Aug 21, 2026 · 39 min
Private companies force venture capital to rethink liquidity
E419: Venture Capital Has a Liquidity Crisis
As startups stay private longer, investors are building new secondary markets and public structures to access venture returns without decade-long lockups.
- 1Longer private-company lifecycles have exposed the mismatch between venture assets and traditional ten-year fund structures.
- 2Secondary markets create opportunities, but competition is fiercest for late-stage companies and information advantages matter most elsewhere.
- 3Power Law’s public evergreen vehicle shows how venture investing requires substantial regulatory, legal, operational, and infrastructure work.
Don't miss
Black explains why building Power Law required substantial legal, compliance, operational, and investment infrastructure before meaningful revenue emerged.
The brief
Benjamin Black traces venture capital’s liquidity problem to startups remaining private longer, supported by larger pools of private capital and delayed public offerings.
Secondary markets emerged to address longer fund durations, but late-stage deals now attract sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and platform-based buyers.
Black says smaller companies can still offer opportunity when investors possess better information, while the most crowded deals leave less room for an edge.
Power Law’s public evergreen structure aims to provide venture exposure without another ten-year fund, but fitting it into closed-end-fund rules required extensive infrastructure.
The conversation’s sharpest tension is structural: public marks and reporting can widen access, yet they also constrain information sharing with private companies.
Black’s broader argument is that difficult infrastructure can become a moat, but performance and shareholder alignment—not novelty—must sustain the category.
Featuring
Benjamin Black
United States Securities and Exchange Commission
Wellington
FidelityListen to the full episode and explore every guest, topic, and moment on PodLume.