Secondary markets just beat IPOs. The Fed is about to move. Robots got real. And founders finally learned something.

Good morning, Crowd!

Founderscrowds here.

Secondary markets just hit $226B. The Fed is about to make a move. Boston Dynamics' new Atlas just walked like a human. And founders are finally realizing execution beats pitch.

Four stories. Four different angles. One pattern: The game is changing faster than most people realize.

Thursday's letter is the deep dive, not breaking news, but why it matters.

I'm Jose, co-founder of Founderscrowd. I've been building companies since I can remember, have exited them, and have worked at a VC firm. That's when I realized the system was broken: private market opportunities were gatekept to the connected few, while everyone else was locked out.

Thursday letter is my way of giving back—showing you what founders, VCs, and insiders see, so you can make better capital decisions, not breaking news. Real insight.

🎁 Click below for a big Surprise.

Help make better ads

Did you recently see an ad for Roku Ads Manager in a newsletter? We’re running a short to understand what’s actually breaking through (and what’s not).

It takes about 20 seconds, the questions are super easy, and your feedback directly helps us improve how we show up in the newsletters you read and love.

If you’ve got a few moments, we’d really appreciate your insight.

PRIVATE MARKETS
💼 SECONDARY MARKETS ARE NOW BIGGER THAN PRIMARIES

The deal: $226B in secondary market trading in 2025. Up 41% from 2024. IPO market stalled? Doesn't matter. The money just moved.

Here's what founders don't realize: Your equity doesn't need an IPO to be liquid anymore. It needs the right buyer.

Used to be: Raise → Scale → IPO. That's it.

Now: Raise → Scale → Secondary market → IPO (or don't IPO).

Why? Because funds are mature. LPs need liquidity. But public markets are slow. So secondary platforms (Forge, EquityZen, Linqto) became the real exit route.

What this means:

If you hold late-stage private shares, you can sell now. No IPO needed. Your $10K investment at $50M valuation? Someone will buy it at $100M valuation on secondary markets.

The floor is: You're never trapped in illiquid private equity again.

FUNDRAISING
🏃 EXECUTION BEATS PITCH. FINALLY.

The deal: The founders winning right now aren't the best salespeople. They're the ones shipping products that solve real problems.

Impulse Space ($500M Series D) won because they deliver satellites on time.

IMPULSE

AlphaSense ($7.5B) won because they make traders $millions. They didn't win on pitches.

From my perspective: Pitch contests are dead. Execution competitions are alive.

What changed? Capital got more selective. Investors stopped betting on "the next big thing." They started betting on "the thing that actually works."

What this means:

If you're fundraising, stop perfecting your pitch deck. Start showing numbers:

• Revenue per customer

• Churn rate

• Unit economics

• Proof of traction

VCs don't care about your vision anymore. They care about your numbers.

💎 WHY BECOME A FOUNDERSCROWD PREMIUM MEMBER

Access to private markets that 99% of people can't touch.

You just read about 4 of the biggest trends reshaping private markets. But here's what you didn't read:

How to actually invest in them.

Premium members get something most investors never access: Direct pathways to pre-IPO opportunities only available to VCs, top-tier investors, and Silicon Valley insiders.

What Premium gives you:

1. Secondary Market Intelligence

2. Pre-Announcement Deal Access

3. IPO Prep Signals

4. Founder Network Access

5. Real Portfolio Construction Guidance

6. Exclusive Research on Market Shifts

7. Monthly Investment Memo

8. Access to Our Deal Team

You get monthly office hours with our team. Ask:

We answer with research, data, and network connections. Not guesses.

Become a Premium member → Click here
Lock in $100/month before it goes to $220+ (last month)

PUBLIC MARKETS
📊 THE FED IS ABOUT TO BREAK THE MARKET (OR NOT)

The deal: June 16-17 Fed meeting. Market pricing is either no move or a subtle shift.

Why it matters: Interest rates affect everything. Your startup valuation. Your public stock portfolio. Crypto. Real estate.

Current signal: Fed holding rates at 3.50%-3.75%. But inflation is sticky ($100/barrel oil, tariffs, Iran ceasefire costs).

If inflation data surprises higher, rates could go up, not down. That's bad for growth stocks (startups, AI companies). That's good for banks (boring boring boring).

What most investors miss: June CPI data matters more than the Fed announcement.

What this means:

Watch for June CPI release. If inflation is > 3.2% YoY, expect rate hikes. If < 3%, expect rate cuts. The market will move 2-3% on that number alone.

START UP
🤖 BOSTON DYNAMICS ATLAS JUST CHANGED ROBOTICS

The deal: Boston Dynamics unveiled a completely redesigned Atlas humanoid robot. Not a prototype. A working robot that moves as humans move.

Boston Dynamics

This matters because:

1. It's real. Not vapor. Actually working. Demo video shows mobility, dexterity, and precision.

2. It's commercially viable. This isn't MIT research. This is product-ready robotics.

3. It proves physical AI is the next wave. After the generative AI hype cycle, money is flowing to robotics that actually do work in the real world.

Why I'm watching this: The $100B+ opportunity isn't in GPT competitors. It's in robots that replace human labor at scale.

Companies like Boston Dynamics, Tesla Optimus, Figure AI, and 1X are building physical capital that compounds. That's different from LLM companies that burn compute for inference.

What this means:

If you can access shares in Boston Dynamics (private), Figure AI, or 1X on secondary markets, these are the bets that could return 100x+ within 5 years. Robots eliminating labor shortage = unlimited TAM.

Physical AI is where the real money hides.

🎯 JOSÉ'S TAKE

Secondary markets exploded, and public markets are not what they used to be.

Founders learned execution beats pitch. The Fed is about to make a move that affects your entire portfolio. And robots just became commercially viable.

Pattern: The old game is dying. Capital, talent, and attention are moving to founders who build real things, solve real problems, and show real numbers.

Hunt accordingly. ☕

Jose