[marvin]

I have been thinking the same thing for some time now. Unfortunately, I wouldn't hold my breath. If they are able to stay private, they probably will. It's easier to build a business when you don't have to deal with the hassle and interference of public markets.

[thisiscorrect]

What would that do to all the Stripes holding illiquid shares in a private company?

[marvin]

I'm not familiar with Stripe's situation, but there are non-public markets available for this kind of stock sale. You just can't buy from them unless you're already rich. I'd guess that long-term employees do have an amount of flexibility in that regard.

[Panther34543]

Unfortunately many companies have clauses in their options grants that prohibit employees from selling shares to any investor not approved by the company board (e.g. EquityZen).

[IgorPartola]

Can you form a mutual fund/ETF that invests into those kind of companies via the non-public markets and then sell shares publicly for the fund?

[snowwolf]

Scottish Mortgage (SMT) in the UK does this and has a stake in Stripe (https://citywire.co.uk/investment-trust-insider/news/boost-f...)

[reportingsjr]

This is already a thing, large investors like Fidelity do exactly this.

e.g. Fidelity has a significant investment in SpaceX through a handful of their mutual funds, which you can then purchase and basically invest in SpaceX indirectly.

[jagged-chisel]

Publicly traded organizations can have any kind of private investment. I wonder, though, if there is regulation around how much of the public org’s capital can be put in private stock purchases…

[hartator]

I think some VCs are already also offering shares via mutual funds.

[sudhirj]

I’ve seen companies doing buy backs to give people liquidity. In India, anyway. Check out Zerodha.

[boringg]

"In March, Stripe, which describes itself as “payments infrastructure for the internet,” became the most valuable private company in Silicon Valley, raising $600 million at a valuation of $95 billion. The Journal reported Stripe is considering going public later this year or early next year."