Carta doing unsolicited tender offer outreach to their customers' investors • Hacker News Board

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

#81

Post by liamwestray » Sun, Jan 07, 2024, 5:59 PM UTC

zerothOffset wrote: post #65

adoxyz wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Companies typically use Carta to manage their cap table, shares, and overall ownership of the company. This requires a high level of trust as there is a lot of financial information at stake. Carta seems to be taking this confidential information and is potentially sharing it with other investors and soliciting investors to sell their shares. This is a big no-no.

Same can be said about JP Morgan who solicts you with credit card offers and other financial products no? They know where you live and how much is your credit score you bank balance

None of those things have a material effect on anyone by JP Morgan.

The “service” Carta is selling here is your company to other people.

Given 99% of private companies have specific limitations on not being able to do this with a company’s securities, this almost certainly runs afoul of SEC, FINRA, and other fraud regulations.

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

#82

Post by mcny » Mon, Jan 08, 2024, 9:57 AM UTC

zerothOffset wrote: post #60

enra wrote: post #43

I'm OP on the tweet. To clarify on some points why I think this is wrong: Private companies generally don't want or allow secondary transactions. Every good company wants to manage their cap table and who is on it. Every shareholder has some level of rights and sometimes you need their signatures on things. A problematic shareholder can cause a lot of problems that are time consuming to the company. Companies do offe…

Thanks. Looks like some eager sales person. Info on price is available on multiple platforms. In fact some of your investors could be buyers. I am a Carta user and my investors did not get any if these emails (I checked). My customer success person at said carta markets new products/service so maybe just opt out of emails/do not contact.

I don't have any private information but I am convinced it is NOT just one rogue employee. The company is clearly throwing this person under the bus. You're in denial.

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

#83

Post by etodemerzel » Mon, Jan 08, 2024, 5:58 PM UTC

acjohnson55 wrote: post #76

alsodumb wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Their CEO's response is truly something to behold https://twitter.com/henrysward/status/1743794996732735679

the guy is toxic. https://sfstandard.com/2023/10/25/carta-san-francisco-lawsui...

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

#84

Post by oakhaven » Mon, Jan 08, 2024, 9:00 PM UTC

Why does Carta have Linear CAP table? I mean what service they're offering that it's worth for startups to have this info managed by other party? CAP table sounds like sth that could be stored in a spreadheet.

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

#85

Post by oakhaven » Mon, Jan 08, 2024, 9:03 PM UTC

oakhaven wrote: post #84

Why does Carta have Linear CAP table? I mean what service they're offering that it's worth for startups to have this info managed by other party? CAP table sounds like sth that could be stored in a spreadheet.

The video didn't convince me, looks like a toothpaste ad https://carta.com/blog/what-is-a-cap-table/

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

#86

Post by oakhaven » Mon, Jan 08, 2024, 9:08 PM UTC

oakhaven wrote: post #85

oakhaven wrote: post #84

Why does Carta have Linear CAP table? I mean what service they're offering that it's worth for startups to have this info managed by other party? CAP table sounds like sth that could be stored in a spreadheet.

The video didn't convince me, looks like a toothpaste ad https://carta.com/blog/what-is-a-cap-table/

.. but they seem upfront about it:

"At the end of the day, the consequences of having a poorly managed CAP table, are the exact things that the startup founders have nightmares about"

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

#87

Post by siegel » Wed, Jan 10, 2024, 7:29 PM UTC

scjody wrote: post #25

scjody wrote: post #21

Does anyone have experience with a competitor that they like? Ledgy?

Pulley is mentioned a few times in the thread; seems legit but again I'm curious if anyone here has used any of these alternatives.

We have a lot of clients who happily use Pulley. I believe they are a YC company themselves. I don't have a dog in this fight. But there are plusses and minuses to these various solutions. Carta is not the be all and end all.