Carta's Issuer-Centric Liquidity Model
Charly Kevers, CFO at Carta, on progressive price discovery and investor relations
The core bet is that private market liquidity only works if companies feel they are running a controlled program instead of being dragged around by brokers, ad hoc buyers, and one off employee requests. In practice that means setting a clear trading cadence, choosing which investors get access, and using liquidity as a finance tool for hiring, retention, cap table shaping, and eventual IPO preparation, instead of treating it as a random side market around the company.
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Tender offers gave companies price and participant control, but they were heavy, episodic, and often tied to the last primary round. That left employees waiting 12 to 18 months, unsure when liquidity would come, and often reluctant to sell if the company had grown since the last financing.
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The issuer centric model is less about blocking demand and more about turning private stock into a scheduled product. Companies tell employees and investors when auctions happen, what information they will get, and who can participate. That predictability is what makes serious investors show up repeatedly.
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This fits Carta's broader position in the stack. Because it already manages cap tables, valuations, ownership history, and tender workflows, it can make secondary sales easier to administer than a broker led process where ownership data, tax treatment, and transfer approvals live in separate systems.
The next step is a middle layer between illiquid private stock and fully public trading. The winners will be the platforms that help CFOs run repeatable auctions, investor communication, and cap table updates with enough structure to build trust, while still letting companies decide cadence and access before they are ready for open market trading.