Two founders describe taking a company public as emotionally intense, with crying, laughing, and hugging mixed with stress. One notes that IPOs replace rare, appointment-only cash events with daily liquidity, making it less terrifying for founders and employees.
You will cry, you will laugh, you will hug.
You work so hard. So I think you're right that it's a healthy trend to realize that you can go public. You get this liquid stock, it's not as terrifying as you think, and you have liquidity every day, not just once a year by appointment only.
I'm a big IPO should happen person, and I think that here's what, here's what's underrated about the IPO is it's very stressful. You're exhausted, but the day you go public, is going to be one of the top 2 or 3 days of your life. It is an amazing day. You'll go back to your company and 2 days later you'll have a party with your company. You will cry, you will laugh, you will hug. You work so hard. There's something about that that is really, really special that, uh, people—
having said all that, I've only lived through it on the employee side. The next, the day after that was weird going back to your desk because the world's changed. The next day is really weird. But if I could IPO at $30 billion or sell my company, $30 billion cash, I'd much rather run the company, don't get me wrong, rather than sell, right? But if it were just a financial decision, I'd rather have the $30 billion on one day than wait a decade for it to drip and drabble out, right? So there is a conflict there as a founder. Like, you know, selling is tough for 98% of founders. I'm sure it's Sequoia, if you ask, you know, only 2% of founders say that was the greatest experience of my life selling my company. But man, getting it all at once, if it's the same, even with a net present value, like it's just a weird trade-off between the two, the journey and the, and the economics. It's complicated.
