Roadshow
Definition
A roadshow is the marketing phase of a securities offering: over roughly one to two weeks (for a typical IPO), company management and the underwriters present the investment story to institutional investors through group presentations and one-on-one meetings, in person or virtually.
Its purpose is twofold — sell the story and gather demand. Investor feedback and indications of interest flow into the underwriters' order book during bookbuilding, informing the final price and allocations. Before the formal roadshow, banks often run 'testing-the-waters' meetings with select institutional investors to gauge appetite, a practice broadened by the JOBS Act.
The equity research analysts of the underwriting banks are walled off from this process; the selling document is the preliminary prospectus (the 'red herring').
Why interviewers ask
When an interviewer asks you to walk through an IPO, the roadshow is a step you must place correctly — after the SEC filing and before pricing. Junior bankers spend real time building roadshow presentations, so describing it accurately (who attends, what it feeds into) shows you understand the analyst job, not just the textbook.
Related terms
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