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It's insane that they aren't public yet. Their investors must be pressuring them like crazy to IPO.
by fourseventy 7mo ago
It's insane that they aren't public yet. Their investors must be pressuring them like crazy to IPO.
- rf15 7mo agoWhy ask for IPO to dillute the effective investor pool if you are already making a ton of money consistently?
- fourseventy 7mo agoTo give liquidity to investors.
- Cyph0n 7mo agoDon’t they already get to participate in secondary markets to liquidate?
- onion2k 7mo agoThe cost of that liquidity is missing out on realizing future growth though. It's fairly safe to assume that as there isn't an IPO yet the investors want to hold rather than cash in returns. They probably believe there's more growth potential, and that the board are the right people to deliver it.
- KK7NIL 7mo ago> The cost of that liquidity is missing out on realizing future growth though. Why would it be? I don't believe an IPO has to be dilutive, it can be done with already issued shares. I grant you that's not usually how they're done though.
- 303space 7mo agoIf you bought Stripe at a 95b valuation in 2021 your returns are barely keeping up with the SP500 after this latest round. Not exactly an elite capital growth machine.
- j45 7mo agoPerhaps infrastructure has a different kind of long term upside.
- YetAnotherNick 7mo agoYou forgot to mention its valuation grew by 2.6x in the previous 3 months. 2021 was different thing altogether with the money printing.
- skybrian 7mo agoEven for good investments, investors will want to sell at some point rather than owning an investment forever, if only to diversify.
- onion2k 7mo agoSure, at some point. Maybe that isn't now though.
- j45 7mo agoMaybe certain types of growth aren't the goal for Stripe at present.
- fourseventy 7mo agoThe early VCs have been in Stripe for 16 years already. They need Stripe to IPO so they can get liquidity in order to provide returns to their LPs. VCs can't hold onto the stock forever, they need to provide DPI otherwise they won't be able to raise future funds.
- ndr 7mo agoWill they ever have to go public? I imagine there's a way they can buy everything back.
- mercwear 7mo agoI hope they hold off - going public tends to kill innovation and replace it with bureaucracy
- anovikov 7mo agoAlmost as if there's a lot to innovate in a "dumb pipe" a payment processor naturally is.
- jacquesm 7mo agoAt scale, payment processors are amongst the most difficult things you could do because every two bit crook out there is going to try to scam you somehow.
- dewey 7mo agoCan probably build it in a weekend.
- malfist 7mo agoYou let me know when VISA lets you colocate into their rack for processing payments with your built in a weekend vibe coded project.
- dewey 7mo agoI guess I should've added "/s" :P
- pestaa 7mo agodewey was joking.
- elictronic 7mo agoManagement reading a thread like this need the /s.
- 7mo ago
- jameson 7mo agoEverything's public appearance until S1 is filed
- baxtr 7mo agoIt’s sad. Public companies allow the rest of us to participate in a success story like this. Until IPO it’s only a selected group of affluent people who have access to these private companies.
- cwbrandsma 7mo agoIPOs also kill a lot of companies. Now you have a new list of investors you are obligated to attend to, and what those investors what is not always to make your company more successful, if it can make more money now.
- kibwen 7mo agoNot just the IPO. Being public at all subjects you to the perverse and destructive incentive of needing to maximize shareholder value. Just because some private companies take VC funding (and subject themselves to analogous forces) doesn't mean that's required or expected.
- gmd63 7mo agoNeeding to maximize shareholder value is a myth. There is no law that requires you to do that - people like to use the idea as an excuse to do scummy business.
- malfist 7mo agoSure, it's a dubious legal requirement at best. But you try telling people that on an earnings call and watch your valuation plummet because you took a long position and the market wanted a next quarter position. And even if you don't care about selling your stock personally, it does impact your ability to raise funds.
- elictronic 7mo agoShort term investors don’t matter. They are going to pull out and move to the next thing.
- gamblor956 7mo agoCompanies that keep delaying going public generally do so to keep hidden unfavorable data. Private companies can say whatever they want about their performance as long as they don't lie to their own investors; public companies can't.
- darth_avocado 7mo agoYou don’t have to go public at all. If you’re profitable and your investors don’t want an exit, then you can stay private in perpetuity. Epic is a great example of that.
- jameskilton 7mo agoStripe has been doing annual tender offers. Their stance on not being public yet is that they don't need to be, as an IPO is mainly a way to raise money. As an ex-Stripe, I understand the sentiment, and the tender offers are a nice middle ground for now, but I still would like to see them go public eventually.
- adventured 7mo agoAn IPO today is mainly a way for major investors - those that want out - to liquidate out in a big way by dumping to a very large mass of investors. There is no other means to do that without signaling a gigantic loss of confidence. Raising money as a private entity is trivial these days if you're in the league that Stripe is. See: the comical AI private funding levels.
- hypeatei 7mo ago> An IPO today is mainly a way for major investors Major investors and insiders. Stay the hell away from IPOs if you're not an institution getting access to shares at a reasonable price.
- armadyl 7mo ago> As an ex-Stripe, I understand the sentiment, and the tender offers are a nice middle ground for now, but I still would like to see them go public eventually. This is an incredibly odd sentiment, imo. What’s the desire to see them go public unless you personally are profiting from it? Going public would quickly set Stripe on a pathway to potential enshittification and at minimum starting to squeeze the consumers and businesses it provides services to more.
- paxys 7mo agoIf they are ex-Stripe they are likely holding shares, and so yes they would personally profit from going public.
- 7mo ago
- mattas 7mo agoI wonder if there will be a class of VC that intends to provide LPs with income in addition to capital appreciation. If it doesn't make sense to go public, then focus on cash flow and kick of steady income to investors.
- deleted 7mo ago[deleted]
- stefan_ 7mo agoMight be too late already, seeing how we are well past "peak SaaS" (and frankly Stripe have slowed down and lost a lot of the glitter in years past).
- paxys 7mo agoInvestors can pressure you when you are worth single digit or low double digit billions. At $100B+ you are calling the shots, and if investors aren't happy they can sell their shares in the next tender offer.
- cmiles8 7mo agoThe markets are skeptical at the moment. A bunch of tech IPOs in the last few years have tanked 70+% since the IPO and that can be devastating to a company. Also there’s a ton of overhead associated with being public that nobody really wants to do so companies now stay private as long as they can get away with.
- pewpewp 7mo agoHow do you ruin a good company? Simple. Go public
- StopDisinfo910 7mo agoThe cynic in me thinks they don't want to crash their valuation.
- doctorpangloss 7mo agowhy do you figure? in some sectors, IPOs were literally 10x larger in 2023 than 2016, but i am not sure specifically about fintech. ask pitchbook. that increases IRR by a whole +1.4, just by waiting.