On this episode of Invested, Michael sits down with Henry Ward, the CEO and co-founder of Carta. Carta is trusted by more than 50,000 companies, over 8,500 investment funds and SPVs, and over 1.6 million equity holders to manage cap tables, compensation, valuations, liquidity, and more. The company has been included on the Forbes World’s Best Cloud Companies, Fast Company’s Most Innovative list, and Inc.’s Fastest-Growing Private Companies. Prior to Carta, Henry was founder and CEO of Secondsight, a portfolio optimization platform for retail investors. He also held leadership positions at software companies including Reddwerks Inc. and BetweenMarkets. Henry graduated from University of Michigan with a BGS in Mathematics and Computer Science and holds a MSC in Market Finance from EDHEC Business School.
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KEY TOPICS
00:00 – Intro
01:24 – The Value Proposition of Carta
03:56 – Disrupting Traditional Professional Services
09:18 – How Carta Implements AI
17:16 – The Future of Accounting and Determinism vs. Stochasticism
20:39 – Branding vs. Product Quality in Professional Services
24:46 – Competing, Copycats, and Execution at Scale
27:02 – Core Values: Transparency and EQ
28:48 – Missionaries vs. Mercenaries: Carta’s Hiring Philosophy
31:37 – How to Find Missionaries: Recruiting Strategies
34:55 – Writing, Transparency, and Thought Leadership
36:32 – Clock Speed: Becoming a Fast-Execution Organization
48:03 – Work–Life Integration and Parenting as a CEO
51:01 – Navigating Crises: Trust, Resilience, and the CartaX Shutdown
53:57 – Future Predictions: What Will Shock Us in 20 Years
RESOURCES
Follow Henry on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/heward/
Follow Henry on X - https://x.com/henrysward
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CREDITS
Executive Producer: Erica Marom
Producer: Myron Shneider, Sofi Levak
Video and Editing: Ron Baranov
Music and Creative Direction: Uri Ar
Content and Editorial: Kira Goldring
Design: Rony Karadi
