What Private Companies Don’t Understand About SEC Filings

In this episode, host Chaz Churchwell is joined by Elliot Goldstein of Federal Filings, a veteran EDGAR agent and capital markets operator, for a detailed conversation on the realities of SEC filings during DESPAC transactions.
Elliot explains how filings are prepared, why formatting and XBRL tagging create risk, and where private companies consistently fall short when transitioning to public-company standards. From version control breakdowns to unrealistic timelines and surprise costs, this episode highlights the operational blind spots that derail deals and frustrate regulators.
Topics include:
- The true role of EDGAR agents and filing firms
- Why timing and accuracy drive deal outcomes
- How poor coordination leads to SEC scrutiny
- The hidden costs private companies don’t plan for
- Where AI helps and where it cannot replace human review
- Why experienced partners matter before the deal closes
This is a practical, experience-driven conversation for leaders who want fewer surprises and stronger execution as they prepare for the public markets.
If you are evaluating a DESPAC or preparing for life as a public company, this episode delivers clarity you can use immediately.
THE DESPAC PODCAST STANDARD LEGAL DISCLAIMER
The DESPAC Podcast is for informational purposes only. The views and opinions expressed by the host and guests are their own and do not represent the views of Smooth Stone Capital, its affiliates, or any sponsoring organization.
Nothing in this podcast should be interpreted as legal advice, investment advice, tax advice, or a recommendation to pursue or avoid any transaction. Discussions may reference SPACs, DESPAC transactions, securities regulations, or public-company readiness frameworks. These conversations are educational in nature and should not be relied upon when making financial or strategic decisions.
Listeners should consult qualified legal, financial, and tax professionals before acting on any information discussed in this podcast. Any examples or scenarios mentioned are illustrative and may not reflect current market conditions or regulatory requirements.
Participation by a guest does not constitute an endorsement of any company, strategy, product, or service. References to specific firms or individuals are for context only.
Smooth Stone Capital and the DESPAC Podcast disclaim all liability arising from the use of or reliance on the information presented.
Chaz Churchwell: How's it going everybody? This is Chaz, your host with the D SPAC podcast. I'm here today with somebody to where if you've never been a public company. You don't know what you don't know, and this guy is one of the people that you need to know that you didn't know that you needed to know. So I've got Elliot Goldstein here from federal filings.
So Elliot is a, he is a Edgar agent. He is, uh, taking care of filings printing. Elliot, welcome to the show. How's it going my man?
Elliot Goldstein: Fantastic. Chaz, thank you for having me. Would've missed the opportunity, so I appreciate it greatly.
Chaz Churchwell: Absolutely. Hey, and by the way, if you're listening right now, I want you to know that I know a lot of people in capital markets, and this is one of the good eggs.
This is one of the most honorable guys I know that is on the street. So just know that if you're looking for somebody to be your Edgar agent. Um, he, he's an absolute blessing of a person to work with and to know you're better for it. So
Elliot Goldstein: appreciate that, cha.
Chaz Churchwell: Absolutely. Absolutely. So, alright, let's dive in first of all and talk about what is an Edgar agent, like, what are, what are these filings?
What is, uh, what is a printer going to do?
Elliot Goldstein: That's a phenomenal question. I get asked that all the time. Of course. Everyone's like, Hey, I'll go to Kinko's. What do I need you guys for? And the answer to that is, I mean, traditionally we were always known as financial printing, even though today the world has really gone away from printing so traditionally.
A typical de transactional. Let's talk about IPOs for example. They used to be where the, they would have lavish offices and all the teams would get together around the table and be able to hash out overnight. Over day you would have food, everything served there. They would literally wine and don you, and they would literally do the changes by hand and have go into the other room and have them process the changes that today has all become electronic and.
Basically what we're doing is we're formatting the documents that the attorneys, the company, the auditors, are sending to us in order to make it in the format that it needs to be accepted by the SEC. That's the short version.
Chaz Churchwell: It's just like you think about whenever you're in grad school and whether it's, uh, whether it's Chicago style or whatever it is, there's the, the style manual for the, your professor wanted it a very specific way and, and it's just like that with Edgar, right?
