Henry Ward, CEO of Carta, joins Sourcery to share how the company scaled to nearly $500M in ARR, raised $1B across seven rounds, and evolved from a startup serving cap tables to a platform targeting massive markets like private equity and private credit. Ward discusses the Peter Thiel-inspired strategy of dominating small markets before expanding, the importance of focusing on inputs over outputs, the challenges of selling to both hoodie-wearing founders and Midtown CFOs, and Carta’s AI-driven future. This wide-ranging conversation dives into scaling lessons, product innovation, network effects, and why private equity is the future.

Carta was a classic 3x, 3x, 2x, 2x, to $100M in Revenue & are now growing 20%+ at scale.

Highlights

• Carta has raised $1B to date & is approaching $500M in ARR, growing 20%+ annually.

• Strategic shift from venture into larger asset classes like private equity & private credit.

• Peter Thiel’s “competition is for losers” philosophy shapes Carta’s market-entry strategy.

• AI as both a customer-facing differentiator & an internal productivity engine.

• Scaling up to delivering million-dollar enterprise solutions for institutional private equity & private credit

Chapters:

(00:00) Competition is for Losers

(01:07) Carta’s Growth: Approaching Half a Billion ARR

(02:51) $1B Funding Journey & Board Evolution

(05:30) Measuring Success: Inputs vs Outputs

(07:55) Product Portfolio & Power Law in Software

(10:58) Peter Thiel’s Influence: “Competition is for Losers” & Growth Strategy

(12:02) Expanding from Small Markets to Big Impact

(14:00) Entering Private Equity & Credit

(15:59) Network Effects: Global vs Local

(18:02) Product Market Fit & Building a 10X Product

(20:30) Relationship with Mark Andreessen & Board Insights

(23:10) Company Building vs Product Building

(25:58) AI at Carta: Internal & Customer-Facing Innovations

(31:29) The Impact of AI on Jobs & Workflow

(34:33) Personal Motivation & Performance

(35:44) Looking Forward: New AI Products & Excitement for the Year

Carta’s Path to $500M ARR, Raising $1B, & Why PE is The Future | Henry Ward, CEO

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