US public companies got halved since the 90s and retail cant catch the next NVDA early anymore

Back in the late 90s we had over 8000 listed companies, now its down to around 4000. Happened cuz regulations went nuts after Sarbanes-Oxley, small companies cant afford all the compliance crap.

Private money is everywhere too, VCs and PE sitting on piles of cash so good startups just stay private forever. Big corps also scoop up the small public ones faster than new ones list.

Now the huge growth happens behind closed doors. OpenAI talking raises that could hit 800B+ valuation, zero public shares. SpaceX already at 800B private. Same with Anthropic pushing 350B, Databricks 134B, all locked up.

NVDA went public in 99 and retail could grab it dirt cheap, ride the whole way up. That doesnt happen anymore, the 100x part is private now.

So hows retail supposed to get any edge these days? Secondary platforms, small cap hunting, venture funds if youre rich enough? Or we just stuck buying winners after they already 50xd private?

What strategies you actually using? Serious answers only, skip the bitcoin jokes pls.