Every few decades, Wall Street changes the rules.
First it was blue-chip stocks.
Then it was tech stocks.
More recently, it’s been private startups.
But now the shift is accelerating, fast — toward the Fantastic 40.
Let me explain.
A Glimpse into 2030
At its recent “East Meets West” investor conference, $70 billion investment firm Coatue released a fascinating report.
It wasn’t about interest rates, fund flows, or politics.
Instead, it was a clear-eyed forecast about where the biggest growth will come from over the next five years.
According to Coatue, a handful of giants like Microsoft will continue to grow steadily. But the biggest gains won’t come from companies in the public markets.
Instead, they’ll come from startups in the private market — pre-IPO companies like SpaceX, OpenAI, xAI, Stripe, Anthropic, and DataBricks.
Coatue believes private firms like these will become the dominant companies of the future — and provide the biggest financial returns.
Wall Street Knows the Game Has Changed
It’s not just Coatue making these calls.
Behind closed doors, the smartest money in the world is chasing the same playbook.
Venture-capital firms, sovereign wealth funds, hedge funds — they’re all piling into pre-IPO opportunities, often years before these startups consider going public.
Why? Because that's where the returns are.
Over the last decade, the average length of time a startup stays private has doubled. That means more of its explosive growth is happening before its IPO.
Bottom line: If you’re only investing in the stock market, you’re missing the party.
The Growth Is Going Private
To be clear — the stock market isn’t going away.
But if you look at recent IPOs (Instacart, Reddit, even Stripe’s partial tender), you’ll notice something striking:
These companies are going public later — at vastly higher valuations, and with slower near-term growth prospects. Much of their best growth is already behind them.
It’s the investors who got in five or ten years ago, during the private funding rounds, who captured the biggest upside.
That’s why Coatue’s forecasts are so telling. They’re not just painting a rosy picture of the future. They’re hinting at where the real money will be made.
How You Can Get Involved
Historically, investing in the private markets was reserved for institutions or ultra-wealthy insiders.
But that’s changing.
For example, Coatue just launched its CTEK Innovation Fund to help investors capture the growth of the future, regardless of whether it comes from public stocks or private startups.
Unfortunately, it has a $50,000 minimum investment.
Not ready to invest $50k? Even if you’re starting with just $100, you now have more ways than ever to access private markets.
Yes, risks are higher.
Yes, due diligence is incredibly important.
But for investors willing to look beyond the traditional 60/40 portfolio, the rewards can be well worth it.
The Bottom Line
The next Microsoft or Uber isn’t listed on the NASDAQ — not yet, anyway.
It’s probably a private company, growing at 100%+ per year, out of reach of most investors.
But that’s where we come in.
At Crowdability, our mission is to educate you and show you where the highest-potential startup opportunities can be found — before they go public.
Because this isn’t just the future…
It’s where the smartest money is going today.
Best Regards,
Founder
Crowdability.com
