The Augment Exchange

Part 1 was defense and The Anduril Thesis. Part 2 is Kyle the investor: founder vs. idea at Contrary, the three reasons a company opens its cap table, and why nobody is entitled to private company wealth creation. His fix is the public markets, not more SPVs. This episode is the access debate, and his dad's advice.

In this episode, Max sits down with Kyle Harrison, General Partner at Contrary. They discuss:

- Founder vs. idea: backing the person, and the pivot that made Moment

- Why a cap table opens: employee liquidity, balance sheet capital, or aligned incentives

- Anduril's views on SPVs: individual liquidity is not employee liquidity

- Thiel's line: competitive rounds are undervalued, so price buyers are the worst investors

- Adverse selection: why a top-50 list is not an asset class

- Biggest change: Fix the public markets and the startup ETF Kyle would build

ABOUT THE GUEST

Kyle Harrison is a General Partner at Contrary and the founder of Contrary Research. He invested at TCV, Coatue, and Index Ventures before joining Contrary. He co-wrote The Anduril Thesis with Sachin Maini. Contrary is an investor in Anduril, Moment, and many others.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyle-harrison-9274b278 
Company: contrary.com

OUTLINE

(00:00) Intro

(01:34) Backing the founder vs. the idea

(04:36) Moment's first idea

(06:51) SPVs: Anduril, Anthropic, OpenAI

(08:36) Why a company opens its cap table

(14:27) Max's case for access

(19:44) Debate club: entitlement

(24:25) Adverse selection in startups

(31:39) Flock Safety, pensions invested in SpaceX

(38:21) Snap your fingers: a startup ETF

(41:25) Are 75% of VCs dead yet? And Kyle’s Dad's advice

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

Contrary Research. The Anduril Thesis. Anduril. Stripe. SpaceX. Anthropic. OpenAI. Flock Safety.

FOLLOW

Max Melmed on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/max-melmed

The Augment Exchange: augment.market/exchange

Augment: augment.market

ABOUT THE SHOW

The Augment Exchange is a biweekly conversation about how private markets operate, with the people running it. Produced by Augment (augment.market), building the access and execution layer for the pre-IPO market. New episodes every other Wednesday.

DISCLAIMER

Please note that this conversation is for informational purposes only. None of the information provided represents investment advice, an offer, or the solicitation of an offer to buy or sell any security. The views expressed by guests in this video are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Augment. All views are subject to change.

Investing in private securities is speculative, illiquid, and involves substantial risk, including the potential loss of principal. Not all private companies will go public or have a liquidity event. “Pre-IPO” is used generally to describe a privately held company that may be viewed as a potential candidate for a future public offering. The term does not mean that the company has filed for, scheduled, or committed to an IPO. An IPO or other liquidity event may never occur.

Augment Markets Inc. is a technology company. Brokerage services are offered through Augment Capital LLC, member FINRA/SIPC. Investment advisory services are offered through Augment Advisors LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser. Augment Capital LLC and Augment Advisors LLC are wholly owned subsidiaries of Augment Markets Inc.

Augment Markets and/or its affiliates, employees, or clients may hold positions in securities or other financial instruments mentioned in this communication. These positions may change at any time without notice.

Nothing contained herein should be construed as investment, legal, or tax advice, or as a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any security. Recipients should conduct their own due diligence and consult their own professional advisors before making any investment decisions.

Please see Augment’s disclosures here: https://augment.market/disclosures

Kyle Harrison learned venture three ways before he joined Contrary. TCV thought like private equity, Coatue like a hedge fund, and Index like classic venture. At Contrary he founded Contrary Research and co-wrote The Anduril Thesis: a hundred years of what broke in defense, and how Anduril’s founders sought to address those issues. He believes every company is a story, and “nobody is entitled to anyone else's wealth creation.” 

