Illiquidity
99%

Share of founders who never receive personal liquidity from their startup. A decade or more paper rich, cash poor.

Henry Ward · Carta

The wealth is real. The access is not.

Don't get carried away. Get carried forward.

Aclarys is the Fund of Founders. Pooled credit, not pooled equity. No ownership transfer.
No board approval.

Senior debt to TradFi. Junior debt to DeFi.
Problem · 01

The dilution is structural. The wait outlasts the team.

Median Series B founder ownership is 21.8%. By Series D it is 10.4%. Median time from Seed to Series D is 8 years. By that point the employees you hired hold more of the company than you do.

By Series C, the median employee option pool overtakes the founder's stake.
Employees 16.82%. Founders 16.10%. The people you hired now own more of the company than you do – and the gap widens by Series D.
The founder's slice shrinks with every round
Median equity share by stakeholder
Founders
Employee pool
New investors
Prior investors
Seed
54.8%
12.1%
20.6%
12.5%
Series A
35.6%
14.4%
20.0%
30.0%
Series B
21.8%
15.6%
16.5%
46.1%
Series C
16.1%
16.8%
12.6%
54.5%
Series D
10.4%
18.2%
10.2%
61.2%
Employees overtake founders by Series C
Founders vs employee pool, median equity
60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% Seed Series A Series B Series C Series D 54.8% 35.6% 21.8% 16.1% 10.4% 12.1% 14.4% 15.6% 16.8% 18.2%
Founders
Employee pool
Source: Carta · a16z
Product · 02

Fund of Founders. One asset, two markets.

Pooled tokenised credit, issued against unrealised founder equity. Settles through regulated infrastructure. Clears institutional credit diligence on its own terms.

01 · Origination

Founders pledge on their terms.

A defined share of future exit proceeds, or a fixed coupon on the amount advanced. Founder's choice at signing.

No ownership transfer. No board approval. Tax defers to the liquidity event, subject to your jurisdiction.

02 · Issuance

Independently priced. Pooled. Audited.

Six to ten founders per pool. Methodology auditable and repeatable per portfolio company.

Issued on regulated rails. Diversified by stage, sector, and exit horizon.

03 · Distribution

Institutional today. Accredited tomorrow.

Family offices and credit funds for the senior tranche. Phased access for the junior tranche through regulated venues.

Senior debt to TradFi. Junior debt to DeFi.
Mechanics · 03

Cash moves. Shares stay.

Three steps on the founder side. Founders contract with the SPV. The SPV pools across founders and distributes to buyers separately. The two sides never meet.

01 · Join the pool

Six to ten founders.
Constructed, not assembled.

Each pool is curated for stage, sector, and exit horizon. Composition locked at issuance.

Pools diversify for buyers, not against founders.

02 · Elect the pledge

A defined share, or a fixed coupon.

One-time election at signing. Priced transparently at origination. Settles at the liquidity event.

Founder choice. Both legs priced at origination.

03 · Receive the cash

Settles within weeks of pool close.

Founder identities stay private throughout. The stake on the cap table is untouched.

Cash is received against a pledge of future proceeds, not in exchange for shares.

Pricing is methodology-led. Each company in the pool is modelled per its cap table, peer set, and exit-horizon distribution.

No flat discounts. No 409A pass-throughs. No single-broker quotes.

Indicative figures available in conversation under NDA.

Coming soon

Founder Calculator

Two elections. One number that matters.

Because doing this in a spreadsheet at 2am is no way to live.

Audience · 04

Three sides. One instrument.

Aclarys originates the pool. Founders supply the underlying. Institutional buyers take the senior tranche. The junior tranche is where the bridge thesis becomes a product.

Founders

Series A or later.
Venture-backed.

Founders of venture-backed private companies, Series A or later, with material personal equity exposure and no near-term liquidity event. Founders contract with the SPV, not with buyers.

Identity stays private through origination, issuance, and reporting.

Senior tranche

Institutional
credit allocators.

Family offices, niche-asset private credit funds, and insurance balance sheets seeking yield against a non-correlated underlying.
First claim on aggregate pool cashflows.

Underwritten on credit-fund terms.

Junior tranche

Real-economy yield,
on-chain.

Where Aclarys bridges to DeFi-native distribution. Operators, post-exit founders, and accredited investors take residual claim on pool cashflows with equity-shaped exposure.

Phased access through regulated venues post-seed. The junior tranche is the moat, not the afterthought.

Waitlist · 05

One email when it matters.

First-pool conversations are running through summer 2026. Founders, credit allocators, accredited investors, or anyone with a clear reason to be on this list – tell us in a sentence.

Indicative figures available in conversation under NDA after sign-up.

By joining you agree to us storing your details to send you updates about Aclarys. We will never share your data with third parties. You can unsubscribe at any time by emailing denis@aclarys.com.