The rise of retail investors in secondaries, and why delayed IPOs will become the norm

Equity

TechCrunch

Founders, Silicon Valley, Finance, Ipo, Vc, Technology, Business News, Startups, Business, Venture Capital, News, Stock Market, Entrepreneurship, Techcrunch

4.2 • 365 Ratings

🗓️ 30 April 2025

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Retail investors are increasingly shaping the secondary market. In Q4 2024, platforms like EquityZen reported that 86% of total transaction volume came from retail participants—an eye-catching shift as tools like Forge and EquityZen promise broader access to private shares. But does more access mean more opportunity, or more risk? Today on Equity, Rebecca Bellan is joined by Jared Carmel of Manhattan Venture Partners to dig into what he calls a “once-in-a-generation opportunity” in secondaries, and why he sees this market as a “pressure relief valve” that could keep startups private well past their startup years. Listen to the full episode to hear more about: Why a sluggish IPO market is pushing more action into secondaries How this creates a flywheel for venture capital And why Jared thinks robust secondary markets will delay (or eliminate) the need for IPOs altogether Equity is TechCrunch’s flagship podcast, produced by Theresa Loconsolo, and posts every Wednesday and Friday. Subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. For the full episode transcript, for those who prefer reading over listening, check out our full archive of episodes here. Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. We’d also like to thank TechCrunch’s audience development team. Thank you so much for listening, and we'll talk to you next time. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This episode is brought to you by Affinity, the most trusted CRM for private capital.
0:17.6	Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch's flagship podcast about the business of startups.
0:22.2	I'm Rebecca Boulon, and this is the episode where we bring on industry experts to help us explore a trend in the tech world and dive deep.
0:28.9	Today we're talking about secondaries, and according to private stock trading platform equity zen, retail investor activity in the secondary market made up 86% of total transaction volume in the fourth quarter of last year.
0:40.3	As retail investing platforms and tools like Equities and Forge Global aim to, quote, democratize access to private company opportunities,
0:47.3	we're asking, is this the beginning of a new era for retail investors, or are we underestimating how complex and risky these markets really are?
0:54.6	Today, to talk about that trend, we're joined by secondary market OG Jared Carmel.
0:58.9	He's a managing and general partner at Manhattan Venture Partners.
1:02.3	We also talked about why a slow IPO market leads to a boost in secondaries, how this creates
1:06.8	a flywheel effect in the world of venture capital, and why Jared predicts that we're going to
1:10.7	see way fewer IPOs in the future as a robust secondary market makes it easier for
1:15.3	companies to stay private. Jared, welcome to the show. Thanks so much for coming to join us.
1:23.3	Thank you for having me. Glad to be here. So you are at Manhattan Venture Partners, and you have been one of the driving forces behind institutionalizing secondaries.
1:32.7	Yes.
1:33.1	Why don't you give us a little bit of background as to why you are the perfect person to talk to about secondary market trends?
1:38.4	So, like you said, I'm Jared Carmel. I'm one of the founders of MVP, and I'm one of the GPs of our All-Star Fund.
1:44.6	Who am I? Well, I guess I'm the guy who's been around the secondary market since 2009,
1:48.5	saw the potential when it was sort of a spec on the radar, a tiny club of VCs,
1:52.6	just buying and selling shares and companies like Facebook and Twitter.
1:55.6	And then a few over-the-counter sort of trading platform started to bubble up. And I said that this thing has the potential to be a real asset class. But it's a bit of a mess and it needs to really be legitimized.
2:06.9	That's me, not really afraid to dive into the chaos, build something real. And after trying myself
2:12.5	to develop a secondary market technology platform to really democratize the space that was called Citizen
	...

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