Company-Led Secondaries Become Venture's Liquidity Layer as Private Lives Outrun Fund Lives, NewView's Viswanathan Argues

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What's New

Venture's liquidity will increasingly come from tenders that CEOs control rather than from IPOs, because companies now stay private 13 to 14 years while funds last 10 to 12. Ravi Viswanathan, Founder and Managing Partner of NewView Capital, argues this in a podcast on How I Invest. The GP-led and LP-led secondaries that dominate the narrative are point-in-time trades; the structural shift is companies taking command of their cap tables and choosing long-term capital partners to buy out employees, early founders, and early institutions. More than 95% of NewView's deals are blessed directly by the CEO. Investors who want exposure to the 20 to 40 iconic companies beneath OpenAI, Anthropic, and SpaceX should expect to enter through this channel, on the company's terms.

Why It Matters

The consensus is that three generational IPOs will refill the DPI well and reset the venture flywheel. Viswanathan agrees they will help and argues the mismatch persists: roughly $3 trillion sits in funds past their natural life, and the founder incentive to stay private does not change. On the other side are SPV traders being publicly rejected by CFOs, and the industry habit of treating DPI as an afterthought. Viswanathan manages more than $3 billion and built NewView on a $1.35 billion buyout of some 30 NEA companies, so company-led secondaries are his product. He also concedes that a tender sized too large produces misalignment and behavioral change.

Big Picture Drivers

• Structural mismatch: Private company life has nearly doubled from 7 to 8 years a decade ago to 13 to 14 years. Fund terms stayed at 10 to 12. Something has to give, and forced IPOs or forced sales are the worst way for it to give.

• Pressure release improves behavior: At MuleSoft 15 years ago, tacking employee tenders onto primaries boosted morale, aided retention, and led employees to sell less in later rounds once a home purchase or similar need was met. Viswanathan now uses that pattern as a hiring tool for portfolio companies.

• Founders want control, not traders: The SPV backlash is a symptom. CEOs on a long journey want to know who owns their stock. Company-led tenders with dashboards on tenure and percentage of vested equity, typically 10 to 30%, give them that control.

• Primary capital makes the secondary strategic: NewView keeps about 25% of capital for primaries so it enters as a long-term partner rather than a transactional buyer, and can add value across the cap table.

• DPI must move up the font size: Viswanathan describes an industry that reported multiple in 50-point type, IRR in 24-point, and DPI in 6-point. LPs whose credit and buyout managers returned capital are forcing a normalization, even if the Swensen-era 24% annual DPI is unattainable.

• Continuation vehicles are gated by registration: CVs reached $110 billion in buyout, but fewer than 10% of venture firms are registered investment advisers, so the tool is mostly available to the mega-funds. For the rest, NAV concentration in one or two names and partner bandwidth push toward partial sales instead.

By The Numbers

• 13 to 14 years: Current average private company life, up from 7 to 8 a decade ago.

• ~$3 trillion: Capital in venture funds past their 10-year term.

• 9%: DPI in 2024 and again roughly in 2025, the lowest since 2000, versus 24% in the original Swensen model, per the host.

• 95%+: NewView deals approved directly by the company's CEO.

• 10 to 30%: Share of vested equity employees are typically allowed to sell in a well-designed tender.

• <10%: Venture firms registered as RIAs and therefore able to run continuation vehicles.

Key Trends to Watch

• Tenders spreading below the top tier: Company-led liquidity started at OpenAI and Anthropic scale and is moving down-market. Watch how many Series C to E companies run structured employee tenders in the next two years.

• Partial sales by 10-year-old funds: GPs holding $200 to $300 million positions in the 20 to 40 companies behind the mega-IPOs will sell down to show DPI and rebalance NAV. Viswanathan reads their reluctance to sell more than he wants as a positive signal on the assets.

• A generational handoff of portfolios: Retiring GPs will hand over or sell company stakes. Watch whether bandwidth, not only liquidity, drives secondary volume.

• Zombie sorting from 2021: Capital masked product-market fit during the boom. The long tail of 2021 vintages will resolve into zombies, while well-run pre-2023 companies using AI as a tailwind separate from them.

Memorable Quotes

• "We don't want traders. We don't want folks that we don't know who they are because this is a long journey." The founder view that turns secondaries into a partner-selection exercise.

• "Multiple was 50 point font, IRR was 24 point font and DPI is six point font." How venture presented its metrics before LPs pushed back.

• "Capital masked product market fit." The 2021 problem that now produces zombies.

• "Venture is, was and will be a relationship business." What compounded most over 25 years, and why transactional secondary buyers lose access.

The Wrap

The thesis holds if company-led tenders keep growing as a share of venture liquidity, if CEOs keep favoring known capital partners over open SPV markets, and if DPI normalizes upward without funds shrinking their fundraising to match. It also holds if the IPOs of OpenAI, Anthropic, and SpaceX refill LP pockets without shortening the private life of the next cohort. It fails if a durable IPO window reopens and companies list at year 7 again, if regulators loosen CV access so that continuation vehicles displace company-led deals, or if oversized tenders produce the misalignment Viswanathan warns of. The 2026 to 2028 liquidity mix, measured by how the 20 to 40 companies behind the mega-IPOs return capital, will tell.