Stripe raises $600M at nearly $36B valuation

Jeez, just go public already! You've had employees waiting for nigh on a decade to realize the value of what they've built, but instead it appears that those gains are just going to VCs (and whoever is privileged enough to take money off the table during these raises).

Perhaps I'm being too cynical, and perhaps Stripe is taking a more enlightened view than I'm giving it credit for, but my goodness this trend of large businesses just raising money forever (and long after they cease being startups) is frustrating. At least at Google I know I can actually spend all of my paycheck at some point in the decade after I've earned it.

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Credit where credit due - that's better than most private companies I've heard about. Even so, that's a low bar to clear. Ideally, my employer shouldn't even have a say in my decision to sell or hold my equity once I've earned it. That's a different topic.

Just to be clear, I've never worked at Stripe and have no personal bone to pick. I just think it's a shame that all this wealth generation is happening, and not only is the public frozen out of the growth, many of the talented people who made it happen are _also_ frozen out as well.

It’s worse than this; employees who helped build the company are systematically shut out of reaping the rewards. Things like 90 day exercise windows, no information on exit timelines, and more dilution like this, pitched as if it was some forgone conclusion will prevent people who should see immense value from this company from seeing anything other than a token sum.

might be nice for employees but borders on negligent when private markets are practically begging for you to take their money and going public has alot of hoops and disclosures

I will never argue that the founders are not acting wisely - they've got no moral imperative to go public. As you say, there's far cheaper capital on offer. Rather, it's a systemic failing. They would pay an undeniable cost by going the IPO route, but it would be to the benefit of their employees and the public at large.

Private markets being so flush with cash while regular folks are strapped, on the other hand, is a sign that the tax code is too lenient and we should be re-purposing those dollars for societal benefit. _There_ is the moral failing.

>...we should be re-purposing those dollars for societal benefit. _There_ is the moral failing.

To see such a dangerous, totalitarian ideology expressed so casually is terrifying.

I don’t understand it either. If you want more compensation, ask for more compensation. If you accept equity that you don’t have control over, don’t complain when it behaves like a lottery ticket.

> To see such a dangerous, totalitarian ideology expressed so casually is terrifying.

Totalitarian? Does the economy exist to serve man or itself? There should be nothing scary about suggesting that the current framework doesn't serve society as well as it could.

Taxes are not totalitarian, which was the implication.

I'm sorry to have terrified you. Here's what I mean by that, and what I think should change.

Companies boast of record profits, buy back stock constantly, and pay next to nothing in taxes. Meanwhile, even with the ACA Americans scrimp and save, paying outrageous amounts for paltry healthcare that most of the First World would find totally inadequate. Education is chronically underfunded and over-regulated. Student debt is a ticking time bomb.

All of these problems could be resolved in an instant, had we the political will to solve them. Is it totalitarian to wish for a modern single-payer health system? Is it totalitarian to want my children to have access to a good education like I had in the 80s? Is it wrong to ask those who benefit most from society, to pay their fair share? I don't think so. Neither of us want boots on the ground, so to speak.