Guide 6 min read
IR website for a Nasdaq uplisting
What an OTC company needs on its IR website before a Nasdaq uplisting, with a launch timeline, provider types, costs and questions to ask before signing.
An IR website for a Nasdaq uplisting should be live and counsel approved before the application becomes public, show your SEC filings automatically, carry the governance documents a Nasdaq company is expected to post, and be run by your own team so announcement day does not wait on a vendor ticket. For an OTC company, a self-service IR platform is usually faster and cheaper than a custom agency build.
This guide is for the CFO, CEO or general counsel of an OTCQX, OTCQB or Pink company that has decided to apply to Nasdaq or NYSE American and now has to buy or rebuild the investor site. The buying decision is shaped by the timeline: the site has to be ready for the day investors first read about the uplisting, which is rarely the day you chose.
What changes on your website when you move from OTC to Nasdaq
OTC tiers already expect current disclosure and a working investor contact. A Nasdaq listing adds governance expectations and a different audience: institutions that screen exchange-listed names, analysts who start coverage, and index and ETF funds that look for a clean investor page. Counsel should confirm the exact requirements for your listing tier, but plan on these pages:
| Page | Why it matters at uplisting |
|---|---|
| SEC filings feed | Institutions check the 10-K, 10-Q and 8-K history first. It should update from EDGAR without manual uploads. |
| Code of conduct | Nasdaq Rule 5610 requires a publicly available code of conduct, and a website posting is the usual way to meet it. |
| Committee charters and governance documents | New independent directors and audit, compensation and nominating committees are normal uplisting work. Post the adopted documents. |
| Press releases and news | The uplisting announcement, the approval notice and the first trading day release all need a permanent home. |
| Presentation and fact sheet | Roadshow and investor conference decks. Keep one current version. |
| Investor contact and email alerts | A named contact and a way to subscribe to news. |
| Events and calendar | Earnings dates and conference appearances once coverage starts. |
The timeline that decides which provider you can use
An uplisting runs through legal, audit and exchange review, and the public steps arrive in a short window. A company usually files an 8-K or issues a release when it applies, when it is approved and when it begins trading. The investor site has to be ready for the first of those. Work back from that date:
- Eight to twelve weeks before. Choose the provider and confirm who will publish. Agency builds with design rounds need most of this time.
- Four to six weeks before. Move the content over: filings feed, governance documents, past releases, presentation. Draft the uplisting announcement page.
- Two weeks before. Counsel reviews every page and the approval is recorded. Test the subdomain, SSL and email alerts.
- Announcement day. Publish the release on the site, and send it to your wire. Keep the old OTC pages redirected.
These are planning ranges, not exchange requirements. If your counsel expects a faster or slower path, adjust them. The point is that a quote-and-design process can consume the whole window, while a self-service workspace can be configured in days.
Which type of provider fits an OTC company moving up
| Type | Best for | Watch for |
|---|---|---|
| Large IR suites | Mid caps with a bigger budget and event needs | Quote-only pricing and multi-year terms |
| Wire bundled IR sites | Companies that already distribute releases through one vendor | The site is an add-on. CRM and approvals are thin |
| Agencies | Custom design and heavy advisory | Retainers and change requests for every update |
| Micro-cap IR site vendors | A low-cost filings and news feed | No CRM, no ownership data, no approval trail |
| IR workspaces such as Issuers IR website hosting | A lean team that publishes itself and wants CRM and approvals behind the site | No custom design studio, no webcasts |
For a head-to-head view of named vendors, see the comparison of investor relations website providers. If your current vendor is the one you are leaving, there are honest comparisons for B2i and ACCESS Newswire, two names common among OTC issuers.
What an uplisting IR website costs
Costs vary widely by vendor, and many vendors do not publish prices. Ask each one for a written quote that splits the build fee, the annual hosting and support fee, the renewal terms and the charge for each change after launch. A useful reference point is a published price: Issuers Public, which includes the IR website, investor CRM, ownership data and disclosure approvals, is $1,499 a month billed yearly (see pricing). Growth starts at $499 a month billed yearly for a smaller scope. Compare quotes on the same scope, since a cheap site without approvals or CRM leaves that work to your staff.
Do we need a separate site for the uplisting?
Usually not. Most OTC companies already have a corporate site with an investor page, and the cleanest move is to upgrade that investor section rather than launch a second domain. Put the IR site on an investor subdomain such as investors.yourcompany.com, link it from the main navigation, and redirect the old investor paths so search engines and existing holders land on the new pages. A separate domain splits your search presence and confuses anyone checking the company against the exchange listing.
The first week after the announcement
Expect more traffic to the investor page than in any other week of the year. Shareholders, retail investors, analysts and prospective funds all check it. Three things should be ready: the uplisting release and the 8-K exhibit linked from the news page, a current presentation with the story in six or seven slides, and a visible contact for the person who answers investor questions. Route incoming questions to one owner, log each conversation, and keep what you say consistent with what is public. Selective disclosure rules still apply when a new fund calls to ask about guidance.
Mistakes that slow an uplisting launch
- Waiting on a design round. A plain, correct site on announcement day beats a custom one a month later.
- Posting before counsel reviews. Forward-looking statements, non-GAAP figures and the safe harbor language need review on the site, just as in a release.
- Leaving stale OTC language. Old references to OTCQB tiers, or to a reporting standard you no longer follow, make the site look careless on listing day.
- No owner after launch. Someone has to publish the earnings release, the 10-Q and each conference appearance. Decide that person before you buy.
Questions to ask before you sign
- Can our team publish and edit pages without opening a ticket?
- Do SEC filings, Section 16 forms and press releases update automatically?
- Is there an approval step with an audit trail, so counsel signs off before anything goes live?
- Who owns the domain, the design and the content if we leave?
- What is the renewal notice period and the price change cap?
- Does the platform help us find and track the institutions that will look at us after we list?
The last question matters more than most uplisting checklists admit. After listing, the company is screened by funds that could not buy it on the OTC market. A site is the shop window, but ownership data and a CRM for investor meetings are what turn the new visibility into conversations. Meetings should follow the rules in the Regulation FD guide for investor meetings, and the disclosure approval workflow keeps each release reviewed.
A practical recommendation
If your uplisting is within the next quarter and the IR team is one to three people, choose a provider you can configure and publish yourself, with filings feeds, an approval trail and a published price. Keep an agency only if brand design is a real priority. If you still need to read the listing rules closely, a document assistant lets you ask questions of a listing rules PDF and see the passage behind each answer, but counsel should confirm every requirement. Then use the investor relations for pre-IPO companies page to see how the IR website, data room and approvals fit together before the first trading day.