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Why would they need to IPO? Is liquidity stopping them from building anything right now or growing? Why give up any amount of power for a strong private compa
by ProAm 4y ago
Why would they need to IPO? Is liquidity stopping them from building anything right now or growing? Why give up any amount of power for a strong private company? Stripe could stay private forever (or 20 years which is the avg lifespan I think of private companies)
- rco8786 4y agoThey’ve hired 1000s of people with promises of an IPO and currently worthless RSUs. They would need to address that with a change in pay structure and likely some large bonuses up front. But otherwise agree with your reasoning.
- ProAm 4y agoTBF all those people who took those promises also knew they might never come to realization. In which case, small exodus and you replace them with people FTE's within a reasonable salary range. Happens all the time.
- rco8786 4y agoYea absolutely. But they’re gonna leave for places that are actually paying stock. Stripe has to do something just for retention purposes.
- ProAm 4y agoI dont think so. Were entering a recession. There are more programmers looking for work, good programmers or employees, that will accept the current terms.
- rco8786 4y agoThis is a terrible way to do business and I am certain not how Stripe is thinking about it. Programmers are not commodities, especially ones that have been around your org for a while. It's also very expensive and difficult to hire new ones, even if you're hiring them at a cheaper salary than the last ones. Stripe 100% wants to retain its employee base, just like any company would.
- danachow 4y ago> Programmers are not commodities But usually, they are treated as such. American companies have a hard time treating most of their white collar workforce as anything but. On the other hand, Stripe has been seemingly well managed up to this point - but they have only existed in happy times so far. Many companies change their tune when the chips are down. > It's also very expensive and difficult to hire new ones, even if you're hiring them at a cheaper salary than the last ones. This may be true - but the average tenure of a tech worker shows most firms are not able to do act on this. > Stripe 100% wants to retain its employee base, just like any company would. I wouldn't put it past Stripe, but "just like any company would" is pretty naive. Serious retention efforts are by far the exception in my observation. This also weakens your argument - is Stripe not actively working to retain talent or are they just like "any company?" If really the latter, then they are fucked.
- OmarIsmail 4y agoIf it’s RSUs why are they worthless?
- mulmen 4y agoBecause they can't be sold right now. And the future date at which they could be sold is undetermined and doesn't appear to be any time soon.
- OmarIsmail 4y agoWhat does that have to do with the valuation getting lowered? If a person had 1000 RSUs that were on paper worth 40k, now they are worth 30k. Either way they can’t be sold right now. And I don’t understand how 30k is “worthless”
- ericd 4y agoPlease feel free to send any worthless Stripe RSUs my way. I've been looking for a way to pay someone for some of them for the better part of a decade at this point.
- rco8786 4y agoTbh this seems like an odd investment choice given the context of this thread. You know that stock price is tied to their valuation right?
- kasey_junk 4y agoIndependent of the liquidity issues current rsu holders will have an expiry date. Stripe not going public by those expiry dates will have impact on their ability to recruit and keep staff.
- rco8786 4y agoRSUs don't have expiry dates once they vest, is Stripe doing something weird there?
- kasey_junk 4y agoNo. They are double trigger RSU which are bog standard. Tax rules require them having a real chance to be forfeited so they have expirations. Every double trigger rsu contract I’ve seen includes them.