Hundreds of OpenAI employees recently cashed out their equity holdings through a company-run tender offer, with many becoming millionaires overnight. The headlines were astonishing. But behind the spectacle is a structural shift that every founder, HR leader, and startup employee needs to understand. When I saw the headlines, I wasn’t surprised it happened. What struck …
I recently got the opportunity to join Steve Preda on the Management Blueprint Podcast, and we spent most of the conversation on the question that sits at the centre of everything we do at Eqvista. How do you put a price on a company that has no revenue, no comparables, and no market to check …
The most important part of the SpaceX IPO story is not where the company priced. It’s the sequence of events around it and what that sequence says about how we value companies before they ever reach the public market. On Thursday afternoon, June 11, 2026, before SpaceX began public trading, I noted on LinkedIn that …
A few years ago, I kept coming back to one frustrating thought: Why do private company founders, employees, and shareholders have to wait an entire year, sometimes longer, just to get a PDF telling them what their equity is worth? That felt broken to me. So we decided to fix it. When we started building …
Many founders treat the term 409A valuation as a technical detail buried in US tax law. But if you plan to grant stock options or equity compensation to employees and founders, it is essential. It is both a compliance requirement and a key part of your equity strategy. I recently sat down with Dr. Jeremy …
When SpaceX went public, I wasn’t surprised by what happened. I was, however, struck by how clearly it validated everything we’ve been building at Eqvista. What I find most telling about this moment is the sequence of events. On June 11, 2026, before SpaceX began public trading, our Eqvista Real-Time Company Valuation® model had already …
At Eqvista, we’ve built one of the largest private company valuation engines in the market, with more than 25,000 companies on the platform representing nearly $4 trillion in company value. Built on deep private market data, our real-time valuation model gives founders a faster, smarter, and more dynamic way to understand the value they are …
Despite their scale and importance, private markets still operate with fragmented pricing visibility and valuation systems built around periodic reporting cycles rather than continuously updated market intelligence. That gap has always bothered me. And it’s becoming harder for anyone to justify. Public equities benefit from continuous pricing signals generated through trading activity, analyst coverage, and …
Most founders in Silicon Valley treat fundraising like a scoreboard. The bigger the round, the more real you seem. The flashier the pitch deck, the more serious your ambitions. It’s a culture that values the story over the substance, and for a long time, I played right into it. But after years of building Eqvista, …
We woke up this morning realizing that what we had been building toward for more than a year is now real: Eqvista has built one of the largest valuation engines in the market. What began with manual 409A valuations became the foundation for something far bigger. Today, Eqvista has valued 9,935 private companies representing $2.06 …
At the Montgomery Summit, I had the opportunity to present Eqvista Real-Time Company Valuation® and share a broader perspective on where private markets are heading. The discussion was not just about our company, but about a structural shift taking place across the entire market: private companies are staying private longer, reaching far greater scale, and creating …
In 2026, the secondary stock market, particularly for private company shares, finds itself at a critical crossroads. While the market is celebrating record-breaking transaction volumes, it continues to grapple with a fundamental structural flaw: a total lack of past price transparency. Unlike public exchanges, where every tick and trade history is a matter of public …
Traditional 409A valuation reports have been the cornerstone of equity compensation compliance in the USA. These reports have shielded businesses from hefty IRS penalties for many years. But here’s the problem. Traditional 409A valuations can no longer keep up with the pace of modern businesses. The traditional 409A PDF report is a valuation snapshot you …
I’m pleased to announce my acceptance into the Forbes Finance Council, an exclusive, invitation-only community of accomplished finance executives, entrepreneurs, and investors shaping the future of global capital. It’s an honor to join this distinguished group and contribute to its mission of advancing thought leadership and innovation within the industry. Why I’m Joining the Forbes …
EQVISTA | NYSE: There is a famous saying… the journey is the reward, you work hard and have very high expectations but there are also moments which stand out. Last week, I went from introducing the first Real-Time Private Stock Valuation Index to a group of finance professionals at Javitz, to the NYSE closing bell for …
I have been in the private equity and valuation space long enough to see the same question surface over and over again: “How do we unlock liquidity for private companies?” It’s a fair question, because liquidity is the lifeblood of any market. Without it, capital is harder to raise, employees have fewer opportunities to realize …
Companies’ equity is the most powerful tool at any stage, from early angel rounds, through all the alphabet rounds, IPO, being publicly traded, or even being delisted. Every stage involves equity movement. Some companies choose to remain privately owned with a small number of employees holding ownership stakes. Great entrepreneurs’ equity ownership is fascinating. A …
