People Problem in Private Secondaries

The main constraint on private share liquidity is still market structure, not software. Private trades already have tools for matching buyers and sellers, but too much volume still moves through brokers, SPVs, and relationship driven gatekeepers who each take a cut, slow approvals, and fragment demand. That matters most in small and mid sized blocks, where extra tolls can make a life changing employee sale or a modest fund rebalance uneconomic.

• The workflow is unusually human heavy. A private stock trade is not just buyer meets seller. The issuer may need to approve the transfer, existing holders may have rights of first refusal, and a broker dealer often sits in the middle. That leaves room for intermediaries to monetize access rather than simply clear the trade.
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• This is why company aligned platforms matter. EquityZen built around sitting on the cap table as a shareholder of record, while Carta and Nasdaq Private Market lean into issuer run tenders and structured liquidity programs. The common thread is reducing off market dealing and pulling transactions into a smaller set of trusted pipes.
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• The biggest economic effect is on price discovery and market depth. When blocks are split across overlapping SPVs and private broker networks, buyers do not see the full supply, sellers do not see the full demand, and fees absorb value that would otherwise go to shareholders. That keeps spreads wide and volume lower than it should be.
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Over the next few years, the market should consolidate around fewer regulated venues and more issuer sanctioned programs. That will make private secondaries look less like bespoke relationship trades and more like repeatable workflows, with clearer pricing, lower minimums, and more reliable liquidity for employees, funds, and company insiders.