Facebook and the Rise of Early Stage Liquidity

Prior to its IPO, the senior management of Facebook were somewhat annoyed to see that “already some young employees who had left the company. . . wanted to get some cash for their [private] stock.” It was a challenge that many venture-backed companies face – how to deal with liquidity issues prior to an exit. Daniel Burstein, Managing Partner of Millennium Technology Value Partners, describes how his firm established a liquidity program for Facebook employees and became a pre-IPO investor in Facebook.