In a way, VCs cease to be interesting when they are publicly traded. When you invest directly into a fund, the partners are promising to take your original capi

In a way, VCs cease to be interesting when they are publicly traded. When you invest directly into a fund, the partners are promising to take your original capital and invest it in companies to dramatically increase its value. When you invest in a publicly-traded company, you are purchasing someone else's claim on the original invested capital, with whatever increase or decrease in value it has had since investment. The only way to get in on the original value creation is to participate in the IPO of the VC fund, which would still only be available to large firms and the extremely wealthy, just as it is for normal IPOs. So VCs operating publicly traded funds would not at all democratize the wealth generation. Think of it this way. If you could get an allocation in the Medallion Fund, or, say, Sequoia's fund, you are very likely to make above market returns. But if they hold an open auction for entry into their funds, no one who participates gets above market returns on a risk-adjusted basis. "Access" is what is actually giving you the above market returns, not the activities of the fund itself.