3 ms·

Yet another example of why I think it's a mistake to take your company public. If I put in the work to build up a successful business, no way would I ever let i

by bigstrat2003 3y ago

Yet another example of why I think it's a mistake to take your company public. If I put in the work to build up a successful business, no way would I ever let it be turned into a machine that ignores long term health for the sake of making the stock price go up.

paxys 3y ago
While I would think that, realistically most of my principles are for sale for a few billion dollars.
- chrishare 3y ago
  If anyone is listening, I'll gladly undercut this guy by a few orders of magnitude
  - elzbardico 3y ago
    You need to let some head space for the inevitable bargaining, let's act as sensible cartel members and not undercut ourselves in a race to the bottom, capisce?
typeofhuman 3y ago
You have no idea what decisions you'll make if you ever were to get that successful. I'm sure you've broken many promises to your younger self.
financetechbro 3y ago
If companies didn’t go public regular people would not be able to invest in innovation. As much as people hate it, public markets democratize access to investments
- tootie 3y ago
  True but no company has a vested interest in the democratization of investment. IPOs are purely about getting paydays for founders.
  - freedomben 3y ago
    *and early investors. Mostly early investors in many cases.
    - ZealousIdeal 3y ago
      crux of the problem is the SV model is completely broken and leads to these cycles. wish it were more about sustainable progression and not rapid half-baked innovation to achieve paydays for greedy founders/investors
      - tootie 3y ago
        I guess it's not possible to fuel "hypergrowth" this way, but why not just issue debt? Let the market buy in to your growth with a healthy dividend and reduced risk.
      - geodel 3y ago
        Huh, they won't get pay day if no one use their products. And there are plenty of examples of failed products. If people have idea and execution capability for sustainable progression they can very well try outside the valley. It is not like companies don't start outside valley.
        ZealousIdeal 3y ago
        which is why the majority of the startups fail and then a lucky unicorn comes and funds the next cycle. look at how many poor ideas got massive investment on the bet of payout; so many blockchain companies and none solved a real world problem. lots of potential investment in things that could have greatly helped many more people in the world, but instead invested into a technology looking for a problem.
        freedomben 3y ago
        I agree that the vast majority of the blockchain companies were "technology looking for a problem," (or at least, technology looking for another problem besides money ledger) but blockchain really was (is) a pretty damn good technology. The most unfortunate part of it is that the only thing it may really stick for is DRM :-(
- krainboltgreene 3y ago
  Yeah, they sure innovated with all that public money they got over...three years? What did the release in the last three years exactly? Also, what "democratic access" did people get? The ability to buy at $80 a share and then eventually sell it at $30? Does anyone really believe this kind of stuff anymore?
  - portaouflop 3y ago
    What is there to believe? Capitalism is not a religion, there is no belief involved.
    - krainboltgreene 3y ago
      I'm referring to the parent comment, but pithy reply.
ekianjo 3y ago
if you go thru VC you are expected to go public to generate returns for the early investors. its baked in
berniedurfee 3y ago
If I put in the work to build a successful business and someone offered me a hundred million dollars for it, I’d have a hundred million dollars.
JeremyNT 3y ago
> Yet another example of why I think it's a mistake to take your company public. If I put in the work to build up a successful business, no way would I ever let it be turned into a machine that ignores long term health for the sake of making the stock price go up. It's a mistake if you care about the long term health of a company. But... why should you? Hashicorp had a great run, and contributed a lot of great open source products over the years. Today, their products have large user bases and healthy forks seem likely. The founders and early employees cash out, and it's a win for everybody involved. Nothing lasts forever.

paxys 3y ago

While I would think that, realistically most of my principles are for sale for a few billion dollars.

chrishare 3y ago
If anyone is listening, I'll gladly undercut this guy by a few orders of magnitude
- elzbardico 3y ago
  You need to let some head space for the inevitable bargaining, let's act as sensible cartel members and not undercut ourselves in a race to the bottom, capisce?

typeofhuman 3y ago

You have no idea what decisions you'll make if you ever were to get that successful. I'm sure you've broken many promises to your younger self.

financetechbro 3y ago

If companies didn’t go public regular people would not be able to invest in innovation. As much as people hate it, public markets democratize access to investments

tootie 3y ago
True but no company has a vested interest in the democratization of investment. IPOs are purely about getting paydays for founders.
- freedomben 3y ago
  *and early investors. Mostly early investors in many cases.
  - ZealousIdeal 3y ago
    crux of the problem is the SV model is completely broken and leads to these cycles. wish it were more about sustainable progression and not rapid half-baked innovation to achieve paydays for greedy founders/investors
    - tootie 3y ago
      I guess it's not possible to fuel "hypergrowth" this way, but why not just issue debt? Let the market buy in to your growth with a healthy dividend and reduced risk.
    - geodel 3y ago
      Huh, they won't get pay day if no one use their products. And there are plenty of examples of failed products. If people have idea and execution capability for sustainable progression they can very well try outside the valley. It is not like companies don't start outside valley.
      - ZealousIdeal 3y ago
        which is why the majority of the startups fail and then a lucky unicorn comes and funds the next cycle. look at how many poor ideas got massive investment on the bet of payout; so many blockchain companies and none solved a real world problem. lots of potential investment in things that could have greatly helped many more people in the world, but instead invested into a technology looking for a problem.
        freedomben 3y ago
        I agree that the vast majority of the blockchain companies were "technology looking for a problem," (or at least, technology looking for another problem besides money ledger) but blockchain really was (is) a pretty damn good technology. The most unfortunate part of it is that the only thing it may really stick for is DRM :-(
krainboltgreene 3y ago
Yeah, they sure innovated with all that public money they got over...three years? What did the release in the last three years exactly? Also, what "democratic access" did people get? The ability to buy at $80 a share and then eventually sell it at $30? Does anyone really believe this kind of stuff anymore?
- portaouflop 3y ago
  What is there to believe? Capitalism is not a religion, there is no belief involved.
  - krainboltgreene 3y ago
    I'm referring to the parent comment, but pithy reply.

ekianjo 3y ago

if you go thru VC you are expected to go public to generate returns for the early investors. its baked in

berniedurfee 3y ago

If I put in the work to build a successful business and someone offered me a hundred million dollars for it, I’d have a hundred million dollars.

JeremyNT 3y ago

> Yet another example of why I think it's a mistake to take your company public. If I put in the work to build up a successful business, no way would I ever let it be turned into a machine that ignores long term health for the sake of making the stock price go up. It's a mistake if you care about the long term health of a company. But... why should you? Hashicorp had a great run, and contributed a lot of great open source products over the years. Today, their products have large user bases and healthy forks seem likely. The founders and early employees cash out, and it's a win for everybody involved. Nothing lasts forever.