Talk Your Book: Investing in Start-Up Equity

Animal Spirits Podcast

The Compound

News, Business News, Business, Investing

4.8 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 18 October 2025

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On this episode of Animal Spirits: Talk Your Book, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Michael Batnick⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Ben Carlson⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ are joined by Dave Thornton from Vested to discuss: abandoned start-up shares, diversification in venture capital, helping start-up employees and the complications involved with exercising options. For more information on Vested, email them at [email protected] Find complete show notes on our blogs... Ben Carlson’s ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠A Wealth of Common Sense⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Michael Batnick’s ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Irrelevant Investor⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Feel free to shoot us an email at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ with any feedback, questions, recommendations, or ideas for future topics of conversation. Check out the latest in financial blogger fashion at The Compound shop: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://idontshop.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Investing involves the risk of loss. This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be or regarded as personalized investment advice or relied upon for investment decisions. Michael Batnick and Ben Carlson are employees of Ritholtz Wealth Management and may maintain positions in the securities discussed in this video. All opinions expressed by them are solely their own opinion and do not reflect the opinion of Ritholtz Wealth Management. See our disclosures here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://ritholtzwealth.com/podcast-youtube-disclosures/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ The Compound Media, Incorporated, an affiliate of ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Ritholtz Wealth Management⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, receives payment from various entities for advertisements in affiliated podcasts, blogs and emails. Inclusion of such advertisements does not constitute or imply endorsement, sponsorship or recommendation thereof, or any affiliation therewith, by the Content Creator or by Ritholtz Wealth Management or any of its employees. For additional advertisement disclaimers see here ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://ritholtzwealth.com/advertising-disclaimers⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Animal Spirits, a show about markets, life, and investing.
0:09.0	Join Michael Batnik and Ben Carlson as they talk about what they're reading, writing, and watching.
0:14.2	All opinions expressed by Michael and Ben are solely their own opinion and do not reflect the opinion of Ridholt's wealth management.
0:20.5	This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon for any investment
0:25.2	decisions. Clients of Ridholt's wealth management may maintain positions in the securities
0:29.5	discussed in this podcast. Today's Animal Spirits Talkin book is brought to you by Vested.
0:37.5	On today's show, we are talking with Dave Thornton.
0:39.8	Dave is the co-founder, CEO, and chief investment officer of Vested, which is a company
0:45.0	that is helping venture-back startup companies, their employees, exercise their options
0:51.1	when they leave the company.
0:53.3	And he is raising money through investment funds
0:57.1	to get access to venture capital. Isn't it interesting how these new ideas or these new services
1:04.5	or funds kind of come about just because of the need. Like this is a solution that didn't exist
1:09.7	10, 20 years ago or whatever
1:11.0	and maybe didn't have a market for it. Now it's just the thing that people need.
1:14.7	Yeah, one of the things that we didn't ask him on the show was when did they, when did they start
1:19.9	doing this? And this is not, I think, what did Dave said they are? This is their fifth fund.
1:24.6	I mean, this is not brand fund. So, yeah, they've been doing it for a while. And it's interesting.
1:27.7	The idea is, yeah, there's some people who have shares in a startup.
1:46.5	And because typically in a startup, you don't get a big cash salary, right? The whole idea is the whole company is a call option. And so your options are, that's like your payout someday, hopefully, if it works. so a lot of people can't afford the options if they leave the company or if they're investing in a certain amount of time.
1:44.9	And vested steps in with their investors and
1:49.4	helps them essentially buy those options for a price. So they provide capital to the employees
	...

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