Elliot Goldstein: You, it's, it's even more than that when you're going on a transaction and there are some attorney, there are some bankers that have very specific style guides, and if the filing is not done in that font, it's a no go. It'll hold up a deal. So again, it's very, being very attentive, very nimble, and really, really being able to do that customer service, that client
Chaz Churchwell: love it.
I love it. Okay, so let, let's talk about with the filings part of it. Sure. Um, tell me, unpack for me more of what that looks like from the filing side.
Elliot Goldstein: So filings. In other words, if you're, if you're an investor, let's talk about that. Or you're, you're a company that's not public. How do we know if we wanna invest in a company so we know that 'cause we're looking on whatever, you know, whether it's Yahoo, or whether it's Reuters, or whether it's even the Bloomberg more advanced and we're getting that data.
Where is that data all taken from? Or if there's a material event that happens at the company. Correct. Yeah. How do we know that? How does the Newswire knows that it's not always a press release that's given out for this stuff. So all that is derived by the company sending in their financials, their eight Ks, which is sort of anytime there's an event.
The SEC. Now, the SEC only accepts in what's called Edgar format, which has to be specific HTML. And again, everything needs to be formatted correctly in order to be accepted. Um, there's another layer that what the SECA couple years ago came on, all the financials need to be tagged in what's called XBRL or I-X-B-R-L, which makes it even more complicated.
And again. The key factor on any company that's going to file at any point is knowing your timeline. Where do we want to finish? And then working your way backwards. And that's sort of the key of, uh, this industry in my opinion.
Chaz Churchwell: So, so let's talk about this because obviously the target audience here are private companies looking at going public.
Maybe they're gonna do it through a d SPAC process. What are the things that you find that these private companies, uh, specifically through a d spac most often underestimate? Um, when it comes to the complexity of disclosures. Pro like production, logistics, things like that. Uh, the blind spots that they may, that they may find that they have.
Elliot Goldstein: So again, it's always, it's all about timing. It's all about accuracy. It's all about picking a partner. I mean, obviously I, you know, taking a step back, I'm not the, it's always the first thing the bankers will tell you is audited financials, and I'm sure you hear that. Yeah. When you're gonna talk to companies, make sure you have your audited financials.
There are so many different factors that can hold up a deal. Or delay a deal or delay a transaction from happening. Um, and the transactions aren't done until they actually close from when a, you know, uh, a business combination agreement is signed until the deals get closed, can take, you know, a couple quarters at times.
Chaz Churchwell: So, oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead. Go ahead.
Elliot Goldstein: And, and the key really is, is making sure you know your timeline. You have the right partners in place as early as possible.
Chaz Churchwell: Timing accuracy on that component.
Elliot Goldstein: Correct.
Chaz Churchwell: So let me ask you this. How often on a d spac should you be involved? Do they just like call you up the day before an S four gets filed or, or what
Elliot Goldstein: that, that's a fantastic question.
It's sort of, it, it, it goes maybe a little globally. I'll, I'll, I'll do this in two steps. Meaning, you know, there are a lot of, there aren't a lot, but there are many different firms that do what we do. Okay. There are larger firms that are very well known, and then there are more boutique firms. We, I've been in this industry for over 20 years, so I've worked at the boutique, I've worked at the large firms.
I know how they work, I know how they price. I, you know, understand the mentality and how they work with the clients. Many times when you'll call on a. Already reporting company, they'll tell you, look, we're good. We have a process. We know. But again, there's always ways to improve on the process.
Chaz Churchwell: Yeah,
Elliot Goldstein: there's tight deadlines, there's turns last minute.
Can you get my XBRL done as well as just my Edgar. So that's sort of what I would say. Step one. I would say step two in regards to, um, well, let's say. I would we stop for a second?
Chaz Churchwell: Yeah. Just,
Elliot Goldstein: yeah.