In this episode, Max sits down with Kyle Harrison, General Partner at Contrary. They discuss:

- The Kill Chain: the carrier purchase that Congress could not cancel, and how cost-plus contracting can create incentives that Kyle argues may contribute to slower or more expensive procurement - From ~36% of global R&D to 1%: how the DOD lost the cutting edge, and who bought the first Sentry Tower

- Frisbees at Ferraris: exquisite vs. attritable and the economics of war, a missile in the tens of millions against a carrier in the billions

- Vannevar Bush's Memex to LLMs: the family tree from wartime research to AI

- Defense investing: ethics, deterrence and market structure:  “just war” theory, deterrence math, and from the world's police to the world's gun store

ABOUT THE GUEST

Kyle Harrison is a General Partner at Contrary and the founder of Contrary Research. He invested at TCV, Coatue, and Index Ventures before joining Contrary. He co-wrote The Anduril Thesis with Sachin Maini and writes Investing 101. Contrary is an investor in Anduril.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyle-harrison-9274b278 Company: contrary.com

OUTLINE

(01:31) Wedding videos to venture capital
(11:56) Anduril's founders and the Lindy effect
(15:26) Kill Chain, cost plus, Sentry Tower
(28:33) Vannevar Bush, the Memex, and LLMs
(33:59) Frisbees at Ferraris
(40:31) Just war and propaganda
(49:25) World's police to world's gun store
(1:02:13) Lattice and mosaic warfare

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

Anduril. The Anduril Thesis. Palmer Luckey. SpaceX. Stripe. Anthropic. OpenAI.

FOLLOW

Max Melmed on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/max-melmed

The Augment Exchange: augment.market/exchange

Augment: augment.market

ABOUT THE SHOW

The Augment Exchange is a biweekly conversation about how private markets operate, with the people running it. Produced by Augment (augment.market), building the access and execution layer for the pre-IPO market. New episodes every other Wednesday.

DISCLAIMER

Please note that this conversation is for informational purposes only. None of the information provided represents investment advice, an offer, or the solicitation of an offer to buy or sell any security. The views expressed by guests in this video are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Augment. All views are subject to change.

Investing in private securities is speculative, illiquid, and involves substantial risk, including the potential loss of principal. Not all private companies will go public or have a liquidity event. “Pre-IPO” is used generally to describe a privately held company that may be viewed as a potential candidate for a future public offering. The term does not mean that the company has filed for, scheduled, or committed to an IPO. An IPO or other liquidity event may never occur.

Augment Markets Inc. is a technology company. Brokerage services are offered through Augment Capital LLC, member FINRA/SIPC. Investment advisory services are offered through Augment Advisors LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser. Augment Capital LLC and Augment Advisors LLC are wholly owned subsidiaries of Augment Markets Inc.

Augment Markets and/or its affiliates, employees, or clients may hold positions in securities or other financial instruments mentioned in this communication. These positions may change at any time without notice.

Nothing contained herein should be construed as investment, legal, or tax advice, or as a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any security. Recipients should conduct their own due diligence and consult their own professional advisors before making any investment decisions.

Please see Augment’s disclosures here: https://augment.market/disclosures

Adam Bergman had a master's in tax law and no idea an IRA could own alternative assets. Then a client asked to put IRA money into a hedge fund, and the answer blew him away: the code never says what a retirement account can buy, only what it can't. He left Big Law and built IRA Financial on that fact. The retirement episode: the structures that move retirement money into alternatives, and the pitfalls at each step.

In this episode, Max sits down with Adam Bergman, founder of IRA Financial. They discuss:

• The Lyme story: why the cookie-cutter route does not fit everyone, in medicine or money

• Three structures: self-directed IRA, checkbook LLC, solo 401k, and who each is for

• The contribution gap: $7,500 in an IRA vs $72,000 in a solo 401k, and the UBIT trap

• Backdoor Roths: the 2010 rule change, the pro rata wrinkle, and in-kind conversions

• Peter Thiel's Roth: PayPal founders shares, and the case for going illiquid in an IRA

• Alts in 401ks: the executive order, DOL safe harbors, and why litigation kept them out

ABOUT THE GUEST

Adam Bergman is the founder of IRA Financial. A former tax and ERISA attorney at White & Case, Dewey & LeBoeuf, and Thelen, he found the space in 2008 when a client wanted a hedge fund in his IRA, and launched IRA Financial in 2010. The firm reports more than 27,000 clients and over $8 billion in assets. He has written nine books on self-directed retirement investing.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adambergman1 

Company: irafinancial.com

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

Peter Thiel. PayPal. Bitcoin. Vanguard. Schwab. Fidelity. SpaceX. Anthropic. OpenAI. Trump accounts.

