[triyambakam]

Geckoboard is an interesting opposite example of this. They took a seed round more than ten years ago and have been slowly and steadily maintaining the business, resisting further rounds. I don't know their finances but they seem to continue to be doing well.

[BaseballPhysics]

And that does happen occasionally, but they're rare and it doesn't go on forever.

Bandcamp was similarly private for 15 years after taking a few rounds of funding, but they eventually got acquired, and I guarantee you that's because those investors pushed for an exit while the projected future revenues of the company justified a higher valuation.

I myself worked for a company that was private for 12 years after seed funding and five rounds of VC capital. But eventually we were pushed into a (poorly conceived) acquisition.

The merry-go-round always stops. It's just a matter of time.