Chaz Churchwell: Chris,
Elliot Goldstein: if you could just mark it, if you could repeat the, if you could repeat the question again. I wanted to get, the question was,
Chaz Churchwell: when should they get engaged?
Elliot Goldstein: Oh, when should they get engaged? Got you. So I would say step two in regards to, let's say, a DSAC process or a IPO. It's always early on because again, there, there was a company. That already did. From the public co company standpoint, they already have a printer who they're using all along from the IPO process.
However, the key from a private company standpoint, and I have found this literally over the last two months with the current D SPACs that I'm working on, the engagement letters, the SPAC wanted the private company to sign. Meaning the private company's going to end up with that invoice. So they really need to be smart and educate themselves on service providers.
What are the key factors that I need and what is the cost going to be? And to get extreme clarity on that. And that's sort of a big moot point that I find in the industry all the time.
Chaz Churchwell: Man, I'm gonna tell you, you really just tapped onto something that we haven't talked about yet on the show with anybody.
And it's the fact that, uh, that it's important that these private companies know that if you're gonna be a part of a a DPAC transaction that. A lot of the SPACs are going to be looking to you to be paying for certain things. They're not just coming to you with a beautifully packaged bow saying, you get to walk into this for free.
There's gonna be costs that are gonna be essentially passed on to you the soon to be public company. That's like, yeah, that's huge.
Elliot Goldstein: Correct. And that, and that being said, to your point, literally this week, I had companies that. Had told me we need this to be signed. Meaning I had the contract with the, with the spac.
And they're like, no, no, no, no, no. The target will be signing 'cause they will be footing the bill.
Chaz Churchwell: Wow. Okay. Got it. See, there you go. Um, so let's go ahead and, and let's flip to another area. Like let's talk about price structuring. 'cause you mentioned, like, you mentioned flip, like floating the bill. Um, how does price structuring kind of work in your industry and like even beyond pricing, um, what do people need to be looking at?
Like what sets a good filing agent apart from. An average or subpar filing agent.
Elliot Goldstein: Fantastic question. So I'll answer the second question first if that's okay.
Chaz Churchwell: Hey, you're here. You're the guest.
Elliot Goldstein: I don't feel like a guest. Come on.
Chaz Churchwell: It's your home baby. It's your
Elliot Goldstein: home. There. There you go. There you go. There you go.
Um, I would say in regards to the second question, what makes a filing agent good? 'cause again, there are different, uh, you know, there's the brand names and there's the non-brand names, and there's the, you know, the bigger boys and the smaller boy, the boutique shops. And I think the key factor is, is really experience.
Experience and innovation. You know, everyone throws out the word AI and we all know the SEC with the reviews and ai, but at the end of the day, with the implementation of ai, if you use it, and you'll understand this, just I'm sure if you use it in the correct way, it will enhance and benefit you in a tremendous, tremendous way.
Chaz Churchwell: Yeah.
Elliot Goldstein: So with that technology, which obviously we're using some of that as well, we are able to create. Move documents a lot quicker. Obviously there's still the human touch and there's still the proofreading and the reviewing that you wanna do, because at the end of the day, the attorneys aren't really price sensitive.
It's the clients that are price sensitive. Correct. Yeah. So it's really, it's really a matter of how do I make the lives of the attorneys simpler? Then they will wanna recommend me for the next job. So it's really, can I turn documents quickly? Can I send them, if they send me, if they send me an initial 200 page document.
And then I send them back the 200 pages. They send me back 20 pages of changes. Um, uh, do they have to review all 200 pages at once or are they able to get just CPOs, which are change pages only, which allows them only to review those 20 pages. So it makes their life a lot quicker and a lot easier, and a lot faster.
It's something that we brought into the industry. Where are they making changes? Are they marking up documents or are they getting a word right back? That's literally done in the Word document. Avoids changes, works phenomenally well. So again, it's really experienced team people that you like, obviously, and people that know what they're doing.
That's the key factor here.
Chaz Churchwell: That's substantial. That's substantial.
Elliot Goldstein: Let me go to question two.
