Founders’ guides to equity, valuations, and company growth.
Secondary fund managers are expected to make fast, high-stakes decisions in a market that still relies on slow, outdated valuation reports. That mismatch is becoming harder to ignore as portfolio companies move, markets shift, and LP expectations keep rising. Secondary market funds sit in a unique part of private equity. They buy existing equity stakes …
Investors typically ask 40 structured due diligence questions across five categories: Problem, Customer, Product, Performance and Product Development. These questions are used by Y Combinator and most venture capital investors to evaluate a startup’s viability before funding. Y Combinator, the world’s most influential startup accelerator, has distilled its founder evaluation process into 40 structured questions. …
The generative AI space is crowded with tools that promise to revolutionize how we create and consume video content, but few challenge the very nature of what video can be. Eqvista sits down with Vlastimil Venclik, Co-Founder and CEO of ValkaAI, a deep-tech startup that is pushing beyond today’s AI-generated media. While most of the …
A tax distribution clause is a provision in an LLC operating agreement that obligates the company to distribute cash to members in an amount sufficient to cover their tax liability on allocated income. Under the pass-through taxation model, LLC income flows directly to each partner’s individual tax return, regardless of whether any money was actually …
Business founders utilize their own funds, assets, and revenues to fund their company under a bootstrapped financing strategy. The bootstrapped company strategy keeps the founders out of debt and helps them to maintain track of their expenses. This technique is distinct from the financing model, which involves investors investing in a company in return for …
Whether you own a business at its early stage or a well-developed stage, you will always look for better opportunities to scale. And those opportunities need proper financing to take shape. Some companies require funds to run their routine operations whereas others need cash sources to expand their operations. It is important to remember that …
In revenue-based financing (RBF), businesses receive upfront capital in exchange for a fixed percentage of future revenues until a predetermined repayment cap is met. Unlike equity financing, RBF does not require founders to surrender ownership stakes. Unlike traditional debt, repayments are not fixed. Instead, they move in tandem with revenue performance. According to QED Investors, …
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 …
Private equity investors face two unavoidable structural challenges: illiquidity and the J-curve effect. Illiquidity means capital is locked up with no ability to exit on demand. The J-curve refers to the pattern in which a fund shows negative returns in its early years due to fees and unrealized investments, before generating positive returns as portfolio …
The new wave of startups is changing the landscape of the internet. As emerging technologies like blockchain are making their way into the mainstream, Web3 startups are becoming the future of the decentralized internet. Web3 is the next generation of the World Wide Web. It is characterized by its decentralized nature, using peer-to-peer networks and …
Is your web3 startup seeking to attract investors for the funding round? This article aims to discuss web3 funding trends and top web3 seed investors and VC firms for web3 startups to understand where and how to seek funding. Web3 or Blockchain A new kind of network that supports decentralization is the blockchain network. Blockchain …
The population of first-time fund managers has grown substantially. Between 2020 and 2024, 41.9% of GPs had no prior VC experience. By 2025, that figure had climbed to 49.6%. So, roughly half of all active GPs are managing a fund for the first time. For limited partners, this shift is a signal to approach fund …
Getting funds for a new business is always crucial and probably one of the hardest challenges new business owners go through. Most startups seek help from seed investments and investors to help their business through its early stages. Investors usually exchange funding for an equity stake of the business, giving them partial ownership, and business …
Federico Martelli leads Forgis with a rare blend of strategy, hands-on engineering, and a geopolitical perspective, qualities born of studies in econometrics, international relations, and management, plus years in tech and strategy consulting. In this interview, he explains to Eqvista why Western manufacturing needs an “intelligence layer” above decades-old PLCs and heterogeneous hardware, how causal …
Consumer startups face a uniquely crowded and fast-moving funding landscape. Unlike B2B companies, consumer-focused founders must simultaneously prove product-market fit, build brand loyalty, and demonstrate scalable unit economics all before many institutional investors will write a check. Understanding the right funding strategy for each stage is what separates startups that gain momentum from those that …
Do you want to start a business? You have a fantastic concept, determination, and the assurance that you will succeed. Have you considered how much money or finance you’ll need to realize your dream? Whether the start-up is a small firm or a giant corporation, all businesses require funds to get started. Funding establishes a …
For founders, if they’re launching a startup, access to the right angel investors can make all the difference,especially if they are in the pre-seed stage. Across key startup hubs and growing ecosystems, angel investors continue to play a major role in turning ideas into business. This is where the pre-seed angel investor comes in. According …
Whenever an investing entity encounters an opportunity that is just too attractive to miss but exceeds the capacity of its primary fund, a sidecar investing structure becomes indispensable. Setting up the framework correctly ensures that everyone benefits without any future complications. A sidecar investment agreement should be simple, clear and tightly aligned with the main …
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 …
Over 25,000 companies use Eqvista to simplify equity, stay compliant, and scale—whether hiring their first employee or closing their next round.