Retail Access Requires Private Market Infrastructure

Pulling retail money into private markets only works if private shares start behaving less like bespoke one off deals and more like a real market. Today, most private share trading is still slow, broker driven, and fragmented, which keeps minimums high and pricing opaque. The practical unlock is not just looser eligibility rules, it is infrastructure that can pool many small buyers, standardize deal mechanics, and give companies enough control to stay cooperative.

• The bottleneck is market structure, not just regulation. Private share sales still often take 3 to 6 months, run through brokers, ROFRs, and issuer approvals. That friction makes small retail sized trades uneconomic, so access stays concentrated in institutions and wealthy accredited investors.
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• EquityZen shows what retail access looks like in practice. It groups investors into LLC vehicles, lets one fund sit on the cap table instead of hundreds of individuals, and has pushed minimums far below traditional secondary sizes. Its stated long term model is matching institutional blocks with many smaller individual orders.
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• Company trust is the gating factor. Issuers care less about abstract democratization than about who ends up on the cap table, when trades happen, and whether liquidity distracts from fundraising or operations. That is why issuer aligned tenders and marketplace trades are increasingly used together, not as substitutes.
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The next phase is a hybrid market where companies set the rules, platforms handle the plumbing, and smaller investors get exposure through pooled vehicles rather than direct line by line ownership. If that model keeps maturing, private markets will absorb more of the role public markets once played for everyday investors and employee liquidity.