Twitter is the classic example of waiting too long to IPO. I understand there's a sort of cultish wisdom to delay an IPO for as long as (legally) possible; howe

Twitter is the classic example of waiting too long to IPO. I understand there's a sort of cultish wisdom to delay an IPO for as long as (legally) possible; however, the underlying sustainability of a business either "just works" or it doesn't. The problems that plague Twitter today could and probably should have been caught at least a couple years before it IPO'ed at the very end of 2013. IPO'ing in the public exchange basically teases out sustainability problems. And regardless of what you think of American capitalism, the public markets are the best available detectives we have to investigate sustainability problems. When sustainability is iffy, owners of the company get their vote, and then they get to implement leadership that does care about and pay attention to the numbers. Absent IPOs, a lot of startups are nothing more than glorified boys' clubs, partying on the dime of oblivious investors. It's lousy that the culture of so many companies in startupland hate the bean counters. The little numbers can usually tell a lot.