Exit your startup investment without waiting for the exit.

Price discovery without an exchange

With no ticker to consult, a secondary price is triangulated from a handful of reference points: the price per share of the most recent funding round, any secondary trades that have printed since, how the business has performed since that round, and the depth of current buyer demand. Each reference gets adjusted — a round price is for preferred stock with investor protections, while a secondary buyer typically receives equity without those rights, which alone justifies a gap.

The result is a range, not a number. Where in the range your trade lands depends on negotiation, urgency on both sides, and the block itself. Sellers anchored to a headline round valuation often wait months for a price the market never offers; sellers who start from a realistic range close in weeks.

Block size cuts both ways

A very small stake can be uneconomic for institutional buyers to diligence — the fixed cost of legal work and transfer mechanics doesn't shrink with the ticket. A very large stake can exceed what the market absorbs at one price. The attractive middle is why pooled sales work: several angels or employees selling together create a block that clears diligence economics and gives a fund a meaningful position in one transaction.

If your stake is small, ask about pooling. If it's large, expect the conversation to include tranching — selling in stages as demand allows — rather than a single print.

The shareholders' agreement: read it before buyers do

Every serious buyer will read the SHA and the articles before wiring money, so you should know what they'll find. The clauses that shape a secondary:

• Right of first refusal (ROFR): existing shareholders may match your buyer's price. It adds weeks to the timeline but rarely blocks a sale — you get paid the same either way.
• Board or company consent to transfer: usually procedural, occasionally discretionary. Best surfaced early, not at signing.
• Tag-along rights: other shareholders may be entitled to join your sale on the same terms — relevant if your buyer has a fixed budget.
• Lock-ins and vesting clawbacks: founder and employee shares sometimes carry time-based restrictions that a transfer cannot override.

Why confidentiality is a feature, not a nicety

A stake shopped loudly — posted in forums, mass-messaged to dealer groups — gets marked down. Buyers infer distress, the company's founders hear about it secondhand, and competing intermediaries quote against each other with your position. A targeted process inverts this: a small number of matched, verified buyers approached quietly, with the company brought in exactly when the SHA requires and not before.

This is also relationship preservation. Founders remember which early backers exited cleanly through a proper process and which created noise. If you plan to invest in this ecosystem again, how you exit matters almost as much as that you exited.

From accepted offer to money in the bank

Once terms are agreed, the close is mechanical but precise: KYC on both sides, a share purchase agreement recording price and warranties, any ROFR notices served and their windows run, board approval where required, then the off-market demat transfer with stamp duty paid. Payment reaches your verified bank account within T+2 working days of the transfer. Physical share certificates, if that's what you hold, must be dematerialised first — start that early, it is routinely the slowest step in the whole chain.