A few weeks ago, I published an essay titled, Klarna: Sorry, But I Told You So.
In the essay, I walked you through Klarna’s IPO, explained why investors were salivating over it — then showed how investors got punched in the mouth when the stock fell off a cliff.
I didn’t take any pleasure in saying “I told you so.” But the fact is, Klarna’s stock performance wasn’t an outlier. It wasn’t bad luck. And it wasn’t a one-off. It’s part of a big, predictable pattern — a pattern I’ve been warning you about for years.
Then, last week, Bloomberg dropped a truth-bomb that proves my point even more forcefully.
So grab your coffee. You’re about to see why the IPO window, once the ultimate “wealth machine” for everyday investors, has become a trap…
And you’re about to learn where the real profits are hiding instead.
When “Hot IPOs” Cool Off… Fast
Bloomberg’s report was blunt. It started with this line:
“The stock prices of recent listings such as Gemini Space Station Inc., Fermi Inc., Navan Inc., and Stubhub Holdings Inc. have quickly faded to levels below where they went public.”
Read that again. Not just “came down a bit.” Not just “gave back some gains.” Instead, the stocks of these companies fell below their IPO prices — and they did so quickly.
This means anyone who bought shares on Day 1, or even in the first few weeks, is already sitting on losses.
But Bloomberg didn’t stop there. As it turns out, even the so-called big winners of 2025 — the ones that TV anchors breathlessly reported on, the ones analysts hyped, the ones retail investors chased — have gotten hammered.
Bloomberg: “Even this year’s high-flying debuts like CoreWeave Inc., Circle Internet Group Inc., and Figma Inc. have faced a bruising recently.”
Think about that. These were the good ones. These were the IPOs that “worked.”
Yet even they couldn’t hold up.
Wait — Isn’t the IPO Supposed to Be the Start of the Party?
If you’re new to investing, or new to investing early, here’s a quick history lesson:
For decades, the IPO was the moment when the public finally got a fair shot.
Early employees got their payday… investment bankers strutted around like kings… reporters called it “The Next Big Thing” — and meanwhile, everyday investors could finally buy shares of companies that had been locked up in private markets for years.
The idea was that private investors took the early risk. And public investors got the early reward.
But those days are gone. Nowadays, the party happens long before the IPO.
Employees, VCs, private-equity firms, even hedge funds scoop up shares years in advance. They ride the growth. They ride the hype. They ride the surge as a company’s valuation soars from $5 million or $10 million to a “unicorn” worth $10 billion or even $100 billion or more.
By the time you finally get a chance to buy? Everyone else is already heading for the exits.
As industry investment platform EquityZen wrote recently, “Historically, the IPO was the opportunity for upside. Today, the IPO is often the exit.”
In other words, the IPO is no longer the starting line. It’s the finish line — for other people.
What’s the Solution?
So if IPO investors are losing, and private investors are winning, the path forward is obvious:
Stop trying to win the game that Wall Street has already rigged. Instead, start investing before the IPO.
Keep in mind — that doesn’t mean you should throw darts at every private company with a cool logo. But it does mean that you should:
- Get some exposure to early-stage startups.
- Get some exposure to fast-growing late-stage companies.
In other words, get exposure to private deals before a company’s valuation is already inflated by the IPO hype-machine. This is why I’ve spent the past decade — and thousands of pages of research — teaching readers how to access pre-IPO opportunities.
It’s where the real wealth is being created today. It’s where tomorrow’s winners are found. And it’s where investors still have an edge.
The Klarna Lesson — Multiplied and Reinforced
If Klarna was one data point…
And Gemini, Fermi, Navan, StubHub, CoreWeave, Circle, and Figma are seven more…
The verdict is clear: Post-IPO investors aren’t losing because they made the wrong picks. They’re losing because they showed up too late.
The market isn’t broken. The timing is.
So the next time Wall Street dangles a “hot IPO” in front of you?
Smile politely. Step aside. And remember:
The big money — the life-changing money — goes to those who got in years earlier.
And that’s exactly where we’ll keep focusing.
Best Regards,
Founder
Crowdability.com
