For a company like Figma, the shareholders often include many/all of the employees. Choosing not to take a deal that could net staff retirement money (or realis

For a company like Figma, the shareholders often include many/all of the employees. Choosing not to take a deal that could net staff retirement money (or realistically in SF: "homeownership money") can also be a bad choice for morale. Consider that many of the employees will have joined the risky startup instead of taking a larger cash compensation at a company like Adobe; helping them get liquid is part of the bargain. This all assumes the company won't go public, the traditional path for companies to generate liquidity and raise capital while remaining independent. For whatever reason, companies like Figma are waiting much longer than historically to go public. HubSpot serves a similar market and went public in 2014 with a valuation near $1B, in a normal IPO with top-tier bankers. It's not a prerequisite for companies to wait until they are $10B-$100B to go public.