By Thomas Lee
SharesPost’s partnership with Fidelity is uniquely suited to Silicon Valley because the two companies can help investors and entrepreneurs fund charitable causes without having to wait for the companies to go public, she said.
But it still might take some time for the program to gain acceptance. Timing is everything, and right now there’s ample evidence to suggest that unicorns are overvalued, said Stuart Blair, director of research for Canterbury Consulting wealth management firm in Newport Beach (Orange County). Charities won’t want to accept the stock of a private firm that might run out of cash and go out of business.
That’s why companies are taking so long to go public, for fear public markets will offer much lower valuations than private investors. Indeed, the stocks of once-promising companies like Snap and Blue Apron have struggled to gain traction since they went public.