You don't necessarily need to have gone through VC's to go public. That's more or less orthogonal to the issue of going public. But regardless of whether you ta

You don't necessarily need to have gone through VC's to go public. That's more or less orthogonal to the issue of going public. But regardless of whether you take VC money or not, there are lots of rules around trading stock and going public. That said, there is a mechanism that is more, well, "direct" than the traditional IPO process you usually read about. That mechanism is known, appropriately enough, as a "direct listing" or "direct public offering." See: https://www.investopedia.com/investing/difference-between-ipo-and-direct-listing/ https://www.investopedia.com/investing/difference-between-ip... https://www.nyse.com/direct-listing https://www.nyse.com/direct-listing etc. Note that there are still plenty of rules and regulations involved, but it is a lighter weight process than the traditional IPO. But as the linked articles note, there are downsides to DL/DPO for the company who is selling, with one of the biggest being the fact that there's is no guarantee that any shares will sell.