How Carta found product-market fit: Henry Ward on distribution-led product strategy

Henry Ward joins us to talk about how his team of fewer than 20 employees scaled their startup, then known as eShares, to product-market fit and eventually became a household name in equity management software.

Henry Ward is the Co-Founder and CEO of Carta. This $7.4B business has created a new category of software in equity management by helping companies and investors manage their cap tables, valuations, investments, and equity plans. Henry gives us insight into the early stages of Carta: the initial products that Carta built, gaining validation through investor networks, closing their first 100 customers, and how they found product-market fit on their way to acquiring 28,000 customers.

Join us as we discuss:

• How Carta built products designed to get distribution
• The early go-to-market lessons that Carta learned about when to focus on sales vs when to start marketing
• Why Carta didn’t start with a self-serve experience
• How Carta changed its pricing model at scale without upsetting customers        

Go further:

• Learn how Carta won their first 100 customers: https://www.unusual.vc/post/how-carta-won-their-first-100-customers
• Learn about early customer identification and collaboration in our module: What are design partners: https://www.field-guide.unusual.vc/field-guide-enterprise/picking-design-partners  

About Unusual Ventures — Unusual Ventures is a seed-stage venture capital firm designed from the ground up to give a distinct advantage to founders building infrastructure software and application-level companies. Unusual was founded in 2018 with the mission to reinvent the venture capital engagement model by serving entrepreneurs with an unprecedented level of hands-on services. Described as a partner versus a top-down stakeholder by its portfolio companies, Unusual is laser-focused on serving exceptional founders and teams building innovative products. With offices in Menlo Park, San Francisco, and Boston, Unusual has invested in category-defining companies like Arctic Wolf Networks, Carta, Robinhood, Harness, 
and Vivun.  

About Sandhya Hegde — Sandhya is a General Partner at Unusual Ventures, leading investments in enterprise SaaS companies. Previously an early employee and executive at Amplitude, Sandhya is a product-led growth (PLG) coach and mentor. She can be reached at [email protected] and on Twitter (https://twitter.com/sandhya) and LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandhyahegde/).