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Stripe valued at $159B, 2025 annual letter

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Re: Stripe valued at $159B, 2025 annual letter

#21

Post by adventured »

jameskilton wrote: post #14
fourseventy wrote: post #2

It's insane that they aren't public yet. Their investors must be pressuring them like crazy to IPO.

Stripe has been doing annual tender offers. Their stance on not being public yet is that they don't need to be, as an IPO is mainly a way to raise money. As an ex-Stripe, I understand the sentiment, and the tender offers are a nice middle ground for now, but I still would like to see them go public eventually.

An IPO today is mainly a way for major investors - those that want out - to liquidate out in a big way by dumping to a very large mass of investors. There is no other means to do that without signaling a gigantic loss of confidence.

Raising money as a private entity is trivial these days if you're in the league that Stripe is. See: the comical AI private funding levels.

Re: Stripe valued at $159B, 2025 annual letter

#22

Post by armadyl »

jameskilton wrote: post #14
fourseventy wrote: post #2

It's insane that they aren't public yet. Their investors must be pressuring them like crazy to IPO.

Stripe has been doing annual tender offers. Their stance on not being public yet is that they don't need to be, as an IPO is mainly a way to raise money. As an ex-Stripe, I understand the sentiment, and the tender offers are a nice middle ground for now, but I still would like to see them go public eventually.

> As an ex-Stripe, I understand the sentiment, and the tender offers are a nice middle ground for now, but I still would like to see them go public eventually.

This is an incredibly odd sentiment, imo. What’s the desire to see them go public unless you personally are profiting from it? Going public would quickly set Stripe on a pathway to potential enshittification and at minimum starting to squeeze the consumers and businesses it provides services to more.

Re: Stripe valued at $159B, 2025 annual letter

#23

Post by RobRivera »

baxtr wrote: post #8
fourseventy wrote: post #2

It's insane that they aren't public yet. Their investors must be pressuring them like crazy to IPO.

It’s sad. Public companies allow the rest of us to participate in a success story like this. Until IPO it’s only a selected group of affluent people who have access to these private companies.

High risk high reward - I think if I ponied up capital, I'd rather not feel obliged to 'share the success' unless it were part of a needed capital raising.

Re: Stripe valued at $159B, 2025 annual letter

#24

Post by KK7NIL »

Cyph0n wrote: post #10
fourseventy wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To give liquidity to investors.

Don’t they already get to participate in secondary markets to liquidate?

They can, but it's orders of magnitudes less liquid than the public stock market.

Liquidity!= ability to liquidate or not, BTW, it's more of a continuous spectrum.

Re: Stripe valued at $159B, 2025 annual letter

#25

Post by aliljet »

The public can absolutely participate in this by way of syndication deals. Those syndicates are what's covering up the true extent of ownership and they're essentially charging for access with their fees. It's oddly shady, poorly regulated, and more expensive than just being public, but everyone can ride this ride.

Re: Stripe valued at $159B, 2025 annual letter

#27

Post by paxys »

armadyl wrote: post #22
jameskilton wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stripe has been doing annual tender offers. Their stance on not being public yet is that they don't need to be, as an IPO is mainly a way to raise money. As an ex-Stripe, I understand the sentiment, and the tender offers are a nice middle ground for now, but I still would like to see them go public eventually.

> As an ex-Stripe, I understand the sentiment, and the tender offers are a nice middle ground for now, but I still would like to see them go public eventually. This is an incredibly odd sentiment, imo. What’s the desire to see them go public unless you personally are profiting from it? Going public would quickly set Stripe on a pathway to potential enshittification and at minimum starting to squeeze the consumers and…

If they are ex-Stripe they are likely holding shares, and so yes they would personally profit from going public.

Re: Stripe valued at $159B, 2025 annual letter

#28

Post by maratc »

jameskilton wrote: post #14
fourseventy wrote: post #2

It's insane that they aren't public yet. Their investors must be pressuring them like crazy to IPO.

Stripe has been doing annual tender offers. Their stance on not being public yet is that they don't need to be, as an IPO is mainly a way to raise money. As an ex-Stripe, I understand the sentiment, and the tender offers are a nice middle ground for now, but I still would like to see them go public eventually.

Above certain amount of shareholders, the rules for the public companies start applying, so you get all of the disadvantages of being a public company (like SEC filings, etc.) without the advantages (like ability to raise money.) IIRC this is what forced $MSFT to do IPO in 1986.

Re: Stripe valued at $159B, 2025 annual letter

#29

Post by thinkingtoilet »

baxtr wrote: post #8
fourseventy wrote: post #2

It's insane that they aren't public yet. Their investors must be pressuring them like crazy to IPO.

It’s sad. Public companies allow the rest of us to participate in a success story like this. Until IPO it’s only a selected group of affluent people who have access to these private companies.

IPOs really only benefit already wealthy people as well. It's not like poor people can dump tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in stock.

Re: Stripe valued at $159B, 2025 annual letter

#30

Post by triceratops »

colesantiago wrote: post #17

Private markets is where the wealth is (if you invested at the bottom), as soon as Stripe goes public you're getting dumped on. Unfortunately you need to be an accredited investor to access these markets. This is the real gatekeeping here as rich pop stars, actors, sports stars and musicians who aren't versed in tech has more access to investing in these private companies than the academics, students in europe creati…

Something like 20% of American households meet the accredited standard. It isn't some ultra-elite bar.

Stripe being able to find all the capital they need in private markets is the actual indicator of wealth disparity.

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