Karri Saarinen’s Post

🚀 In the fast-paced world of #innovation and #growth, it's tempting to push boundaries and exploit every data point for gain. This is a good reminder why ethics can't be an afterthought in our quest for growth. Carta, the renowned cap table management service, recently made waves – not for innovation, but for overreaching. They emailed angel investors directly, without notifying the startups involved. A bold move? Absolutely. But at what cost to trust and integrity? In the hustle of running experiments and breaking new ground, here's a lesson: Ethical use of data isn't just a compliance checkbox; it's the cornerstone of sustainable innovation. 🤔 Imagine if Carta had taken a different route. An ethical outreach campaign, perhaps? One that added real value for both startups and their investors. A campaign rooted in transparent communication, where permission isn’t assumed but asked for. That’s the kind of innovation that builds, not erodes trust. As our 2024 revenue plans are being finalized, reviewed, re-built and your company is looking for "big ideas" let's anchor ourselves with this principle: Integrity is non-negotiable. Let’s innovate responsibly, ensuring our growth tactics always align with our values. #ResponsibleInnovation #innovation #growthmarketing

Ethics is the most important thing in business. Mutual respect is a part of ethical behaviour and win-win strategies. Though the plan of initiating transactions with their customers' shares and making some money from the brokerage is creative for the business of Carta, it should be executed only after getting consent from their customers, like Linear. Karri Saarinen explained why he never consents to this: - because for private companies relationships between shareholders are crucial for business success. From my experience, 99% of founders feel the same. Therefore, creativity must be limited by ethics. Otherwise, the reputation will be ruined in a wink.

Make no mistake Carta’s goal as stated by their CEO is to facilitate private liquidity by becoming a stock exchange. If you are hiring them for cap table saas keep in mind your vendor’s stated objective is not aligned with yours. This is one of the many reasons a group of talented lawyers, founders, investors and other ecosystem leaders founded https://getwalter.com  - we provide cap table software ( far more than just cap table functionality)  If you’re tired of working with Carta - drop us a line we would love to earn your business.

Attention all Founders using Carta to manage your cap-table. From the below post it appears that Carta on its own has initiated outreach to publicly unknown investors regarding sale of secondaries in a specific start-up. Please DM me if you have experienced anything similar.

Carta has struggled with this inherent conflict between its main business and its secondary market ambitions ever since the very beginning when they pitched investors re:building a liquidity platform with CartaX. You need to ask for permission when you are the cap table manager. Otherwise you kill the trust with your clients. #confidentiality #inherentconflictofinterest The new model doesn’t change the conflict. Businesses are built based on trust.