I worked for a company once that went IPO and we had stock units assigned to us.
CEO: Companies try to stay private for as long as they can, they don’t just IPO for the hell of it. They’re trying to solve a problem with money. Maybe they owe people money, maybe they need to spend a bunch of money to take the company to the next level. An IPO doesn’t fix any problems; rather, it turns one set of problems into a bigger, harder set of problems.
It brings tons of money, but also a microscope and public disclosure. You lose a LOAD of control over the company and get to be inspected by lots of entities. And if you have a badish quarter, you’re held directly accountable by the public.
They usually don’t want all that if the company is doing fine.
I worked for a company once that went IPO and we had stock units assigned to us.
CEO: Companies try to stay private for as long as they can, they don’t just IPO for the hell of it. They’re trying to solve a problem with money. Maybe they owe people money, maybe they need to spend a bunch of money to take the company to the next level. An IPO doesn’t fix any problems; rather, it turns one set of problems into a bigger, harder set of problems.
Founders try to cash in. They’ve raised the cow, now’s the time to send it to the butcher for parts
You don’t have to IPO to cash out, people cash out of private ventures all the time.
If the founders all want to cash out at once, or there’s a iceberg that the see, or the company isn’t as liquid as it needs to be to cash out…
I strongly suspect they either can’t find or sustain the profit, or they think the bubble is close enough to get out early.
IPO brings a lot of money though, much more than seed money.
It brings tons of money, but also a microscope and public disclosure. You lose a LOAD of control over the company and get to be inspected by lots of entities. And if you have a badish quarter, you’re held directly accountable by the public.
They usually don’t want all that if the company is doing fine.