Chaz Churchwell: Yeah,
Elliot Goldstein: that's okay. Question number two was how do you price? So the question, that's fantastic. There was always a saying in the industry, and I hope no one in the industry will mind me saying this. Where did you hide the hat?
I remember when I heard this the first time, I was like, what are you talking about? What hat? And they always said, you go into the transaction, get the deal and you'll figure out how to make money. And I am so against that. And so non-believer and literally have built this company, not on that, meaning you'll get bids, low balls, soft caps, but as soon as you start changing even.
I or a T or you, you open the lights on a weekend, you're getting slammed with 10,000, 20, a hundred. Literally invoice. I've seen invoices on these specs close to a million dollars. Wow. Now what we've done is I give a cap and I give a hard cap, and there are clients of mine that I can give a laundry list that will tell you we stick by our numbers.
We go in there with a very fair price. Clients love it. They know, you know, we, we do it for your ongoing compliance. We do it for IPOs and we do it for D Specs. It's a cap. It's a number that I stick by, and it's a number that works. It includes all alterations. It includes weekend work, it includes 24 7. So it allows your team to focus on getting the deal done and not worrying about, Hey guys, don't send it in on a weekend because we don't wanna pay a premium of 40,000.
Chaz Churchwell: Yeah. So, okay. Let you, you talk about weekends, you talk about nights. What's the turnaround time that somebody should be expecting for this? Like, what are the attorneys expecting? Um, like how fast do you guys have to be at what you do?
Elliot Goldstein: You, you've touched on like the cream of the cream, the, the creme, like they say in this industry, because that is the question when people say, yeah, it's great.
I send in my document, I get it back the next morning or, or two days later. It's all good. And I'm like, dude, you send them, you know. 200 page document, I would say takes, uh, on average maybe six hours. You know, depending on the complexity of the document, um, subsequent changes are a lot quicker. So really depends on are they heavy changes, are they not?
So heavy changes are they documents that we literally need to retype again, 'cause they don't have them award. Sometimes they send in PDFs. So again, it's all about coordinating beforehand, what's necessary, what do we need to get done. How do we get it done in the most efficient way?
Chaz Churchwell: Got it. Okay. So let me ask this.
Obviously this isn't like whenever you were playing with, with, uh, fire engine trucks when you were a little kid. Like, I mean, nobody says, when I grow up I'm gonna be a filing agent. So like that
Elliot Goldstein: is true.
Chaz Churchwell: How did you land here, man? What was like, what was the path that brought you to this?
Elliot Goldstein: That's a great question, but I'm gonna answer it by going the other way.
So, as you know, Chaz, I have nine kids.
Chaz Churchwell: Yeah.
Elliot Goldstein: My kids have no clue what is a filing agent. And this is the question they asked me. You know, they go to school every day and they're like, you know, all my friends talk about their dad. This guy's in a real estate broker. This guy's a lawyer. And they're like, what do you do?
My friends ask me, and I don't know, I'm like, he sits by a computer, he travels the world. We have no clue. And the answer I give them, and I think you can attest to this, is I am in the business of making friends. So day one, it's all about people. And I am a big believer, you make friends, you don't even have ulterior motives.
You really do for others, and it always comes back to you. So that's, that's the first thing. Um, the question of how I got into, to the Edgar business and filing agent is phenomenal. 'cause I don't even know how I ended up here, but I started out, we say God has a sense of humor. Right. Um. They, I started out as actually a trader and a market maker.
Um, we had a specific desk that dealt with restricted stock, you know, stocks that have restricted legends on them. You needed to be very specific in how you remove those legends to get them when the, when the, when the registrations would go effective. So we, we made markets for those funds and that sort of was a very nice niche in stock trading.
Um, from there I went on to do a little bit of investment banking at a company called First Mon Financial at a Red Bank, New Jersey. And, uh, somehow from there I was introduced to Shy Stern and Seth Farman, who people probably know from the industry and the rest is history. They told me, Elliot, put your head down.
I used to sit there making hundreds of calls a day, and uh, the rest is history. Got to know people in history and the rest evolved.
