Do you think he’s going to dump those shares for what… A few million $$? A broken company that’s going nowhere sure why not but that doesn’t seem to be the case here.. he probably wants to capitalize at a much higher level Without destroying his newly publicly held company.. The problem with a direct IPO aside from the high cost and other factors, is that often enough the public interest and volume is simply is not there, Therefore although the value is there PPS drops, resulting in what many people call “damaged goods” After spending on average 4 million and waiting 12-18months to finally start trading The public interest is already lost..
It is the former CEO, not the current one, holding those shares. And he'll sell when he figures there's enough $ in it.
If there is a problem with "public interest" in the company during an IPO, then there's a problem with the company, not the market. The company presents 2 years of financial performance and its business plan that includes how it intends to use the proceeds raised from the IPO, and if the market doesn't buy it, then by definition it isn't a good plan or they don't believe it.