FOLLOW

Max Melmed on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/max-melmed

The Augment Exchange: augment.market/exchange

Augment: augment.market

ABOUT THE SHOW

The Augment Exchange is a biweekly conversation about how private markets operate, with the people running it. Produced by Augment (augment.market), building the access and execution layer for the pre-IPO market. New episodes every other Wednesday.

DISCLAIMER

Please note that this conversation is for informational purposes only. None of the information provided represents investment advice, an offer, or the solicitation of an offer to buy or sell any security. The views expressed by guests in this video are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Augment. All views are subject to change.

Investing in private securities is speculative, illiquid, and involves substantial risk, including the potential loss of principal. Not all private companies will go public or have a liquidity event. “Pre-IPO” is used generally to describe a privately held company that may be viewed as a potential candidate for a future public offering. The term does not mean that the company has filed for, scheduled, or committed to an IPO. An IPO or other liquidity event may never occur.

Augment Markets Inc. is a technology company. Brokerage services are offered through Augment Capital LLC, member FINRA/SIPC. Investment advisory services are offered through Augment Advisors LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser. Augment Capital LLC and Augment Advisors LLC are wholly owned subsidiaries of Augment Markets Inc.

Augment Markets and/or its affiliates, employees, or clients may hold positions in securities or other financial instruments mentioned in this communication. These positions may change at any time without notice.

Nothing contained herein should be construed as investment, legal, or tax advice, or as a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any security. Recipients should conduct their own due diligence and consult their own professional advisors before making any investment decisions.

Please see Augment’s disclosures here: https://augment.market/disclosures

The better Andrew Ryan's team got at their job, the less money they made. He has spent 25 years in venture services, where two-week deliveries and a broken process were simply assumed. He kept fixing it anyway. The venture services episode: how shares move from funds into LPs' hands, and what rebuilding capital formation would take.

In this episode, Max sits down with Andrew Ryan, Managing Director of the Venture Capital Services Group at Alex. Brown, a division of Raymond James. They discuss:

• Distributions in kind: SpaceX's rolling lockup, SPVs vs. VC discretion, and why the IPO isn't your event

• The two-week myth: physical certificates, Hurricane Sandy, and same-day delivery

• A business done for free: trading net, the case for fees, and the problem with indirect pay

• Lockups, SPACs, and direct listings: what each solved and what each missed

• The rebuild: a capital formation ladder, connected ATSs, and markets as a geopolitical asset

ABOUT THE GUEST

Andrew Ryan is a Managing Director at Alex. Brown, a division of Raymond James, leading its Venture Capital Services Group. He started at Robertson Stephens in 2001, spent eight years at Jefferies, ran Deutsche Bank's venture capital services team, and joined Alex. Brown in 2016.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewlryanabvcs/

Company: alexbrown.com

OUTLINE

(00:00) What venture services actually does 
(11:35) Certificates and Hurricane Sandy 
(13:44) SpaceX lockups and distributions in kind 
(21:19) Delivery instructions, same-day stock 
(26:52) An eight-year sales cycle 
(32:58) Fixing inefficiencies, not exploiting 
(39:03) Lockups, SPACs, and direct listings 
(48:52) The right wrapper for private markets 
(58:53) A geopolitical asset 
(1:11:20) Advice for the newly liquid 
(1:23:25) Legacy: changing Wall Street 

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

Alex. Brown. Raymond James. Robertson Stephens. Jefferies. SpaceX. Uber. Fidelity. Anthropic.