Chaz Churchwell: So, so let's talk about nine kids real quick. Obviously that's a, that's an entourage. That's actually a basketball team with a deep bench, you know. So, um,
Elliot Goldstein: don't
Chaz Churchwell: forget the three
Elliot Goldstein: grandchildren.
Chaz Churchwell: You've got three grandkids already. Yeah. Come on man. How are you a grandpa? That just like, that blows my mind a little bit. So let's, uh, let, let me ask about that. So, uh, how many years have you and the wife been married?
Elliot Goldstein: Me and the wife, uh oh. You're gonna get me in trouble here, Jess. Um, I think it's 27 and a half years now, thank god.
Chaz Churchwell: 27 and a half. Wow. Okay. So solid family, man. He needs to get fed. Give this guy a deal, somebody please. He is, uh, he, he is gotta keep it together like that. So. They
Elliot Goldstein: motivate me every morning,
Chaz Churchwell: so. Alright, so let me, let me talk with you real quick. We're gonna, we're gonna flip back to business for a moment and, and I wanted to ask you, what are the, like what are the big pitfalls, the things where you've just seen.
Crash and burn to where, uh, where private companies end up public and it was just, it was a public readiness thing. They just, they weren't willing or, or just didn't get it to, to be able to get something done the right way and it ended up biting them hard. I want, I want people to be able to hear your hard fought wisdom and experience so that they don't have to fall prey.
To the mistakes of somebody else. I'd love for them to, to learn from your experience on that.
Elliot Goldstein: I, I, I hear you. I, I would say it's always having the right partners. I mean, you'll know this on every level from the right. It, it's having the right partners, the right people to guide you, whether it's lawyers, whether it's accountants, whether it's internal CFO outside CFO services, and it's really being able to be prepared.
On time and to know when do I need to do disclosure? When do I need to do XBRL? I'll give you a great example now that we're talking about these specs post close of the transaction, there's always a super AK that needs to get filed.
Chaz Churchwell: Mm-hmm.
Elliot Goldstein: That super AK should really be started. If you, you're working with an experienced provider.
Could be started simultaneously with the S four, the ongoing S four. So you don't have an issue that everyone's scrambling posts. You're also gonna usually have a registration statement that's gonna come afterwards post-close, whether it's an SWAN or an s3. That's also important to make sure the XBRL for the private companies already you, you're, you're ahead of the curve.
'cause again, XBRL is not. Edgar Edgar type setting can be done fairly quickly. XBRL really takes time to tag and to make sure that the tags are correct. Subsequent edits. If you have the right software and the right provider, they can do it fairly quickly, which is what we do. And again, it's really the key factors are how are they turning documents, the, and who's reviewing it and who's managing the process.
I will tell you there's one more if it's okay.
Chaz Churchwell: Yeah, man.
Elliot Goldstein: Go for it. I think the key factor that I think is very important in the process, and I think a lot of um, places may miss the boat on this quarterback.
Someone that's really doing diversion control. And that's sort of one of the key factors here, because if you have, remember every deal's got, every transaction's got. The SPAC plus the private company, the attorneys for the spac, the attorneys for the private company, and then you have auditors and everyone else, and then you have financials coming from both sides.
Then you have pro performers coming from both sides. So there's a lot of pieces. There really needs to be a quarterback that sort of. Lia liaising with the printer. Yeah, because if, if everyone's sending in different edits and we're, if we're holding up version five and you're sending edits to version two, meanwhile that was already deleted 'cause they made ch then you're gonna, and, and this holds up transactions.
I find this all the time and it's always blamed on us. Well, I always tell people, the client, I've always learned in the industry, client is always king. You do what you have to, to jump through hoops. But version control, I can't stress enough, is probably one of the most important factors that can make mitigate a lot of the heartache.
Chaz Churchwell: So let's say that, that somebody doesn't take the filings and like, and, and the, the part and the role that you guys play in here, let's say that they don't take it seriously. Let's say that they, that they push it off, push it off, and now all of a sudden, um, maybe it just happens to be a particularly busy day, whatever, everybody wants it last minute.
