring U.S. legal advice or opinions is handled in co-counsel with U.S.-admitted securities attorneys. He is neither a registered broker-dealer, investment advisor, nor funding portal. The advisory work is described in full at directlylisted.com.
Who the clients are
They range from high-growth private companies preparing for a first public listing to established international corporations seeking access to U.S. capital markets through direct listings, Regulation A+ offerings, uplistings, or other alternative routes. The approach is methodical and investor-focused — designed to position a client not merely for a successful listing, but for sustainable performance afterward, on exchanges that keep asking questions long after the first trade.
What this chapter gives the grant
The funding, and the model. The practice is the intended source of the grant’s money, and it is also the template for Area III: the founder has spent four decades on the supply side of capital, and the communities that never come near it are the ones the opportunity and enterprise grants are meant for. It is also why the grant’s announcements are made the way exchange work is done — in writing, on the record, with the disclosures up front.