Going Public and the Illiquidity Tax

And it continues. We reported last month that Snapchat was preparing an IPO for next year and yesterday The Wall Street Journal followed with a similar account.

Every day in Silicon Valley, it’s clear how much the mood around being a public company has shifted. Companies that were hellbent on telling me all the reasons they wanted to stay private are changing their tune. All of a sudden, founders are telling me how nice it is to have “currency for acquisitions” and “branding lift.” (The latter applies more for enterprise companies; the consumer ones get plenty of publicity when they are private.)