technically speaking the SEC does not force you to go public. The problem most people refer to: if you have over 500 shareholders of record, you have to make a

technically speaking the SEC does not force you to go public. The problem most people refer to: if you have over 500 shareholders of record, you have to make a lengthy filing which is almost as onerous as going public. Hence, since the incremental effort isn't that much, most companies in that position go public. There's technically no compulsion to do so.