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Roughly 18 months ago, growth equity investors got crushed by the tech market collapse. Valuations have plummeted by 30, 40, and even 50%, and dealmaking has come to a near standstill, but my guest today on Dry Powder believes that the waiting game may soon be over.
“We’re already seeing a great valuation reset,” says Tom Callahan, the CEO of Nasdaq Private Market. “Assets need to clear the market at where the market is today, not where it was two years ago. So the valuation disconnect is really starting to close.”
Today on the show, I ask Tom how the secondaries market enables investors to find creative solutions to the bid-ask spread problem. We also explore whether the valuation crisis could accelerate the growth of secondaries transactions and truly unlock liquidity at scale.
“It’s really a market that is in desperate, desperate need of maturity, infrastructure, and standardization,” Tom says. “One of my board members has called this the Mount Everest of structure challenges, and for me, honestly, it was just too good of an opportunity to pass up.”