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Just what I was thinking. Can Stripe hurry up and go public so I can buy some shares?
by jonplackett 5y ago
Just what I was thinking.
Can Stripe hurry up and go public so I can buy some shares?
- marvin 5y agoI have been thinking the same thing for some time now. Unfortunately, I wouldn't hold my breath. If they are able to stay private, they probably will. It's easier to build a business when you don't have to deal with the hassle and interference of public markets.
- thisiscorrect 5y agoWhat would that do to all the Stripes holding illiquid shares in a private company?
- marvin 5y agoI'm not familiar with Stripe's situation, but there are non-public markets available for this kind of stock sale. You just can't buy from them unless you're already rich. I'd guess that long-term employees do have an amount of flexibility in that regard.
- IgorPartola 5y agoCan you form a mutual fund/ETF that invests into those kind of companies via the non-public markets and then sell shares publicly for the fund?
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- jagged-chisel 5y agoPublicly traded organizations can have any kind of private investment. I wonder, though, if there is regulation around how much of the public org’s capital can be put in private stock purchases…
- hartator 5y agoI think some VCs are already also offering shares via mutual funds.
- reportingsjr 5y agoThis is already a thing, large investors like Fidelity do exactly this. e.g. Fidelity has a significant investment in SpaceX through a handful of their mutual funds, which you can then purchase and basically invest in SpaceX indirectly.
- snowwolf 5y agoScottish Mortgage (SMT) in the UK does this and has a stake in Stripe (https://citywire.co.uk/investment-trust-insider/news/boost-for-scottish-mortgage-as-stripe-soars-to-95bn/a1480918 https://citywire.co.uk/investment-trust-insider/news/boost-f...)
- Panther34543 5y agoUnfortunately many companies have clauses in their options grants that prohibit employees from selling shares to any investor not approved by the company board (e.g. EquityZen).
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- sudhirj 5y agoI’ve seen companies doing buy backs to give people liquidity. In India, anyway. Check out Zerodha.
- boringg 5y ago"In March, Stripe, which describes itself as “payments infrastructure for the internet,” became the most valuable private company in Silicon Valley, raising $600 million at a valuation of $95 billion. The Journal reported Stripe is considering going public later this year or early next year."
- andy_ppp 5y agoIf only Stripe would start a pre-ipo stock market. I guess only incumbent regulation prevents this, it’s not a technology problem.
- jabo 5y agoI believe Carta already does this: https://cartax.com/ https://cartax.com/
- andy_ppp 5y agoI think Stripe pre-ipo-ing on their own platform would show great cojones, but I think they are more careful than I’d be about such things.
- edoceo 5y agoCarTax.com? Good jerb marketing team!
- jaywalk 5y agoI'm sure OP was implying "for retail investors" in his wish. Carta is just another way for rich people to access things that are only available to rich people.
- boringg 5y agoWhile that sounds like a great ... in all likelihood by the time it hits the public market most if not all the value will be extracted by the investors. With a branded company like this and equity markets as frothy as they are. I doubt there will be much value left for retail. Hopefully Im wrong though.
- tshaddox 5y agoWouldn’t the idea be that the company would continue to create value after going public?
- boringg 5y agoThe idea of going public is to raise another round of financing for the company while being able to get liquidity for private shareholders. It is not necessarily to create value going forward. The best option is for the company to raise a good deal from the public markets (high valuation on limited equity) and then execute successfully without needing to raise again. If they do need to raise again they have hopefully not done a poor job on their original public IPO so that they can go back to the public markets. That said it isn't that important a factor.
- gwright 5y ago> It is not necessarily to create value going forward Not sure where you are going with that thought. A business that isn't creating value is going out of business or selling to someone who has an idea of how to use its assets to create value.
- boringg 5y agoActually not all companies create value. Monopolies create profits through pricing distortions but not necessarily value. My point is that creating value is not a key component of a company going public. In this current moment I would wager that if you are suggesting that you will create value in the market going forward you will get a great return on your investor dollars but you may not actually execute that value creation. (relevant news: lordstown motors)
- arcturus17 5y agoYou can buy it by proxy through funds or similar. I've been eyeing Scottish Mortgage which despite the name is actually a high-tech fund packaged as a stock publicly traded in the London Stock Exchange. They hold Stripe among many other interesting investments.
- petters 5y agoStripe is 0.9% of their holdings so they are of limited value of you sell exposure to Stripe specifically.
- boringg 5y agoIf you want exposure to them - go get Shopify stock - they just disclosed being in on the round of Stripe. https://betakit.com/shopify-reportedly-invests-in-stripe-bringing-total-stake-to-over-350-million/ https://betakit.com/shopify-reportedly-invests-in-stripe-bri...