On his blog New York Summer, HackNY fellow Akarshan Kumar has been thoughtfully posting about all the tech luminaries that come to influence young minds towards the start-up life and away from Wall Street. The latest lecture notes come from SecondMarket founder Barry Silbert, a former banker himself.
Using examples like the decreasing rate of IPOs over the past decade, the flash crash last May, the impact of high-frequency traders, and the decreasing average holding period of stock (down to just 2.8 months), Mr. Kumar says, “Silbert claimed that the public markets are broken, probably even beyond repair, and that the future lies in private markets.”
Granted, Mr. Silbert has a vested interest in making his platform for trading shares in private companies look more stable, if not more promising. But considering he gave this talk before last week’s free fall, maybe now’s a good time to take this show on the road. After all who has time to worry about artificially inflated valuations while the markets are playing Highway to the Danger Zone on loop.
