Insights

Analysis on the private secondary market

July 24, 2026 · 7 min read

How AI Company Valuations Broke the Old Secondary Discount Rules

The 10-30% discount was a reliable default for a decade. A handful of frontier AI labs — and one that traded below its own fresh round — are rewriting it in both directions at once.

July 23, 2026 · 8 min read

The Conflict of Interest at the Heart of Every Continuation Fund

A GP selling an asset to itself, in a vehicle it also manages, is structurally different from any other secondary deal. Why fairness opinions and real cash options exist — and where they still fall short.

July 22, 2026 · 7 min read

Why Company Consent Is the Real Gatekeeper in Every Secondary Sale

Price and terms get all the attention, but almost nothing closes without the company saying yes. What that leverage actually gets used for, beyond just blocking unwanted buyers.

July 21, 2026 · 7 min read

What a Down Round Does to Existing Shareholders (Beyond the Headline Number)

A lower valuation is the least of it. Anti-dilution ratchets, reset option strike prices, and a reshuffled liquidation waterfall change what every share class is actually worth.

July 20, 2026 · 6 min read

The Rise of Secondary Marketplaces, and What They Still Can’t Do

Forge, EquityZen, Nasdaq Private Market, and Hiive made buying a slice of a private company a few clicks away. They still can’t make a company sell you its consent.

July 19, 2026 · 7 min read

How Institutional LPs Decide Whether to Sell or Hold a Fund Stake

Selling a fund interest at a discount to NAV looks like leaving money on the table — until you model out the actual cash-flow alternative. The framework LPs actually use.

July 18, 2026 · 7 min read

Why GP-Led Deals Have Grown Faster Than LP-Led Ones

LP-led secondaries built the market. GP-led continuation vehicles have grown faster in most recent years. The structural reasons why, and what it signals about fund managers’ own incentives.

July 17, 2026 · 8 min read

The Due Diligence Checklist a Secondary Buyer Actually Uses

No board seat, no negotiated information rights, and a security that might be common stock behind a large preference stack. What a disciplined buyer checks before wiring money anyway.

July 16, 2026 · 7 min read

What Happens to Secondary Buyers When a Company Finally IPOs

An IPO is the payoff every secondary buyer is underwriting toward — but lock-ups, share-class conversion, and the first few months of public trading determine whether that payoff is real.

July 15, 2026 · 8 min read

How Secondary Shares Are Actually Priced

There is no ticker for private stock. The last-round anchor, the standard 10–30% discount, why a few names clear at premiums — the mechanics of the negotiation.

July 15, 2026 · 7 min read

Employee Tender Offers, Explained

The standard way private companies now give staff liquidity: how the window works, who sets the price, what sellers give up, and the questions to ask before the deadline.

July 15, 2026 · 7 min read

The Rise of Dedicated Secondary Funds

Record secondary volumes needed a professional buyer side. Who these funds are, how they underwrite, and why their dry powder now sets the tone of the whole market.

July 13, 2026 · 7 min read

Common Stock vs. Preferred Stock: Why the Same Company’s Shares Trade at Different Prices

Two shareholders in the same company, at the same moment, can hold stakes worth meaningfully different amounts per share. The liquidation waterfall is the reason, and it only shows up when you model an actual exit.

July 11, 2026 · 6 min read

How Tender Offer Proration Actually Works (and Why Popular Tenders Shortchange Sellers)

The more oversubscribed a tender is, the less of your requested sale you actually get to complete. What proration formulas look like in practice, and how to plan around one.

July 9, 2026 · 7 min read

Reading a Company’s 409A Like a Buyer Does

A low 409A relative to the last preferred round isn’t bad news by itself — it’s a data point about the liquidation stack ahead of common stock. How a sophisticated buyer actually reads that ratio.

July 8, 2026 · 7 min read

What It Means for Investors When Companies Stay Private Longer

If the best growth companies aren't listing for a decade or more, the old playbook of "wait for the IPO" doesn't work. What that shift actually requires of investors.

July 6, 2026 · 7 min read

The Information Asymmetry Problem in Every Secondary Deal, and How Buyers Manage It

The seller almost always knows more than the buyer. Rather than pretending that gap away, disciplined buyers price it, structure around it, or refuse the deal entirely.

July 3, 2026 · 7 min read

What Secondary Pricing Data Reveals Before a Company’s Next Primary Round

Marketplace prints and tender pricing move before headline funding announcements do. What a widening or narrowing secondary discount actually predicts, and what it doesn’t.

June 30, 2026 · 6 min read

Why Some Companies Ban Secondary Sales Entirely (and What Sellers Do Anyway)

A blanket transfer restriction doesn’t stop every seller from finding a workaround — it just pushes the transaction into riskier, less transparent structures. What that actually looks like.

June 27, 2026 · 6 min read

The Career Case for (and Against) Selling Early in a Tender Offer

Selling now locks in a known number. Holding bets on a future price you can’t verify. A framework for making that call deliberately instead of by default.

June 24, 2026 · 8 min read

Staying Private and Selling Secondaries vs. Going Public: The Real Trade-offs

For a company deciding how to give shareholders liquidity, an IPO and a secondary program solve the same problem in very different ways. Here's the honest comparison.

June 20, 2026 · 7 min read

How Fund-of-Funds and Secondary Funds Actually Make Money

A discount to NAV isn’t automatically a profit. The fee structure, carry mechanics, and portfolio-construction discipline that turn a discounted purchase into an actual return for LPs.

June 13, 2026 · 6 min read

What a Wide Bid-Ask Spread Tells You About a Private Company

Public markets compress the bid-ask spread to pennies. Private secondaries routinely run 15-30% wide — and the width itself is a signal worth reading before it narrows.

June 2, 2026 · 7 min read

Why Companies Are Staying Private Longer

The median time from founding to IPO has stretched dramatically. What changed — regulation, capital availability, and a private market that now does what public markets used to.