Shopify (SHOP) invested 350M in Stripe. Is that presently the only way to gain exposure to the company pre-IPO?
If you're a qualified investor you could theoretically buy on the secondary markets, but not in practice. I've read that Stripe (like many startups) has reserved right of first refusal as part of their option grants - that is, they can veto sales of their shares. It's probably going to be very difficult or impossible to buy them.
WLB there is atrocious I’ve heard as well. The founders will be extremely rich and they’ll probably start their own space programs. Making already rich people happy is the way to wealth in this country. Hope they are kind enough to throw some table scraps to those who live down below the Ring.
It's 5pm Friday here and I'm about to shut down my work laptop until 8am Monday.
It makes it difficult to attract buyers though- why go through all the due diligence when Stripe could just exercise their right to buy the shares instead of you at the same price you would have paid?
Still, different from being able to veto the sale and block it entirely.
Cards are dead. So's Shopify. Ask me about my ethereum business?
Credit cards and e-commerce are not the same thing. (Besides that while I'm not a fan of credit cards I wouldn't say they're dead - yet)