The founder of Carta dissects the pitch decks that helped him raise $448 million
Carta was conceived over lunch at a Thai restaurant.
CEO Henry Ward was there with Manu Kumar, an investor at the venture-capital firm K9 Ventures. Kumar had backed Ward's last startup, Second Sight, a suite of investment tools that was, in Ward's words, an "absolute failure."
For whatever reason, Kumar still believed in Ward. And now he had a new idea for him.
Ward recalled to Business Insider how Kumar wondered why he still got a paper stock certificate in the mail when he invested in a private company. Investing in public companies was so much easier.Ward was a "finance guy," Kumar reasoned, referring to Ward's master's degree in capital market finance. Couldn't he solve this problem?
Nearly a decade later, Carta is a $1.7 billion platform for buying and selling shares in private companies. (Kumar is a cofounder.) Carta recently closed a series E round, which brought its total funding to $448 million.
If you talk to Ward for more than a few seconds, you'll see at least one reason for Carta's explosive growth. Ward is a master salesman. He makes complex financial concepts easy to understand; he's excited to answer questions about the company that he's probably fielded 100 times before.
Ward recently participated in a Business Insider Prime webinar, where he walked through his series A and series E pitch decks. He discussed the importance of "message-market fit," how Carta raised $800,000 in three weeks, and the only reason investors will support an early-stage company.
Simply enter your email address to receive a FREE download of the full transcript of the webinar!

Uber's co-founder and former CEO Travis Kalanick sold off close to $166 million shares over the past three days, continuing to offload his stake in the ride-sharing giant

13 fascinating animal species discovered in the last decade, from the 'Wakanda' fish to the world's tiniest frog

These jobs may disappear in the coming years with the advancement in technology

If we do decide to inhabit Mars, what would happen?

Read the pitch deck that Uber founder Garrett Camp created for the ride-hailing giant back in 2008 - before the company became the $120 billion giant it is today
What is citizenship bill and how does it affect religious freedom in India?
India is slowing down so fast that even experts can’t keep up
Meet the 33-year-old Chennai techie who spotted Vikram Lander on Moon’s surface and alerted NASA
Raghuram Rajan's warning about Mudra loans last year may be coming true
Microsoft’s four-day work week idea will be good for Indians— but there is a lot to be fixed before that
Dues, death and an investigation — all that went wrong with OYO hotels in the last 6 months
Three wise men who exited Vodafone India just in time to make millions
SAIF Partners invested in Swiggy when they just had a landing page – today they are going after more seed stage startups, here’s why
SIGN IN WITH
FacebookGoogleEmail