Carta’s Path to $500M ARR, Raising $1B, & Why PE is The Future | Henry Ward, CEO

Henry Ward, CEO of Carta, joins Sourcery to share how the company scaled to nearly $500M in ARR, raised $1B across seven rounds, and evolved from a startup serving cap tables to a platform targeting massive markets like private equity and private credit. Ward discusses the Peter Thiel-inspired strategy of dominating small markets before expanding, the importance of focusing on inputs over outputs, the challenges of selling to both hoodie-wearing founders and Midtown CFOs, and Carta’s AI-driven future. This wide-ranging conversation dives into scaling lessons, product innovation, network effects, and why private equity is the future. Carta was a classic 3x, 3x, 2x, 2x, to $100M in Revenue & are now growing 20%+ at scale.Highlights• Carta has raised $1B to date & is approaching $500M in ARR, growing 20%+ annually.• Strategic shift from venture into larger asset classes like private equity & private credit.• Peter Thiel’s “competition is for losers” philosophy shapes Carta’s market-entry strategy.• AI as both a customer-facing differentiator & an internal productivity engine.• Scaling up to delivering million-dollar enterprise solutions for institutional private equity & private creditConnect with us:1. Henry Ward: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heward/2. Molly O’Shea: https://x.com/MollySOShea3. Sourcery: https://x.com/sourceryvcBrought to you by:• Brex—The modern finance platform, combining the world’s smartest corporate card with integrated expense management, banking, bill pay, and travel. As a Sourcery Listener you get: 75,000 points after spending $3,000 on Brex card(s), white-glove onboarding, $5,000 in AWS credits, $2,500 in OpenAI credits, & access to $180k+ in SaaS discounts. On top of $500 toward Brex travel, $300 in cashback, plus exclusive perks (like billboards..) visit → https://brex.com/sourcery• Turing—Turing delivers top-tier talent, data, and tools to help AI labs improve model performance—and enables enterprises to turn those models into powerful, production-ready systems. Visit: turing.com/sourcery• Kalshi—The largest prediction market and the only legal platform in the US where people can trade directly on the outcomes of future events: https://kalshi.com/sourcery• Fourthwall—The #1 way to sell merch online — Fourthwall is the easiest way to launch a fully branded merch store—used by big brands like MKBHD, Acquired, & even the Smithsonian. 100+ products. No upfront cost. Visit Fourthwall to start today: https://fourthwall.com/Follow Sourcery for the latest updates!https://www.sourcery.vc/Chapters: (00:00) Competition is for Losers(01:07) Carta’s Growth: Approaching Half a Billion ARR(02:51) $1B Funding Journey & Board Evolution(05:30) Measuring Success: Inputs vs Outputs(07:55) Product Portfolio & Power Law in Software(10:58) Peter Thiel’s Influence: “Competition is for Losers” & Growth Strategy(12:02) Expanding from Small Markets to Big Impact(14:00) Entering Private Equity & Credit(15:59) Network Effects: Global vs Local(18:02) Product Market Fit & Building a 10X Product(20:30) Relationship with Mark Andreessen & Board Insights(23:10) Company Building vs Product Building(25:58) AI at Carta: Internal & Customer-Facing Innovations(31:29) The Impact of AI on Jobs & Workflow(34:33) Personal Motivation & Performance(35:44) Looking Forward: New AI Products & Excitement for the Year