[bfwi]

If you're a profitable private company, aren't you legit?

[zenlikethat]

In some sense, yes, but check out Sarbanes-Oxley: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarbanes%E2%80%93Oxley_Act. Public companies are under much more scrutiny in terms of compliance, and they have a certain type of pressure to post good quarterly results that private companies don't.

[csturtevant]

What is the incentive to go public in today's environment other than an initial fundraising, and an unpredictable monetary bonus for employees?

Edit: Appended another question.

[jimmywanger]

Depends. I think with the increased scrutiny as a public company, you have much less wiggle room for creative accounting tricks.