Hello and welcome back to  Equity , a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. This is our Wednesday show, where we niche down to a single topic, think about a question and unpack the rest. This week,  Natasha and Anita asked: When is a company taking internal valuation cut a good thing? Normally, when we hear about valuations going down, that’s a red flag that things aren’t going well at a given company or in the market at large. We wrote about Stripe’s 28% internal valuation cut earlier this month and as we listened to different reactions to the news, we noticed some people had an unexpected take — that this downward revision was actually a positive for the company’s employees. That’s because the cut came from an internal 409A valuation appraisal , which is totally different from the investor-led valuations we normally hear reported on in the news. So we brought on two experts — Phil Haslett of EquityZen and Sumukh Sridhara of AngelList — to help us unpack what this valuation cut actually means for startup employees and what else they need to know about their equity compensation heading into a market downturn. For more information, you can also check out our TechCrunch+ piece about the matter, “Stripe’s new and lower internal valuation, explained.” Founders in front of investors vs founders in front of 409A appraisers pic.twitter.com/LAXsBrHGBM — Flo Crivello (@Altimor) September 24, 2020 Let us know if you want more Chain Reaction x Equity crossover episodes by tweeting at either of us or just sharing this episode with a friend. Numbers speak for themselves 🙂 Equity drops every Monday at 7 a.m. PDT and Wednesday and Friday at 6 a.m. PDT, so subscribe to us on  Apple Podcasts ,  Overcast , Spotify  a nd all the casts.

Hello and welcome back to  Equity , a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. This is our Wednesday show, where we niche down to a single topic, think about a question and unpack the rest. This week,  Natasha and Anita asked: When is a company taking internal valuation cut a good thing? Normally, when we hear about valuations going down, that’s a red flag that things aren’t going well at a given company or in the market at large. We wrote about Stripe’s 28% internal valuation cut earlier this month and as we listened to different reactions to the news, we noticed some people had an unexpected take — that this downward revision was actually a positive for the company’s employees. That’s because the cut came from an internal 409A valuation appraisal , which is totally different from the investor-led valuations we normally hear reported on in the news. So we brought on two experts — Phil Haslett of EquityZen and Sumukh Sridhara of AngelList — to help us unpack what this valuation cut actually means for startup employees and what else they need to know about their equity compensation heading into a market downturn. For more information, you can also check out our TechCrunch+ piece about the matter, “Stripe’s new and lower internal valuation, explained.” Founders in front of investors vs founders in front of 409A appraisers pic.twitter.com/LAXsBrHGBM — Flo Crivello (@Altimor) September 24, 2020 Let us know if you want more Chain Reaction x Equity crossover episodes by tweeting at either of us or just sharing this episode with a friend. Numbers speak for themselves 🙂 Equity drops every Monday at 7 a.m. PDT and Wednesday and Friday at 6 a.m. PDT, so subscribe to us on  Apple Podcasts ,  Overcast , Spotify  a nd all the casts.