One of the themes of this economic cycle has been that tech startups have stayed private for a long time, choosing to raise money via venture capital rather than going public. When a downturn inevitably arrives, some may regret that.
As prior cycles have shown, even if good startups technically can go public in a bad market, they generally don't -- and that might mean being forced to stay private for several years longer than they want. A few big startups are avoiding that trap as they finally look to go public -- Dropbox and Spotify have forthcoming listings -- but many other mature companies have stayed private, like Airbnb.
Image: So far, Snap's gains have all gone to its private investors. Photographer: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg
