> It's a pity going public isn't worth it anymore.

Israeli VCs tend to be uninterested in IPOs in general - too much of an operational headache and it's difficult to exit a position quickly.

In most cases an IPO isn't worth it for founders because an IPO means you lose operational control. It's basically the "Rich versus Kings" dichotomy [0].

Edit: can't reply

> you can control the share allocations going into an IPO to give you solid voting power

Investors do not like that - they want some degree of operational control in order to right the ship if needed.

In the early 2010s, IPOs like Tesla and Facebook were on terms that gave outside investors little control on operations and that's why Musk and even Zuckerberg to a certain extent can choose to reorient to a new boondoggle with little-to-no investor pushback.

In 2026 if you want to IPO, it will be on the terms of JPMC, GS, etc who are underwriting the IPO.

In a private company, it's easier for an investor to offload or get bought out of their position if the founder wants to maintain operational control.

> While you’re accountable to a board of directors and theoretically accountable to stockholders, in reality management often runs the show

In publicly listed companies, it is magnitudes more difficult to build a board that is aligned with you at a personal level versus in a private company because both the board and strategic shareholders will act as checks against you.

> If you’re acquired, you’re giving up ownership and you tend to lose operational control unless you have agreements in place that say otherwise

An acquisition happens when both the founders and investors want to exit, and has less operational overhead and due dilligence versus going thru the process of an IPO in the US.

> This is counterintuitive to me

Well, that's the reality. This is why Stripe, Databricks, and others have remained private for so long despite having hit IPO-level metrics years ago. If you're already generating high 9 to low 10 figures a year in revenue, you can remain private indefinetly and as a founder you would be able to give yourself a compensation package comparable to a public company, but with much less oversight and stress.

> Interesting, why is this more true of Israeli VC's as opposed to VC's in other markets

Significantly less capital.

"Big" funds like YL Ventures, Cyberstarts, and JVP only have an AUM of $800M, $1.4B, and $1.9B respectively.

And if you were going to IPO in the US anyhow, why would you even invest in an Israeli fund, which wouldn't have enough people with experience for an IPO.

And the handful of Israeli IPOs that happened like SentinelOne or CyberArk weren't that successful.

[0] - https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=38550

> In most cases an IPO isn't worth it for founders because an IPO means you lose operational control.

This is counterintuitive to me.

If you’re acquired, you’re giving up ownership and you tend to lose operational control unless you have agreements in place that say otherwise.

With an IPO it seems like you have a better chance to retain control: you can control the share allocations going into an IPO to give you solid voting power. While you’re accountable to a board of directors and theoretically accountable to stockholders, in reality management often runs the show, at least until the board runs out of patience with bad earnings.

> Israeli VCs tend to be uninterested in IPOs in general - too much of an operational headache and it's difficult to exit a position quickly.

Interesting, why is this more true of Israeli VC's as opposed to VC's in other markets?