[fakedang]

> if founders and investors focused on profitable companies and making sure their customers were actually happy rather than trying to look appealing to some behemoth that will buy them down the line or other investors.

This right here. What happened to IPOs being the endgame?

[nine_k]

Higher interest rates -> less money to invest into IPOs, I suppose. A number of zirp-times IPOs were... less than stellar investments.

[fakedang]

The shift away from IPOs was long in the making though. It's nowhere as recent as the interest rate shift.

[nine_k]

What was the reason?

[fakedang]

I'm guessing ZIRP-enabled acquisitions, made for an easier route to succeed rather than an IPO and being judged by the market on the go.