The SPAC Podcast

In this episode of The SPAC Podcast, Patrick Sturgeon, Managing Partner at Brookline Capital Markets, discusses what types of companies are best suited for going public through a SPAC merger. He explains why fundamentally strong businesses with good products, growth potential, and solid operating margins make attractive public companies.

Patrick also highlights why certain asset-heavy sectors — such as banks, insurance companies, re...

In this episode of The SPAC Podcast, Nick Morgan, Partner at Paul Hastings LLP and co-founder of ICAN (Investor Choice Advocates Network), discusses the SEC’s new SPAC rules and their impact on investor access.

Nick argues that while the rules were framed as investor protection, in practice they reflect what he calls a “protection through prohibition” mindset. By making disclosure obligations more difficult and transaction costs hig...

In this episode of The SPAC Podcast, Machua Millett, Chief Innovation Officer at Lockton Companies, explains how the Directors & Officers (D&O) insurance landscape for SPACs and de-SPACs has evolved since the 2021 boom.

Following a surge in SPAC IPOs, deal volume, and resulting litigation, insurance premiums spiked sharply in 2021. At their peak, SPAC-related policies were among the most expensive in the public company space...

In this episode of The SPAC Podcast, Nick Morgan, Partner at Paul Hastings LLP and co-founder of ICAN (Investor Choice Advocates Network), explains how the SEC’s 2024 SPAC rules may affect small sponsors and entrepreneurs navigating the regulatory landscape.

Nick emphasizes that while current SEC leadership may not pursue as many aggressive enforcement actions as in prior years, the rules themselves present challenges. In particular...

In this episode of The SPAC Podcast, Machua “Motsch” Millett, Chief Innovation Officer at Lockton Companies, addresses the most common misconceptions SPAC sponsors and board members have when it comes to Directors & Officers (D&O) insurance.

Machua dispels the myth that “insurance never pays,” emphasizing that properly structured policies often do. He also clarifies where risk actually lives in a SPAC’s lifecycle: it’s not d...

In this episode of The SPAC Podcast, Nick Morgan, Partner at Paul Hastings LLP and co-founder of ICAN (Investor Choice Advocates Network), outlines potential legal and advocacy strategies ICAN may pursue in response to the SEC’s new SPAC rules.

Nick points to one central question: Does the SEC even have statutory authority to change PSLRA liability protections? ICAN is considering challenging that very issue, not from a sponsor’s pe...

In this episode of The SPAC Podcast, Caitlyn Van Valin, Vice President at Odyssey Trust, explains why SPAC sponsors can’t afford to overlook what happens after the deal closes.

While many focus heavily on the IPO and deal mechanics, Caitlyn emphasizes that post-merger shareholder recordkeeping and corporate actions are where the real operational lifecycle begins. She shares how Odyssey is uniquely positioned to support companies thr...

In this episode of The SPAC Podcast, Louis Camhi offers a nuanced take on the state of the SPAC market and why it’s still too early to say, “SPACs are back.” Rather than chasing headlines, Louis explains that SPACs are best understood as cyclical tools within the capital markets, just like IPOs, M&A, or direct listings.

He highlights that the IPO market has been largely dormant in recent years, and SPAC performance is directly t...

In this episode of The SPAC Podcast, Machua “Motsch” Millett breaks down how D&O insurance needs to evolve across a SPAC’s lifecycle, from IPO to de-SPAC and beyond. He explains how SPACs have historically managed risk by purchasing standalone policies at each stage and why that approach often creates gaps in coverage and increased cost.

Machua introduces a more modern solution his team pioneered: the “DeSPAC-age” policy model. ...

In this episode of The SPAC Podcast, Nick Morgan, Partner at Paul Hastings LLP and co-founder of ICAN (Investor Choice Advocates Network), explains how the SEC’s new SPAC rules may influence litigation risk for sponsors and targets.

Drawing on his experience as an SEC trial counsel, Nick notes that while today’s SEC may be less aggressive than under Chair Gensler, the statute of limitations is long, sometimes six years, ten years, o...

In this episode of The SPAC Podcast, Caitlyn Van Valin, Vice President at Odyssey Trust, explains why the transfer agent and trust industry is undergoing a long-overdue transformation and why SPACs have been a major catalyst.

For nearly a decade, one incumbent controlled 99% of the market. SPACs were considered “too risky,” and innovation stalled. That all began to change in 2020. Caitlyn shares how Odyssey broke into the U.S. SPAC ...

In this episode of The SPAC Podcast, Adeel Rouf shares his forward-looking perspective on the SPAC market heading into late 2025 and 2026. With traditional IPO windows largely shut for mid-market companies, Adeel explains why SPACs are becoming increasingly relevant again, especially for private equity and family office-backed portfolio companies searching for liquidity.

He projects a healthy wave of 70 to 100 SPACs as both digestib...

In this episode of The SPAC Podcast, Machua “Motsch” Millett, Chief Innovation Officer at Lockton Companies, shares his outlook on D&O risk for SPACs and de-SPACs heading into 2025 and beyond.

Drawing from decades of experience advising public and pre-public companies, Machua warns that we’ve seen this market cycle before: an uptick in activity, rising headlines, and inexperienced teams rushing in. This time, however, there’s a ...

In this episode of The SPAC Podcast, Machua “Motsch” Millett of Lockton Companies explains how underwriters assess risk when pricing D&O insurance policies for SPACs and their de-SPAC targets. The evaluation process is vastly different depending on where the SPAC is in its lifecycle and Machua walks through both sides of that underwriting equation.

For SPACs, there’s limited data, so the focus is on the sponsor team’s track reco...

In this episode of The SPAC Podcast, Chaz breaks down why D&O insurance pricing has plummeted nearly 60% over the past nine quarters and why the market looks so different today compared to the 2021 peak.

He explains how a flood of new insurance carriers entered the market post-2021, doubling the number of firms writing public D&O insurance from ~32 to ~65 by the end of 2022. With increased competition and new entrants unburd...

In this episode of The SPAC Podcast, James breaks down the evolving role of Private Investments in Public Equity (PIPEs) and why they remain an essential but more challenging, tool for SPAC deals today.

James explains how PIPEs looked deceptively easy during the 2020 boom, when leaked deals pushed stocks to $20 and investors happily committed to $10 PIPEs. But today, PIPEs take time, trust, and careful structuring to close successfu...

In this episode of The SPAC Podcast, Nick Morgan, Partner at Paul Hastings LLP and co-founder of ICAN (Investor Choice Advocates Network), reflects on his years of work in the SPAC space both with paying clients and in the context of SEC investigations.

Nick shares that while ICAN has not yet taken up a SPAC case from a nonprofit litigation perspective, he has represented numerous clients in the SPAC ecosystem during an active perio...

In this episode of The SPAC Podcast, Caitlyn Van Valin, Vice President at Odyssey Trust, highlights how technology and transparency are reshaping the SPAC transfer agent and trust process.

She explains how Odyssey’s state-of-the-art reporting portals give sponsors, legal teams, CFOs, and boards instant access to accurate reports, without waiting overnight. With more than 150 customizable reports available, Odyssey empowers sponsors ...

In this episode of The SPAC Podcast, Adeel Rouf shares his perspective on U.S. vs. non-U.S. SPAC deal flow and why high-quality companies from Europe and Asia continue to choose NASDAQ and NYSE as their go-to listing destinations.

While the U.S. capital markets remain the most liquid and deal-ready globally, Adeel explains that many international companies, especially in sectors like biotech, see U.S. exchanges as a strategic gatewa...