Be smart, and don't go solo. : Startup unicorns and billion dollar funds grab headlines these days, but most investors only hear about these opportunities late in the investing cycle, when growth is slowing. Increasingly, company value is realized in the private markets vs. after initial public offerings (IPOs). And recent performance data shows that early stage investing can capture more alpha than investing in larger, later stage companies and funds. But the vast majority of investors only get into these companies when a major bank includes a late-stage, multi-billion dollar “startup” like Uber or WeWork in a mutual fund.