Fund/Build/Scale Don’t Wait for the IPO: How Tech Employees Actually Get Liquid
Startup employees are encouraged to believe in the mission. But IPO timelines now stretch well past a decade — and many never happen at all.
In this episode, Ben Black, co-founder and managing director of Akkadian Ventures, explains how tech workers can think more strategically about the equity they’ve helped create.
Drawing on more than 750 secondary transactions, Ben walks through how employees can evaluate a company’s liquidity posture before accepting an offer, exercise options intelligently, understand the real value of their shares, and access secondary buyers — whether through structured programs or more proactive approaches.
We also dig into the psychological side of selling: when to take money off the table, how to avoid overestimating future upside, and why “loyalty” shouldn’t mean ignoring your own financial reality.
Ben shares real-world examples of employees using secondaries to fund major life events — and even to bootstrap their own companies so they can retain more ownership and control from day one.
Founders and VCs get a lot of attention for the risks they take. This episode is about the people who often take just as much risk with far less margin for error.
* Information offered is for educational purposes and should not be considered financial advice.
RUNTIME 52:37 BREAKDOWN(2:12) How Ben got into the secondary market and founded Akkadian
(5:33) “The vast majority of really good companies now have secondary programs.”
(8:39) Secondaries generate “a very significant part of the return of the large funds.”
(9:57) Why are most companies still on a four-year vesting cliff?
(12:55) Things to consider when you’re 25% vested
(15:22) Why so many tech workers never exercise their vested options
(16:49) A framework for identifying the *right* time to sell
(21:26) How to access the secondary market if your company doesn’t offer a structured program
(30:09) “I do see a lot of bad behavior among employees… using information that they’re not supposed to use.”
(32:06) Startup employees: cultivate a strong relationship with your CFO
(34:08) The #1 reason why employees sell secondaries (and a few edge cases)
(38:44) “You have to be really skeptical, and you need to take a lot of shots on goal.”
(45:11) How many founders are bootstrapping startups using the secondary market?
(48:44) How long does it take to get liquid?
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Thanks for listening!
– Walter.