Tim Draper|12月 08, 2025 17:01
2013. Atish and Phil walked into my office with a wild idea: "What if employees didn't have to wait 10 years for an IPO to access their equity?"
2025: That wild idea just got acquired by Morgan Stanley.
Most VCs at the time said: "Private markets don't work like that. The system exists for a reason."
I said: "The system is broken. Let's break it more."
Here's what @EquityZen actually did:
They didn't just build a marketplace. They changed the power dynamic.
Before EquityZen:
→ Employees locked into illiquid equity for a decade
→ Only insiders got pre-IPO access
→ Life events meant choosing between equity and liquidity
After EquityZen:
→ $3.5 billion in transactions
→ Thousands of employees got life-changing liquidity
→ Investors accessed companies they never could before
They took something that only worked for the wealthy and made it work for everyone.
That's the bet I love making.
Employees who could buy homes, pay for medical bills, start their own companies. All because they believed that liquidity shouldn't be a privilege.
Onward and upward.(Tim Draper)
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