Well, first it depends on the valuation, but that goes for any equity financing round. But also, it depends on the type of investor you are taking on, and their

Well, first it depends on the valuation, but that goes for any equity financing round. But also, it depends on the type of investor you are taking on, and their expectations for returns to fit in their profile. Private investors tend to invest in higher risk/reward equities, meaning you need to achieve higher growth rates to satisfy them. I am guessing many of the companies raising massive private rounds now need to still grow significantly before a liquidity event could justify the investor's investment (once you go public, the pressure isn't as high to achieve 2-3x growth year over year). Publicly traded technology stocks are expected to grow at most 20-30%/year, without further diluting the equity pool. Every new private financing round makes the pool a little smaller, meaning you still need to grow even faster to achieve the returns required by your investors. In addition, once you IPO, you have access to many other forms of financing that are significantly cheaper than selling equity.