Um, but you can't be all things to all people all the time. Like, so, so my question really kind of comes down to if what, what's the nuclear situation like if somebody, uh, does wait until the 11th hour? To come to you guys and, and it just happens to be one of those days to where you're slammed, you put 'em in line.
Everybody's, it's, it's always urgent, always important all the time. And so you can't just move 'em to the top of the stack kind of thing. You gotta get it done for in line with everyone. Like in a, in a situation like that, what's kind of the nuclear thing that happens? What's the fallout if they don't prioritize getting this done in a timely fashion?
Elliot Goldstein: Well, the fallout is more SEC comments. I mean, you could ultimately, there's many times where your financials could go stale, which is terrible. Okay. Um, but I will give you a very interesting scenario that actually happened to me this weekend. I got a call from a client and they said, look, we have an S four D SPAC that we'd like to file today.
And I'm like, it's 1130 in the morning. You wanna file by five 30. You haven't even sent the documents to the printer because it usually takes overnight to just do the first term and then you need all the comments. She's like, yeah, it's gotta file today by five 30. I said, you didn't send it to any printer?
And I'm like, look, I, I'm not a miracle worker, but I will do ev We, I was willing to take it on. We were willing to do it. I can't guarantee that it would've been a hundred percent, you know, with every edit they would've wanted with the terms. But we were gonna go all out and all in what ended up happening, it was lost in translation that the, when I spoke to the attorney, he is like, no, no, no, no.
We're sending in the document at five 30. We're not filing for another week. Yeah, exact exactly.
Chaz Churchwell: Got it.
Elliot Goldstein: So again, the miracles I've had, I've had attorneys reach out to me on LinkedIn on filing deadline days and say, Elliot, do you think you can get a 10 Q done today with XBRL? That's a, there's no one in the industry that will do that.
I didn't see the LinkedIn post till a little bit later in the day, but I would've told her, I would've given it a shot. Miracles do happen, and that's what we do indeed. Love to. We love to be miracle workers. Right.
Chaz Churchwell: I like that. So this is, uh. This is one of those things to where I love having somebody like you on, because you're great at helping people understand what the picture looks like and helping to make it make sense.
So I, I'll tell you that for me, um, I know that I like finding out from people a little bit more about who they are and humanizing them because I really, I believe that people love doing business with people that they like. I know that you're a likable guy. I know that, um, I know everything that I know to be true about you.
Um, from a work ethic standpoint, from a an ethics and morality standpoint, I, I know who you are and, and I love that about you. Um, I want to give people an opportunity to kind of hear from you what's your why? Like your what, what's your why for doing business the way you do it. You're a connector. You're incredibly ethical.
Um, integrity and, and communication are paramount to you, but like, what is, what, what's your why for you could charge way more than you do? Like, why are you so value driven?
Elliot Goldstein: Uh, that's a great question. I'm, I, I, first of all, I'm a long-term thinker, long-term player, so I always like to build relationships.
It's at the end of the day. I've seen over the years, so many people that, you know, have either been too busy CFOs or attorneys, you know, you cold call an attorney and they're, I'm on a transaction. I'm using someone already. And then those same CFOs, five years down the line are sending you the resume if you could please help them find a job.
So at the end of the day, everyone needs everyone. And I guess from each of my kids, I always learn how to interact. I always tell this to my kids. I always tell them, you're not gonna change the world, you're not gonna change anyone. But you could always change how you react to other people. And I think that's the key here.
The key here is if you just help people and you want to help people and you genuinely believe you wanna help people, you know, you gotta, you gotta, you gotta feed the kids, so you gotta take something. But you can make healthier margins. You don't have to go end. I mean, go through the roof, you could provide a value, a service.
Like I try not to do things for free. You know, some companies will say, oh, we'll give you your queue for free and your ca look. We provide a fantastic service at an extremely fair price, and that's really the key factor. It's not about how much money can I get outta you and I'm out the door. It's really what.
I mean, Chaz, you know this more than anyone else. I probably spend 60% of my time helping companies and attorneys that I'll probably never do business with, but I love that. I like people.
