| This is an OZY Special Briefing, an extension of the Presidential Daily Brief. The Special Briefing tells you what you need to know about an important issue, individual or story that is making news. Each one serves up an interesting selection of facts, opinions, images and videos in order to catch you up and vault you ahead. WHAT TO KNOW What’s happening? Lyft was first out the gate with a $24 billion valuation. Uber, which could be worth upwards of $100 billion, is coming within weeks. So are Pinterest, Slack, WeWork and more. With all these prominent tech startups going public, 2019 is shaping up to the Year of the IPO — with an estimated $200 billion on the line. Why does it matter? These financial coming-out parties have broad implications for everything from the stock and housing markets to how some of the most important companies in our lives will be managed. Yet, while public markets invite new scrutiny, and cede sway over a company’s future to its outside shareholders, these IPOs aren’t always as “public” as the term suggests. In fact, some firms seem to have learned from brethren like Apple and Google parent company Alphabet, which allowed top executives to hold “supershares” to out-vote outsiders and keep decision-making as encrypted as an iPhone. For instance, Lyft’s two co-founders own 7 percent of the stock — but a near-majority of shareholder votes. Summed up by one expert, the so-called founder-knows-best ethos holds: “If you want to buy shares, then follow my rules.” | 