Which companies would you invest in if they were freely tradable?
Some companies are love brands for me, and I’d like to support them. Others I see growing, and I’d love to ride the wave. :D
Do you have any companies you’d like to invest in, but that don’t have a public offering yet? Which ones?
(maybe the dream will come true)
For me, it’s OpenAI and Stripe.
Possibly Product Hunt as the love brand. :)
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@atique_bandukwala1 I think that you are already investing in it :D what about other companies?
I'd buy the "default stack" that compounds over time. Stripe, Vercel, OpenAI, Plaid. Defaults win because switching costs are real.
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@elenamira What about Lovable? Why did you choose Vercel over other competitors of this tool?
Swytchcode
For me, OpenAI, Bolt, Vercel, Supabase and Firebase. These would cover any app development.
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@chilarai There’s no better way to support your favorite products. I usually like to invest in the stocks of companies whose products I use.
Swytchcode
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@chilarai That's why I bought Apple in the past :D
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@chilarai 🚀
Stripe would be an instant buy for me. Databricks and Canva would also be top choices.
As far as AI goes, I'd invest in Anthropic or Mistral before putting money into OpenAI. Personally, I think OpenAI has peaked and has begun on a long, slow downward slope. Once they lost Mira Murati as CTO, I think they lost the driving force behind their tech talent.
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@tmtabor Do you think that OpenAI will lose traction? Why do you think so?
@busmark_w_nika As I see it, OpenAI's last big game-changing release was GPT-4, back in 2023. At the speed that AI has been developing, that's quite a long time ago.
Since then, GPT-4o was simply a slight optimization on GPT-4. GPT-5's been underwhelming. Meanwhile, at least in terms of model performance, their competitors have caught up and largely surpassed them. Claude and Gemini duke it out for which is best coding model. And Mistral performs better for creative works.
I think the change at OpenAI is, at least in part, because Mira Murati left. She was the driving force behind the development of GPT-3.5 and GPT-4, and she's at Thinking Machines, rather than OpenAI.
Cal ID
I'd instantly back Stripe and OpenAI (the default choices for most builders), but also Notion for its cult-like user love and Vercel for owning the programming experience. There is a rise in API-first startups like Supabase and newer AI infra companies, they're quietly becoming the new backbone for most online apps - definitely emptying my pockets here.
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@sanskarix Notion – this one too, because I use them. Maybe Discord as well :)
Cal ID
@busmark_w_nika I forgot Discord, its great!
IXORD
It's difficult to answer this question precisely because it requires further analysis. I would definitely choose something related to AI :)
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@ixord you can start with OpenAI :D or do you prefer anything else? :D
IXORD
@busmark_w_nika I think choosing OpenAI for this is a good decision. I wouldn’t want to overlook new AI products that could become a sensation xd
Triforce Todos
OpenAI would be my pick as well. Imagine being an early investor before GPT took off. 😅
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@abod_rehman We missed this train, unfortunately. 🥲
Love this question, Nika 👏 I think about this a lot. For me, it would be:
Notion — they’ve built a movement, not just a tool.
Figma (before Adobe deal drama) — feels like the default canvas for modern teams.
Runway — they’re quietly shaping the AI + creativity space.
And selfishly… I’d also “invest” in the next wave of AI workflow/agent platforms. That category feels like the future of how businesses actually operate day-to-day. (We’re working on this at Growstack — so I may be biased 😅).
Curious — if you had to choose just one “love brand” to put your money behind, which would it be?
For me, it would be Canva and CapCut — both are like everyday creative superpowers.
OpenAI, of course (imagine the wave 👀).
And honestly, if Python Codepad ever opened up, I’d ride that wave too.
Maybe one day the dream comes true.