Publicly traded means that your primary customers are Blackrock and Vanguard, the whole concept of individual investors is just investment firms fooling people into thinking they have some influence over a company.

Lol ETFs don't get to tell you what to do, they just buy if you perform well and sell if you don't. Though who am I kidding they don't even sell

You don't need to organize fundraising events etc you just do your thing and if you do it well you get extra money.

But of course it is all assuming Kagi cannot profit enough from is users. Which apparently it cannot.

You think being publicly traded would be better? That just gives a business perverse incentives detached from the quality of the business's products/services.

Private investment is what means perverse incentives. You care about your big donors now. If you take 50k from a guy you want to give him what he wants in return so he gives again. It's about ROI. The bigger the amount the more strings attached.

Public trading means clear protocol for ROI and it allows to have many small investors who can have as little say as you specify (non voting shares etc). Comes with requirement for a lot of documentation and transparency too. So accountability. If business I like wants to grow and needs money this is the route I want it to take