Vested proto-VC index for advisors
Dave Thornton, co-founder of Vested, on unlocking startup employee equity
This framing reveals that Vested is packaging startup option financing as a simpler way for wealth managers to buy broad venture exposure, not to bet on one breakout company. The LP is effectively paying for access to a diversified stream of small positions across many VC-backed companies, with underwriting focused on filtering out obvious failures rather than picking the next Stripe. That makes the product look less like concentrated venture and more like a rules based sleeve of private market exposure.
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Vested itself describes the fund as a proto-VC index, built by funding option exercises across early and mid-stage companies, then relying on diversification and price to do most of the work. That is a different promise from traditional VC, where manager skill is sold as winner picking.
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The reason this resonates with RIAs is access. Many independent advisors control client capital but do not have an easy path into top venture funds. Vested is selling a feeder product that can sit on custodial and alternative investment rails, with lower single name risk and a more familiar fund wrapper.
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This sits inside a broader shift in private liquidity markets, where platforms like Forge, EquityZen, Carta, and Nasdaq Private Market each expose investors to private company equity in different ways. Vested is distinct in sourcing many smaller employee level transactions, which naturally creates a basket instead of a handful of negotiated blocks.
Over time, this kind of product can become a standard entry point for wealth platforms that want venture exposure without waiting for elite fund allocations. If secondary and employee liquidity infrastructure keeps improving, the venture asset class should get sliced into more index like products, with Vested positioned near the front end of that shift.