Chaz Churchwell: You mentioned AI a little bit ago, I want to talk about that because obviously AI is everywhere. Um, the world tells us that it's gonna replace everyone, you know, there.
It's just, uh, it's just this juggernaut of a thing that we have to contend with. Right. So let me ask you. In your world right now. 'cause things are changing, they're evolving. AI is learning, it's getting better. Uh, generative ai, but like, but where it is right now. Answer me this, like how much should people be able to lean on ai?
How much should companies like you be leaning on AI when it comes to filings versus having to deal with somebody? That's live a real person and, and like, what's the blowback if they do?
Elliot Goldstein: Great question. Great question. Um, especially where we were talking, you know, in the past, like we already spoke about, you know, costs, timelines.
So I think, I think the, the factor is ai, and I'm gonna try to frame it as I see it on a day-to-day basis is a phenomenal tool.
Chaz Churchwell: Yeah,
Elliot Goldstein: it, it, it, it reminds me, I had a professor in college, they used to tell us right when the iPhones came out, shows you how old I'm, and he was like, you don't understand. We're gonna be able to take a week and put it into a day so you'll be able to vacation.
Of the week, we did exactly the opposite. We took a month and we put it into a day, so we're packed. In other words, we became not more efficient. We just did more, took on more work, right? 'cause we need it quicker. So if you think of it in that context to ai, it's a great tool. But we all know chat, GPT and any other.
Um, format that you're using of ai, it always gives you an answer, whether it knows it or whether it doesn't. So can you really rely on the accuracy? At the end of the day, we're dealing here with filings that have tight deadlines that need to be accurate. The one of the worst things talk to any CFO is having to file a 10 K or a 10 Q amendment because we did the wrong financials.
They hate it. If they have to, they do it a 10 KA, a 10 qa. Eight Ks, even at the times, are the worst filings that they dread. It can cost your stock price to fluctuate, forget about it, not somewhere you want to be. So again, if it helps on the backend for efficiency, that's great, but are you gonna go in to have your audit being done by ai?
No. And if it's maybe the initial, and maybe the auditors are gonna go and dive and dig in. So again, it's a tool that makes it easier. But definitely, definitely something that you cannot rely on at this point.
Chaz Churchwell: Man, that's so, uh, that's so good that you, that you brought kind of back into focus chat GPT, because I mean, I've used even that, like I've used Canva to create some artwork, right?
And I'll tell Canva, Hey, create an elephant standing on top of a safe and what will it do? It'll create. A safe in the shape of an elephant, you know, like or something like that. There you go. It just gets it wrong. It's like close, but it just doesn't get it right. And then chat, GPT, it's the same thing.
It's almost how you structure the sentence will determine the answer it gives you and so, right. I completely agree with you. That AI is a remarkable tool, but like to, to format and structure. But I, but I feel like the fine tuning, the final review still has to be human, so I appreciate that.
Elliot Goldstein: Talking about Canva, I think they're one of the, uh, 2026, uh, potential IP candidates.
Chaz Churchwell: Are they really?
Elliot Goldstein: There you go. Maybe we'll get a shout out from them.
Chaz Churchwell: Come on. I love it. I love it. All right. Zig Ziglar said it. Excellent. He said, if you help enough people get what you want, you can have anything that you want in life. You know? And I, I believe that wholeheartedly and. Man, for me, I know that, uh, I, I know that you are a value, you are a blessing to the people that have the opportunity to work with you and, and you bring so many connections to the table.
So I just wanna say thank you. So everybody, again, I'm Chas Churchwell, the D spac podcast. I've got Elliot Goldstein here with me from Federal Filings. He's an Edgar agent and printer. There's nobody better in the game that you wanna work with, nobody more honorable. Go ahead, hit the subscribe button, let us know.
Reach out to us if we need to connect you with Elliot, or feel free to stalk him on LinkedIn. I'm sure that he would love that too. So guys, again, have an amazing day and thanks for tuning in.
Elliot Goldstein: Thank you so much for having us.
