[yourcomplex]

Back track to the dot com era and the mantra of the day was "get big fast." Principles IPO'd and cashed out before things fell apart. While I can't speak to the intentions of individual company's management, today's institutional investors will likely not throw around their money on an early venture as easily as they did in 1998. Also, the more value a company can create prior to IPO, the more equity they can save for the original owners in the long run.