FOLLOW

Max Melmed on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/max-melmed

The Augment Exchange: augment.market/exchange

Augment: augment.market

ABOUT THE SHOW

The Augment Exchange is a biweekly conversation about how private markets operate, with the people running it. Produced by Augment (augment.market), building the access and execution layer for the pre-IPO market. New episodes every other Wednesday.

DISCLAIMER

Please note that this conversation is for informational purposes only. None of the information provided represents investment advice, an offer, or the solicitation of an offer to buy or sell any security. The views expressed by guests in this video are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Augment. All views are subject to change.

Investing in private securities is speculative, illiquid, and involves substantial risk, including the potential loss of principal. Not all private companies will go public or have a liquidity event. “Pre-IPO” is used generally to describe a privately held company that may be viewed as a potential candidate for a future public offering. The term does not mean that the company has filed for, scheduled, or committed to an IPO. An IPO or other liquidity event may never occur.

Brokerage services are offered through Augment Capital LLC, member FINRA and SIPC. Investment advisory services are offered through Augment Advisors LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser. Both are wholly-owned subsidiaries of Augment Markets Inc.

Augment Markets and/or its affiliates, employees, or clients may hold positions in securities or other financial instruments mentioned in this communication. These positions may change at any time without notice.

Nothing contained herein should be construed as investment, legal, or tax advice, or as a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any security. Recipients should conduct their own due diligence and consult their own professional advisors before making any investment decisions.

Please see Augment’s disclosures here: https://augment.market/disclosures

Jeremy Neilson was pushing his child on a swing when AngelList called. The ask, in an Australian accent: can you do funds in bulk? He said yes, and the yes became Assure, the firm that ran over 9,000 SPVs before the great re-pricing of 2022 that halted SPV volume took down the firm. The SPV episode: where the structure came from, what took Assure down, and why Jeremy came back to build Sally.

In this episode, Max sits down with Jeremy Neilson, founder and CEO of Sally. They discuss:

- The origin: eight SPVs from AngelList, no website, no marketing, and a phone that would not stop ringing

- From $300,000 and six months to a few days and $8,000: the cost collapse that made SPVs mainstream

- The whipsaw: 50 employees to 215 to zero, and layoffs chasing a bottom Assure could not catch

- Four SPVs, over $400 million, 48 hours: the deal that proved what the vehicle could do

- Sally's bet: pure software, white label, recurring revenue, and every feature in code

- SPV secondaries: investors trading seats with or without permission, and pre-IPO liquidity

ABOUT THE GUEST

Jeremy Neilson is the founder and CEO of Sally, a white-labeled software platform that automates launching and administering SPVs. He ran the State of Utah's $300 million fund of funds for seven years, then co-founded Assure in 2012 and built it into one of the largest SPV administrators before shutting it down in late 2022. Sally is his return to the market he helped create.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremyneilson 

Company: sally.co

OUTLINE

(00:00) The AngelList cold call

(02:14) What is an SPV

(04:08) Eight SPVs to 9,000

(09:24) SPVs will eat the world

(16:08) The boom: 50 to 215 employees

(18:15) Chasing a bottom they could not catch

(21:10) Shutting down Assure

(28:17) Sally, the fifth iteration

(34:43) Four SPVs, $400M, 48 hours

(39:26) Software, not services

(47:05) SPVs as the liquidity layer

(54:04) Why Jeremy said yes

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

AngelList. Assure. Sally. CapLight. Forge. EquityZen. CartaX. Utah Fund of Funds.

FOLLOW

Max Melmed on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/max-melmed

The Augment Exchange: augment.market/exchange

Augment: augment.market

ABOUT THE SHOW

The Augment Exchange is a biweekly conversation about how private markets operate, with the people running it. Produced by Augment (augment.market), building the access and execution layer for the pre-IPO market. New episodes every other Wednesday.

DISCLAIMER

Please note that this conversation is for informational purposes only. None of the information provided represents investment advice, an offer, or the solicitation of an offer to buy or sell any security. All views are subject to change.

