Founders’ guides to equity, valuations, and company growth.
SaaS companies can qualify for Qualified Small Business Stock (QSBS), but being a software company is not enough. Consulting, implementation, custom development, and other service activities can complicate the Section 1202 active business test and put the QSBS exclusion at risk. The stakes are now even higher: eligible stock acquired after July 4, 2025 may …
Choosing a 409A valuation provider isn’t just about getting a report quickly or finding the lowest-cost option. The best providers prepare valuations that can withstand review by Big Four auditors months or even years later. That means following recognized valuation standards, providing clear documentation, and offering support when auditors have questions. For late-stage startups preparing …
In this edition of Founder Spotlight join us with a conversation with Dominik Rehbock, CEO and Co-Founder of Hyground, for an insightful conversation about his journey as a founder and the thinking behind building an AI SRE agent that can autonomously resolve incidents. The interview explores how he and his team are tackling one of …
Most equity management platforms look convincing during a product demo. However, during events such as funding round closes, SAFE conversions, audits, investor requests for dilution analysis, and departing employee option exercises, cracks begin to emerge. That’s when you can tell if an equity management platform actually reduces the operational burden. The expected growth of the …
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 …
The competitive landscape has changed in recent years, and the way that startups raise funds has evolved with it. A pitch deck is a visual representation of the company’s story, which is used to convince potential investors that funding for their idea would be worthwhile. Pitch decks have been a standard feature in the startup …
A competitive gap analysis is a structured process that helps startups identify the distance between what the market currently offers and what customers genuinely need. Its purpose is to surface unmet demands, underserved segments, and inefficiencies in the competitive landscape. Such analysis helps founders understand where competitors fall short and where there is room to …
When a company reaches its Series B round, the cap table is no longer only a basic ownership list. It becomes more like a financial record, formed by multiple funding rounds, different types of investors, many SAFE conversions, and an expanding employee option pool. According to PitchBook, the average Series B round in early 2026 …
If you’re sponsoring a spouse or family member for a green card, you’ve likely encountered Form I-864 and the question of whether your income alone is enough. Under Section 213A of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), the sponsor must maintain the immigrant at an income level equal to or greater than 125% of the …
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 …
Most document AI companies are racing to build better parsing. Retab is doing something different, building the workflow layer that makes AI actually usable in production. Eqvista sits down with Louis de Benoist, CEO and co-founder of Retab, to discuss how his team is reimagining document AI for the enterprise. From the early challenges of …
Recently, OpenAI became the world’s second-most valuable startup after a $40 billion funding round, reaching a valuation of $300 billion. In 2025, we are no strangers to such headlines regarding AI startups. For instance, Safe Superintelligence reached a valuation of $32 billion without even having a product. With such strong hype surrounding the sector, keeping …
To build a winning compensation strategy for early-stage startups, reserve 10-15% equity for your first 10 hires, tier equity by role seniority, outsource non-core functions, hire in sequence tied to funding milestones, and anchor all equity grants to a current Internal Code Revenue Section 409A valuation. The compensation choices you make in your first dozen …
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 …
Last Updated: July, 2026 Private equity firms continue to attract investors seeking superior returns compared to public markets. The private equity industry has achieved tremendous growth, with investment volumes reaching historic highs in recent years. Despite market volatility, private equity remains a compelling investment place for high-net-worth individuals and institutional investors who can navigate its …
Last Updated: July, 2026 Venture capitalists have placed massive bets on cryptocurrency startups. Businesses whose future success is tied to the development of the cryptocurrency ecosystem made many investments. So why are venture capitalists interested in crypto seed funding and blockchain seed funding? What attracts VCs in blockchain and crypto companies, and which are the …
The 409A Valuation service market was worth USD 10.9 billion in 2023 and is projected to be worth USD 40.3 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 12.9% from 2024 to 2030. This market is a subset of the financial services business that concentrates on helping private corporations meet the requirements of Section 409A …
At the start of 2026, the global private market dry powder is expected to be around $2.5 trillion in terms of core private equity, venture capital, private debt, and real assets. Including the wider private capital approaches, the total would be around $3.7 trillion. The current year of 2026, therefore, becomes one of the biggest …
Customers are increasingly choosing the subscription-based pricing model despite limited IT resources to meet expanding IT demands, particularly for SMBs and startups. Regardless of their size, established businesses aren’t dismissing SaaS. Instead, they’re fully embracing the as-a-service business model in order to meet a wide range of demands with flexible, contemporary solutions. As a consequence, …
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 …
Over 25,000 companies use Eqvista to simplify equity, stay compliant, and scale—whether hiring their first employee or closing their next round.