Startup tender offers are back - and the Notion founders are treating employees with the respect they deserve. Love this!
Tender offers are structured liquidity events for private companies. The company organizes an opportunity for employees (and potentially investors) to sell a portion of their equity to other investors who want in. The company controls the price, the buyer group, the whole thing.
As you can see from the Carta chart below, tenders came roaring back in 2025. There were actually more Carta companies executing tenders in Q4 2025 than the prior peak in Q4 2021.
Sharp reversal from the quiet period for tenders in late 2022 and 2023.
But I want to give some flowers to the team at Notion for a couple minor decisions that make a major impact.
𝟭) 𝗖𝘂𝗿𝗿𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝗲𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗼𝘆𝗲𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗽𝗮𝘁𝗲
Not everyone does this! I get the reasoning but if I was an employee who had stayed for 3-4 years and just recently left, I'd be bummed out to be excluded from this sort of liquidity opportunity.
𝟮) 𝗥𝗲𝗺𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝟭-𝘆𝗲𝗮𝗿 𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗰𝗹𝗶𝗳𝗳 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗷𝗼𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝘀𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗽𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿 (𝗶𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗱)
In a world where there are fewer new hires and each new hire is expected to contribute immediately (thanks to AI for both of those trends), it makes sense to me to let them into a liquidity transaction as well.
Respect. And of course that $11B valuation ain't too shabby either!
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