Let’s face it. Exciting growth is a rare sighting in the stock market these days.

It’s not even part of the package you get with tech companies that have been very successful in the past. (If you want to know why, take a look at this recent article of mine.)

Nowadays, almost all the most exciting growth comes from young, innovative companies using new business models and solving huge problems.

The fly in the ointment? They’re all hanging out in the private sandlot of venture capitalists and angel investors.

That’s why the uptick we’ve seen in IPOs during the last few months was met with so much enthusiasm. This blurb from Fortune was typical…

After years of avoiding the public markets, Silicon Valley suddenly has IPO fever. Snap’s successful debut, paired with solid early performances from MuleSoft and Okta, has investors – both the Wall Street kind and the Sand Hill Road kind – making squee sounds of excitement.

Fortune went on to say that “the IPO pipeline for venture-backed tech companies looks healthier than it has in years.”

Insiders gave rosy forecasts. Goodwin Procter, the company that helped prepare the recent IPOs of OKTA and SNAP, said, “There’s still a nice pipeline of companies that will come out.”

And Bob McCooey, senior vice president of Nasdaq’s Listing Services, said, “This post-Labor Day to Thanksgiving window could be one of the busiest that I’ve seen in the decade that I’ve been here.”

Winter Has Come

These declarations have a whiff of desperation. The Nasdaq (and other public exchanges) has lost out on huge fees. Other major losers include…