Investing in private securities is speculative, illiquid, and involves substantial risk, including the potential loss of principal. Not all private companies will go public or have a liquidity event. “Pre-IPO” is used generally to describe a privately held company that may be viewed as a potential candidate for a future public offering. The term does not mean that the company has filed for, scheduled, or committed to an IPO. An IPO or other liquidity event may never occur.

Brokerage services are offered through Augment Capital LLC, member FINRA and SIPC. Investment advisory services are offered through Augment Advisors LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser. Both are wholly-owned subsidiaries of Augment Markets Inc.

Augment Markets and/or its affiliates, employees, or clients may hold positions in securities or other financial instruments mentioned in this communication. These positions may change at any time without notice.

Nothing contained herein should be construed as investment, legal, or tax advice, or as a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any security. Recipients should conduct their own due diligence and consult their own professional advisors before making any investment decisions.

Please see Augment’s disclosures here: https://augment.market/disclosures

Walter Chen worked the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy as a lawyer. Then he quit. He built and sold iDoneThis, bootstrapped Animalz to eight figures with clients like Zapier and Airtable, then started Sacra to cover the pre-IPO market. The research episode: how Sacra covers private companies, and how investors use research in a market with limited information.

In this episode, Max sits down with Walter Chen, co-founder and CEO of Sacra. They discuss:

• Content marketing after SEO: the B2B SaaS playbook, AI-generated content, and the site that 100x'd traffic then lost 99 percent

• Coverage strategy: why Sacra goes deep on a few hundred companies while PitchBook tracks millions

• How Sacra does research: web scraping, expert interviews, an AI voice agent, and the Sacra MCP

• Why Sacra does not make buy or sell recommendations, and how AI tools personalize the research instead

• Diligence on secondaries: evaluating deals without the information rights of a traditional data room

• The dating app problem: Reddit's pre-IPO traffic spike, churn after the IPO, and building through the next cycle

Episode Outline

(00:00) Intro 

(01:21) From Lehman lawyer to bootstrapped founder 

(04:01) SEO is dead: content in the AI era 

(09:35) 600 companies deep, not 3 million wide 

(11:55) The Carta conversation that seeded Sacra 

(15:54) The ecosystem mission and founder access 

(20:43) No buy or sell calls: how Sacra adds value 

(22:54) Diligence without a data room 

(25:03) Consolidation and staying independent 

(28:34) Churn after the IPO and the SpaceX problem 

(31:02) What's next: defense, robotics, physical AI 

(36:24) Moats when the model companies move in 

(40:28) Ramp's data as an economic signal
(42:08) Magic wand: one view across every deal

(43:59) Private markets in five years

ABOUT THE GUEST

Walter Chen is the co-founder and CEO of Sacra. He started as a lawyer at Jenner & Block, then co-founded iDoneThis, a team productivity tool acquired in 2015. He founded Animalz, a content marketing agency whose clients included Zapier, Amplitude, and Airtable, and co-founded Sacra with Jan-Erik Asplund in 2020. Sacra's research now sits inside the workflows of the platforms and funds moving the pre-IPO market.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/whchen Company: sacra.com

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

Lehman Brothers. Carta. Zapier. Airtable. Amplitude. PitchBook. Ramp. Deel. Reddit. OpenAI. Anthropic. SpaceX. Anduril. The Power 20: https://augment.market/the-power-20

FOLLOW

Max Melmed on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/max-melmed

The Augment Exchange: augment.market/exchange

Augment: augment.market

ABOUT THE SHOW

The Augment Exchange is a biweekly conversation about how private markets operate, with the people running it. Produced by Augment (augment.market), building the access and execution layer for the pre-IPO market. New episodes every other Wednesday.

DISCLAIMER

Please note that this conversation is for informational purposes only. None of the information provided represents investment advice, an offer, or the solicitation of an offer to buy or sell any security. All views are subject to change. 

Investing in private securities is speculative, illiquid, and involves substantial risk, including the potential loss of principal. Not all private companies will go public or have a liquidity event. “Pre-IPO” is used generally to describe a privately held company that may be viewed as a potential candidate for a future public offering. The term does not mean that the company has filed for, scheduled, or committed to an IPO. An IPO or other liquidity event may never occur. 

