Snap was valued around $20b in its F round in 2016. And it's valued now around $12.5b.
For a long time the public market has been viewed as the dumb money -- but for some of these companies it may actually be the late round investors that are caught standing when the music stops.
It's almost like it's a rigged system. Someone in Wall Street gets paid off, you IPO at such and such a price, that gets you into the institutional holdings.
Dumping even 2% of that $150M would give you enough to retire.
Actually, I could think of dozens of places I'd rather retire in, over the Valley.
More interestingly, despite the relatively small ownership stake they nearly majority vote control Lyft through dual-class shares with a very unusual 20 to 1 vote ratio versus the normal shares.
The founders created a company which delivers value by connecting over 1 million rides a day. Those riders benefit from Lyft. Additionally, riders on Uber benefit from lower prices due to competition. The IPO profits to the founders and investors are their reward for delivering this value.
If you assume each ride has $1 of consumer surplus, then they are delivering over $350M a year of consumer surplus a year.
As for the employees, first of all they all received base salary and benefits. They may not receive millions in the IPO, depending on when they joined, but that is the risk of working at a pre-IPO company. They all had the option to work at Google for a more predictable income.
It sounds logical, but it's in fact just another way of a few marginally deserving people taking a disproportionate amount of the proceeds of a group effort.
If neither of those appeals to you, you can start your own company. There are ideas that generate predictable income comparable to a day job, or you can go for your own start up home run.
If you think the Lyft founders are undeserving, then go out and start your own Lyft!