What exactly is the differance between a public company and a private one?
What can I do to make sure nobody controls my company by bing some of it?
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Companies are public when they “go public” by listing on a sharemarket. Before then they are private, they can sell parts of themselves, but are limited in how they can do so.
The important bit is that being public complicates your corporate governance. You need to have certain reporting in place, a board to represent stakeholders, etc. Basically you need to ensure you’re treating your shareholders “fairly”.
Some of those requirements also come into play if a certain number of people invest in your company (essentially you get regulated like a public company because you’re starting to look like one, instead of a private company owned by a few investors).
Companies go public because they want to raise a bunch of capital, the existing owners want to get money for their stake (and can’t sell it to one investor because it’s too much money for them to put down on it), etc.
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