[andrew311]

Selling private shares / options on the secondary market is near impossible if the company isn’t on something like SecondMarket. Right of First Refusal, Co-sale Agreements, and the challenges of sharing information with a 3rd party make this difficult. That said, has anyone succeeded and written about their experience?

[spurdoman77]

If company is valuable enough smart investors will flock around the shareholders who even have very minor ownership. I was sceptical at first but then saw it happening with a profitable company I was following. I thought people were stuck with their shares, but since the company was profitable it attracted investors looking for better returns than public stocks.

[ska]

People show up when the risk gets low enough.

[djannzjkzxn]

It’s hard in theory, easy in practice if your options are worth millions. I have friends who did it. I don’t know too many of the details but they made some kind of contract with a financial firm to sell the upside from the stock without actually “selling” the stock. The fees are not terrible, like single digit percentages. These firms don’t want to talk to you if you have a small amount of equity because it isn’t worth the overhead to make a transaction.

[tempsy]

No it’s not. If that were true none of these marketplaces would exist.

[andrew311]

I should clarify that it is certainly doable for widely recognized companies, but it’s very difficult for the majority of startups that no one has heard of even if they have some success. Also, getting on these marketplaces also goes much better with company cooperation and many startups don’t have the time or willingness.