Brokerage services are offered through Augment Capital LLC, member FINRA and SIPC. Investment advisory services are offered through Augment Advisors LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser. Both are wholly-owned subsidiaries of Augment Markets Inc. 

Augment Markets and/or its affiliates, employees, or clients may hold positions in securities or other financial instruments mentioned in this communication. These positions may change at any time without notice.

 Nothing contained herein should be construed as investment, legal, or tax advice, or as a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any security. Recipients should conduct their own due diligence and consult their own professional advisors before making any investment decisions.

 Please see Augment’s disclosures here: https://augment.market/disclosures

Javier Avalos co-founded Caplight to create a derivatives platform pre-IPO stock. 

To start, there was no platform, just phone calls, and buyers showed up: a handful of trades closed, and one buyer called a losing position his best trade, because according to the investor - the option contained the loss. Then 2022 hit, the callbacks stopped, and nobody could value the options or the shares under them. So, Caplight set out to build a pricing layer for private-market participants. The price discovery episode: how private companies get marked, what a record quarter of concentration says about venture, and what is missing before the market grows up.

In this episode, Max sits down with Javier Avalos, co-founder and CEO of Caplight. Based on the data from Caplight and market activity, they discuss:

• Record concentration: 60% of Q1 deployment into five companies, 90% of secondary volume in 15 names

• What could happen if large private companies such as SpaceX, Anthropic, and OpenAI eventually pursue public listings, tender offers, or other major liquidity events, and the 70 new names that traded last year

• SPVs go institutional: under 15% of volume in 2021, 70% in Q1 2026

• The options experiment: brokering pre-IPO calls by phone, and the 2022 pivot when nobody could price the underlying

• Show your work: hourly prices with a full audit trail, and why black boxes fail institutional investors

• Why 95% of firm orders are not firm: committed capital in escrow, agreed legal docs, company approval

ABOUT THE GUEST

Javier Avalos is the co-founder and CEO of Caplight. He started in investment banking at Deutsche Bank and Cowen, spent nearly four years at Forge rising to SVP of Marketplace, then co-founded Caplight with Justin Moore in 2021. Caplight offers MarketPrice, a private-company pricing data product that provides estimated pricing information for a broad set of private companies. Augment uses Caplight pricing data as one input displayed within its app.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/javier-avalos-caplight/ 

Company: caplight.com

OUTLINE

(01:12) Q1 2026: the concentration quarter
(04:13) When SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic leave
(09:47) SPVs: from taboo to 70% of volume
(13:16) The original idea: pre-IPO options
(18:28) The callbacks stop, the pivot to price
(26:42) The missing market infrastructure
(33:42) Shorting private companies
(38:13) Why 95% of firm orders are not firm
(43:16) MarketPrice as the anchor
(47:09) 40 Act funds and the NAV premium
(50:18) Does Caplight ever go public?

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

SpaceX. Anthropic. OpenAI. Andreessen Horowitz. Forge. EquityZen. Sacra. Caplight MarketPrice. The Power 20: https://augment.market/the-power-20

FOLLOW

Max Melmed on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/max-melmed

The Augment Exchange: augment.market/exchange

Augment: augment.market

ABOUT THE SHOW

The Augment Exchange is a biweekly conversation about how private markets operate, with the people running it. Produced by Augment, which provides technology, data, and affiliated brokerage services for private-market participants. New episodes every other Wednesday.

DISCLAIMER

Please note that this conversation is for informational purposes only. None of the information provided represents investment advice, an offer, or the solicitation of an offer to buy or sell any security. All views are subject to change.

Private securities are typically illiquid, have limited pricing transparency, and often require longer holding periods. These investments are available exclusively to qualified accredited investors and offer no guarantee of returns. An IPO or other liquidity event is not guaranteed. Additionally, past performance of private securities does not indicate or predict future results. Investing in private securities involves a high degree of risk, including the potential loss of all invested capital.

