Effectively infinite. Databricks is a good example. They're still private after 13 years and closed a Series L round last year. Stripe is similar.

Having been through an IPO before, it was good for employee liquidity, but bad for the culture and long-term success of the company.

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charlie0 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Dead capital. There's no need for public funding until they are reasy to cash out at the top, if ever.

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solenoid0937 4 hours ago | parent [-]

How do investors cash out? Do they sell to new round investors?

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barbarr 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Going off the other reply, I wonder if a highly-active secondary market means that companies can raise series [A-Z]+ rounds effectively forever, where each "round" just refers to a giant purchase of shares under strict company supervision. Is this the new game for startups?

	▲	DenisM 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		If investor pool becomes too loose the company becomes de facto public, subject to all SEC-enforced regulations. The judgment is subjective though, so pushing the boundaries could be a calculated risk.

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bix6 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Correct. There is also a secondary market.

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misiti3780 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

so how do stripe employees get liquidity? can anyone sell their secondary shares?

	▲	tomwheeler 4 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		I can't speak for the specific case of Stripe, but it's fairly common for private companies to have a "tender offer" in which employees have the opportunity to sell some portion of their equity. This is often done in conjunction with a new investment round.
	▲	Scoundreller 3 hours ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		Bankruptcy court? FTX bought 8% of Anthropic for $500m in 2021. https://www.forbes.com/sites/josipamajic/2026/03/18/ftx-owne...
	▲	toomuchtodo 4 hours ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		Tender offers. https://www.investor.gov/introduction-investing/investing-ba... https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/tender_offer https://carta.com/learn/equity/liquidity-events/tender-offer... https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu... (secondary markets are sometimes an option, depending on stock transfer restrictions)
	▲	newaccountman2 4 hours ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		Private/secondary markets.
	▲	jiveturkey 3 hours ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		There's a newish term for this: RLO, Recurring Liquidity Opportunity. These are tender offers at some recurring interval. Even some companies that have a shorter lifespan (say 7 years) offer this.
	▲	vanuatu 3 hours ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		regular tender offers
	▲	clint 4 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Stripe might buy back the shares at a good price. They might be able to sell on secondary markets.