> What if every company checked that box and couldn't provide lasting value beyond that?

How long do you think that would be a sustainable situation? A high mid to late-private stage valuation is only supported by the promise of subsequent valuations.

If every company stopped achieving those subsequent valuations, it would feed back into the private valuations.

> What if every company checked that box and couldn't provide lasting value beyond that?

That would mean an overheated late-stage market. (Which recent IPO data haven’t yet made obvious is a thing.)

Ignoring any one specific company for a moment, an investor consistently able to invest early and time their exits near the peak of each company's valuation would be a roaring success.

That's my point. We're saying that Robinhood is a success as a company because an early investor would have had a nice exit? Thats our "success" barometer?

I'm going to call BS on that one.