tonnesoffun

Yes definitely. Increased regulatory requests means it takes longer and costs more to go public.

The Emerging Growth Company Act (EGC) helps this somewhat: companies with < $1b in revenue have less reporting requirements if they file to go public. Most VC-backed companies that do an IPO will leverage this.

Clearly, the benefit of staying private (and still being able to raise $100M+ rounds) outweighs the consequences of illiquidity for employees....at least in the eyes of the founders and management.

There are a few other secondary solutions, including mine (full disclosure: co-founder of EquityZen here).

Ultimately the company (the issuer of the options) holds the cards on these transactions. For a robust secondary private market, you need to:

- keep the company aware of the transactions, and understand their transaction process (right of first refusal, board approval, other transfer restrictions)

- provide that the buyer has been vetted and is an appropriate entrant on the company's Cap Table

- ensure that you are non encroaching on the company's own plans to provide systematic liquidity to their employees

- keep an audit trail of the transaction process to ensure no leakage of sensitive (or non-public) information

We're headed in the right direction. Pinterest deserves credit on a few different fronts:

1) Allowing employees to extend their window to exercise their options once they leave the company 2) Providing liquidity to their employees

I'm curious to hear from any hiring managers on this thread: do you think that offering liquidity/financing solutions for exercising options/helps attract better talent?

It's comical that the $ amount requirements to invest haven't been adjusted for 30 years, but the real issue stems from the consequence of a rule created in the 80s. Tell me the last time you checked a stock price in a newspaper?!

I'm hoping we'll see some sort of test or exam that ties Investment Acumen with intelligence, not wallet (or estate) size.

Somebody suggested allowing Financial Analysts that have been, in some capacity, verified by FINRA/SEC for their understandings of markets. I would be on board for this.