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That’s not the point/issue though. The markets are regulated to protect consumers/investors...private companies can’t just have unregistered public offerings t

That’s not the point/issue though. The markets are regulated to protect consumers/investors...private companies can’t just have unregistered public offerings to non accredited investors...so it’s not just “up to you to assess the investments” there are rules and nothing is stopping additional rules to not permit registration of a public offering when the company is operating at a $150,000,000.00 annual loss or more to the point any loss. Obviously not a popular idea here where everyone is trying to get in early and dump the bag on someone else, but that’s kinda the point of protections, some people won’t like them.

blantonl 7y ago
It's not a popular idea here because: Capital is extremely cheap Markets are at record highs FOMO in tech right now is extremely strong I can't wait to see the sentiment in two years.
- icedchai 7y ago
  The question is... right now, is it more like 1995 or 2001?
  - omarchowdhury 7y ago
    That can only be answered in hindsight.
  - plankers 7y ago
    People said bitcoin was a bubble. Can't wait to see the excuses and rationalizations when this one pops.
    - icedchai 7y ago
      Yes, it will pop... but timing the market is impossible. We may have a good 4 to 5 more years of this.
ghaff 7y ago
It's not an unreasonable position. To the annoyance of many here, for example, there are investments that are limited to high net worth individuals. It's not that big of a stretch to imagine additional regulations (whether from the SEC, the major exchanges, or a combination thereof) on which companies are allowed to go public.
the_watcher 7y ago
The rules are about what information is disclosed. The difference is that with public companies, there are rules about what actually gets disclosed and how often. That's why the general public is allowed to invest. It's about how much information is available, not what that information actually is. Investors need to determine whether or not they invest. In no world is the SEC's role to determine whether or not a company's business strategy qualifies them to go public or not. That would be an absolute disaster.
- will_brown 7y ago
  >In no world is the SEC's role to determine whether or not a company's business strategy qualifies them to go public or not. Profitability is objective...let’s not pretend what I’m suggesting is the SEC subjectively making a decision on a business judgement or business plan. Simply you want to register a security for public offering show a GAAP profit...I understand that’s not “how it works” or I wouldn’t have suggested it “should” be considered, I never said anything about SEC subjectively determining worthiness of an investment.
  - wbl 7y ago
    Why shouldn't public investors be allowed to support ventures that won't show a profit for a while? Think drug discovery oil drilling etc.
  - askafriend 7y ago
    Their business is doing extremely well. They can turn on profitability any time they want. As an investor, I would not want them to turn a profit at this stage with so much headroom left, especially internationally. If they choose to go for profitability this early on, then I take it as a negative signal. Profit is too simple of a number to focus on. It doesn’t tell any kind of story by itself. But it’s a tempting number to latch onto.
  - briandear 7y ago
    So if you want to fundraise, you must be profitable? If that’s the case, what’s the point of fundraising? A lemonade stand is more profitable than Slack, but the upside potential for Slack is vastly greater. So showing a GAAP profit suggests that a lemonade stand is more valuable and worthy of an investment than Slack? Should Tesla be delisted? How about Amazon? They didn’t make a profit for the majority of their existence. GAAP profits as a condition of listing is just ridiculous. Almost all green energy companies lose money, so what you seem to be implying is that the public shouldn’t be allowed to invest in the Teslas of the world because they aren’t profitable? An IPO is a fundraising event. That’s all. If we are to say that no company should be able to fundraise if they have loses, then very, very few companies would ever have access to capital. An IPO isn’t an endorsement by the SEC, not should it be.
wbl 7y ago
The investors see the big number in the first table of the S-1. What more do you want?

blantonl 7y ago

It's not a popular idea here because: Capital is extremely cheap Markets are at record highs FOMO in tech right now is extremely strong I can't wait to see the sentiment in two years.

icedchai 7y ago
The question is... right now, is it more like 1995 or 2001?
- omarchowdhury 7y ago
  That can only be answered in hindsight.
- plankers 7y ago
  People said bitcoin was a bubble. Can't wait to see the excuses and rationalizations when this one pops.
  - icedchai 7y ago
    Yes, it will pop... but timing the market is impossible. We may have a good 4 to 5 more years of this.

ghaff 7y ago

It's not an unreasonable position. To the annoyance of many here, for example, there are investments that are limited to high net worth individuals. It's not that big of a stretch to imagine additional regulations (whether from the SEC, the major exchanges, or a combination thereof) on which companies are allowed to go public.

the_watcher 7y ago

The rules are about what information is disclosed. The difference is that with public companies, there are rules about what actually gets disclosed and how often. That's why the general public is allowed to invest. It's about how much information is available, not what that information actually is. Investors need to determine whether or not they invest. In no world is the SEC's role to determine whether or not a company's business strategy qualifies them to go public or not. That would be an absolute disaster.

will_brown 7y ago
>In no world is the SEC's role to determine whether or not a company's business strategy qualifies them to go public or not. Profitability is objective...let’s not pretend what I’m suggesting is the SEC subjectively making a decision on a business judgement or business plan. Simply you want to register a security for public offering show a GAAP profit...I understand that’s not “how it works” or I wouldn’t have suggested it “should” be considered, I never said anything about SEC subjectively determining worthiness of an investment.
- wbl 7y ago
  Why shouldn't public investors be allowed to support ventures that won't show a profit for a while? Think drug discovery oil drilling etc.
- askafriend 7y ago
  Their business is doing extremely well. They can turn on profitability any time they want. As an investor, I would not want them to turn a profit at this stage with so much headroom left, especially internationally. If they choose to go for profitability this early on, then I take it as a negative signal. Profit is too simple of a number to focus on. It doesn’t tell any kind of story by itself. But it’s a tempting number to latch onto.
- briandear 7y ago
  So if you want to fundraise, you must be profitable? If that’s the case, what’s the point of fundraising? A lemonade stand is more profitable than Slack, but the upside potential for Slack is vastly greater. So showing a GAAP profit suggests that a lemonade stand is more valuable and worthy of an investment than Slack? Should Tesla be delisted? How about Amazon? They didn’t make a profit for the majority of their existence. GAAP profits as a condition of listing is just ridiculous. Almost all green energy companies lose money, so what you seem to be implying is that the public shouldn’t be allowed to invest in the Teslas of the world because they aren’t profitable? An IPO is a fundraising event. That’s all. If we are to say that no company should be able to fundraise if they have loses, then very, very few companies would ever have access to capital. An IPO isn’t an endorsement by the SEC, not should it be.

wbl 7y ago

The investors see the big number in the first table of the S-1. What more do you want?