I was laid off, so I built a NerdWallet for startup equity liquidity

Details

External ID

47395894

Source

HN

Company

—

Product

I was laid off, so I built a NerdWallet for startup equity liquidity

Website domain

strikerates.com

Launched

March 16, 2026

Cohort

—

Upvotes

9

Upvotes percentile

0.5393603936039361

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Fetched at

Sept. 7, 2026, 9:26 p.m.

Updated at

Sept. 7, 2026, 9:26 p.m.

Description

I was a software engineer at a late stage startup and was caught in a layoff this January. When I looked into exercising my options or getting liquidity, I realized the secondary market is a total black box. Liquidity funds spend a fortune on Google Ads just to find people like us. Those high marketing costs eventually come out of our pockets in the form of higher fees and worse terms. I built StrikeRates to change that.The site is meant to be a central resource for anyone navigating this. I included a Liquidity 101 section that explains the different financial vehicles because that information is hard to find in one place. I also built a Liquidity Provider Directory and a Compare Tool so people can see their options side by side.The Equity Scenario Modeler is currently in beta. I would love feedback on the logic and the math from this community.The real point of the site is the Waitlist. My goal is to aggregate enough demand to signal that we are a group worth competing for. If we can prove volume, we can force these funds to stop spending so much on ads and move them toward a flat monthly fee instead. This should lower the cost of liquidity for everyone.I am happy to answer any questions about how the modeler works or the mission to commoditize these providers.

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