Comments on: Trying to sell shares in a private startup? Join the club!

By: Yuri Ammosov

Yuri Ammosov — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 00:13:10 +0000

Oh, you are sooo cynical. Havent' you heard VCs and tech entrepreneurs are paragons of integrity and fair play and just about everything that is so good about capitalism?

By: JH

JH — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 21:17:06 +0000

With all of these services, the devil will be in the details. Are employees allowed to sell their non-public, vested stock to anyone or do the early investors have any say? (depends on the original term sheets). Do the buyers of this stock understand their "reporting" and lock-up obligations should the company ever do a real IPO? Do the companies enabling the sale of private stock understand the nightmare of keeping track of it all in the event that they ever want to go public? These strategies may work very well for companies raising money and not planning eventual IPOs, but become much more clouded if there is a big exit planned further down the road.

Finally, there is the question of whether or not the recent slow IPO market is because the old one is broken, or perhaps because the stock market has been undergoing the type of turmoil that temporarily makes IPOs unappealing?

Time will tell whether these options are cures or band-aids.

By: Charles Zhang

Charles Zhang — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 13:24:12 +0000

Charging mega-millionaires a monthly subscription fee? Is that a joke? Why make millions of dollars when you can make thousands of dollars!

By: Haggie

Haggie — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 06:59:26 +0000

Since there is so little malfeasance and manipulation of regulated stock markets, what could possibly go wrong in unregulated, private stock markets?

By: James W. Ash

James W. Ash — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 06:21:16 +0000

Congrats to SharesPost on this coverage. Great client!