A very important point @melua, Especially highlights the risk of...

A very important point @melua,

Especially highlights the risk of investing very early in some of these deals & being escrowed for long periods of time. That is why seed investors receive a discount on their investment.

Often I see posters complaining about the deal a seed investor has received, but the risk is equal to the reward.

Regarding this point; the benefit of investing in an IPO is the market risk is greatly reduced with the decreased time horizon.