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Carta doing unsolicited tender offer outreach to their customers' investors

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Re: Carta doing unsolicited tender offer outreach to their customers' investors

#31

Post by candiddevmike »

eastdakota wrote: post #29

This is so awful. Carta is the Facebook of B2B software (i.e., hoover up user data then find lots of ways your users don’t expect to monetize it). Their business model has always been premised on a bait-and-switch. It’s how they’ve justified their crazy high valuations (e.g., “Imagine it we could create the largest market for private securities!! We’ll be rich!!!”). Otherwise, the market for cap table management just…

What's wrong about folks selling shares they own? Maybe it's bad for the founders, but there's always a good chance these employees may not see a real liquidity event.

Re: Carta doing unsolicited tender offer outreach to their customers' investors

#32

Post by xyzzy_plugh »

Bizarre. Carta has an opt-in liquidity program that I'd expect to be the source of this type of offer, but doesn't fit the case here.

I'm guessing someone fucked up and should not have considered this particular investor for a tender. I'm willing to give Carta the benefit of the doubt here, that this is a one-off fuck up (this type of offer being a human-managed process wouldn't surprise me as it's typically high-touch).

Because if it isn't, and it is systemic, then Carta has fired their cannons into their own hull.

Re: Carta doing unsolicited tender offer outreach to their customers' investors

#33

Post by xyzzy_plugh »

candiddevmike wrote: post #31
eastdakota wrote: post #29

This is so awful. Carta is the Facebook of B2B software (i.e., hoover up user data then find lots of ways your users don’t expect to monetize it). Their business model has always been premised on a bait-and-switch. It’s how they’ve justified their crazy high valuations (e.g., “Imagine it we could create the largest market for private securities!! We’ll be rich!!!”). Otherwise, the market for cap table management just…

What's wrong about folks selling shares they own? Maybe it's bad for the founders, but there's always a good chance these employees may not see a real liquidity event.

It's wrong for Carta to market your investment details to solicit a deal without your consent.

Re: Carta doing unsolicited tender offer outreach to their customers' investors

#34

Post by patrickhogan1 »

eastdakota wrote: post #29

This is so awful. Carta is the Facebook of B2B software (i.e., hoover up user data then find lots of ways your users don’t expect to monetize it). Their business model has always been premised on a bait-and-switch. It’s how they’ve justified their crazy high valuations (e.g., “Imagine it we could create the largest market for private securities!! We’ll be rich!!!”). Otherwise, the market for cap table management just…

Upvoted this because this comment is from the CEO & co-founder of CloudFare - a public company. He clearly knows about liquidity going from private to public.

Agree on the need for founders to guard their cap table, especially against strategic moves by competitors.

Regarding better liquidity for employees, it's great that companies are exploring options. Carta is in a unique position to lead this. But it's key that both the company and investors opt-in (not buried in a ToS).

Re: Carta doing unsolicited tender offer outreach to their customers' investors

#35

Post by alsodumb »

I've spent quite a bit of time on HN frontpage, and I feel like the trajectory this post is taking in the feed order is weird, it should be near the top, as it was a while ago.

Right now it's ranked 27, and there are many posts ranked higher than this that have fewer upvotes, fewer comments, and were posted before this point (assuming being recent, having high upvotes, and number of comments are used in ranking on the frontpage).

Re: Carta doing unsolicited tender offer outreach to their customers' investors

#36

Post by alsodumb »

acjohnson55 wrote: post #22

I guess we'll see what Carta has to say for themselves, but seems like it could be a continuation of the lack of organizational discipline they've demonstrated in recent times. This is a really bad look, and given Carta's inability to add significantly more value beyond basic cap table and employee equity management, I wonder if the days are numbered before other companies supplant them, such as Pulley.

I am surprised they didn't respond yet tbh, and this makes me think that it wasn't a simple oopsy.

Re: Carta doing unsolicited tender offer outreach to their customers' investors

#37

Post by xyzzy_plugh »

eastdakota wrote: post #29

This is so awful. Carta is the Facebook of B2B software (i.e., hoover up user data then find lots of ways your users don’t expect to monetize it). Their business model has always been premised on a bait-and-switch. It’s how they’ve justified their crazy high valuations (e.g., “Imagine it we could create the largest market for private securities!! We’ll be rich!!!”). Otherwise, the market for cap table management just…

What's the alternative? Solium with their Shareworks service, now under Morgan Stanley, did much of the same thing. You think Morgan Stanley isn't making informed bets off that data?

I could agree that Carta may be doing it to an extreme but it's far from unprecedented.

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