Augment Markets Inc. is a technology company. Brokerage services are offered through Augment Capital LLC, member FINRA/SIPC. Investment advisory services are offered through Augment Advisors LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser. Augment Capital LLC and Augment Advisors LLC are wholly owned subsidiaries of Augment Markets Inc. Please see Augment’s disclosures here: https://augment.market/disclosures

Adam Crawley has been obsessed with the markets since he was seven years old. In college, a professor insisted you can't beat the market. Adam set out to prove him wrong: from the Morgan Stanley trading floor to six years at SharesPost, then out of the industry, until Noel's cold LinkedIn found him at a martial arts retreat in Australia. The capital markets episode: how top private companies get sourced, priced, and accessed, and why liquidity is the last reason left to go public.

In this episode, Max sits down with Adam Crawley, co-founder and President of Augment. They discuss:

• Capital, branding, liquidity: the three reasons to go public, and why liquidity is the one left unsolved
• The institutional-first playbook: anchor orders, centralized flow, and retail buying on the same terms
• The Anthropic decision: the FTX estate auction, and foundational models vs. the AI periphery
• Still no market makers: ex-Citadel traders who solved the quant but not the qual, and the first year of electronic trading
• Destiny Tech 100 and Robinhood Ventures: hacking a supply-demand gap, not tracking underlying value
• The Rob Chandra method: one question for every top VC, and the biggest mistakes investors make

ABOUT THE GUEST

Adam Crawley is the co-founder and President of Augment. He started at Morgan Stanley, rising from operations in Baltimore to the headquarters trading floor in New York. He spent six years at SharesPost, one of the first online marketplaces for private securities and the firm behind Forge Global. He co-founded Augment with Noel Moldvai.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-crawley-b2146753 

Company: augment.market

OUTLINE

(00:00) Obsessed since seven, the professor's challenge

(01:40) Morgan Stanley: Baltimore ops to the floor

(04:15) SharesPost, Australia, and Noel's cold LinkedIn

(05:59) Capital, branding, liquidity

(07:23) The institutional-first playbook

(13:00) Primaries, tenders, and secondaries

(15:37) The Anthropic auction and foundational models

(19:22) Why there are no market makers

(22:56) Destiny Tech 100 and tracking the underlying

(29:15) Getting issuers on board

(32:00) The biggest mistakes investors make

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

Morgan Stanley. SharesPost. Forge. Anthropic. OpenAI. SpaceX. Stripe. Kalshi. Robinhood. Destiny Tech 100. FTX. The Power 20: https://augment.market/the-power-20

FOLLOW

Max Melmed on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/max-melmed

The Augment Exchange: augment.market/exchange

Augment: augment.market

ABOUT THE SHOW

The Augment Exchange is a biweekly conversation about how private markets operate, with the people running it. Produced by Augment (augment.market), building the access and execution layer for the pre-IPO market. New episodes every other Wednesday.

DISCLAIMER

Please note that this conversation is for informational purposes only. None of the information provided represents investment advice, an offer, or the solicitation of an offer to buy or sell any security. All views are subject to change.

Private securities are typically illiquid, have limited pricing transparency, and often require longer holding periods. These investments are available exclusively to qualified accredited investors and offer no guarantee of returns. An IPO or other liquidity event is not guaranteed. Additionally, past performance of private securities does not indicate or predict future results. Investing in private securities involves a high degree of risk, including the potential loss of all invested capital.

Augment Markets Inc. is a technology company. Brokerage services are offered through Augment Capital LLC, member FINRA/SIPC. Investment advisory services are offered through Augment Advisors LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser. Augment Capital LLC and Augment Advisors LLC are wholly owned subsidiaries of Augment Markets Inc. Please see Augment’s disclosures here: https://augment.market/disclosures

If Noel had known how hard it would be to build the infrastructure for the modern pre-IPO market, he would not have started Augment. He started it anyway. Five years and over a thousand trades later, he walks Max through how a real venue for private stock works: why his original order-book idea had to give way to a managed marketplace, what the SPV debate is really about, and the four variables (access, simplicity, transparency, liquidity) anyone trying to build for this market has to solve.

In this episode, Max sits down with Noel Moldvai, co-founder and CEO of Augment. They discuss:

• The Rubrik liquidity story: cold LinkedIn DMs, twenty brokers, and the 6% fee. All leading to the creation of Augment
• Why the order-book idea had to die: the three-sided marketplace problem (buyer, seller, company), and what a managed marketplace solves
• The four variables any real venue for private stock has to solve: access, simplicity, transparency, and liquidity
• The SPV debate, on the record: layered fees, chain of custody, and why Augment runs a 0/0 structure
• How institutional anchors give a $10,000 accredited investor institutional-level pricing
• Why the previous attempts (SharesPost, Forge, EquityZen, Carta) did not solve it: a product-and-tech vs. broker-and-banker culture clash
• The regulatory triad: broker-dealer, ATS, and registered investment advisor, and what each piece actually enables

ABOUT THE GUEST
Noel Moldvai is the co-founder and CEO of Augment. Before Augment, he spent five years at Rubrik as an early engineer and architect, joining at 23 and staying through the company's journey to being a unicorn. Before Rubrik he was a software engineer at Google, and before that a Berkeley EECS undergrad and astrophysics researcher. Augment is the company he started after selling his own Rubrik shares in 2020 and discovering the process was held together by one-person brokers, opaque pricing, and a 6% fee on his transaction.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/noelmoldvai
Company: augment.market

OUTLINE
(00:00) Intro and Noel's path: Berkeley, Google, Rubrik
(01:00) Selling Rubrik stock in 2020: cold DMs, twenty brokers, and a 6% fee
(09:00) Meeting Adam, the venture-scale question, the early build
(11:00) Why the order-book idea had to die, and what replaced it
(13:00) The four variables: access, simplicity, transparency, liquidity
(15:00) The SPV debate: Bill Gurley, layered fees, and Augment's 0/0 structure
(21:00) Who is actually trading: 80% institutional, $10K to $50M checks
(25:30) The pricing trick: institutional anchors and retail-level access
(27:00) Why this has not been solved before: product vs. broker culture
(34:00) The future: Augment behind your Fidelity, Schwab, or E-Trade account
(38:30) The regulatory triad and what 1,000 trades looks like
(41:00) Hindsight, family, and the founder reality check

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE
Rubrik. Google. UC Berkeley. SharesPost. Forge. EquityZen. Carta. SpaceX. OpenAI. Anthropic. Anduril. Kalshi. Polymarket. Robinhood. Fidelity, Schwab, E-Trade. Bill Gurley on SPVs. The JOBS Act of 2012. The Power 20 (Augment's report on the most-in-demand private companies).

FOLLOW
Max Melmed on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/max-melmed
The Augment Exchange:  augment.market/the-augment-exchange 
Augment: augment.market

ABOUT THE SHOW
The Augment Exchange is a biweekly conversation about how private markets operate, with the people running it. Produced by Augment (augment.market), building the access and execution layer for the pre-IPO market. New episodes every other Wednesday.

DISCLAIMER
Please note that this conversation is for informational purposes only. None of the information provided represents investment advice, an offer, or the solicitation of an offer to buy or sell any security. All views are subject to change.

Private securities are typically illiquid, have limited pricing transparency, and often require longer holding periods. These investments are available exclusively to qualified accredited investors and offer no guarantee of returns. An IPO or other liquidity event is not guaranteed. Additionally, past performance of private securities does not indicate or predict future results. Investing in private securities involves a high degree of risk, including the potential loss of all invested capital.

Augment Markets Inc. is a technology company. Brokerage services are offered through Augment Capital LLC, member FINRA/SIPC. Investment advisory services are offered through Augment Advisors LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser. Augment Capital LLC and Augment Advisors LLC are wholly owned subsidiaries of Augment Markets Inc. Please see Augment’s disclosures  here.