Minimum Investment Finder

This free browser tool stores nothing. Use it to pressure-test an assumption before you act, not as a substitute for the provider's own figures.

How to use this tool

Start with the numbers you can actually verify: the amount you would commit, the price you would pay, and the fee terms in writing. Everything else in a private-market projection is an assumption, and it should be labelled as one.

What the minimum Investment Finder cannot tell you

No calculator can price the two things that dominate private-market outcomes: whether an exit happens at all, and at what price. Treat any output as a comparison between structures, not a forecast of your return.

• It cannot know the real secondary price you will be quoted.
• It cannot model dilution from rounds that have not happened.
• It cannot account for tax, which varies by jurisdiction and holding period.
• It assumes an exit occurs - historically, many private positions do not reach one.

The inputs that matter most in the minimum Investment Finder

In practice, two inputs swamp the rest. The first is the entry price relative to the last primary round - paying a premium to a stale valuation is the most common way to lose money without the company ever failing. The second is the total fee load across the full holding period.

Why the minimum Investment Finder matters more than a public-market equivalent

In a liquid public market you can correct a mistake cheaply - sell tomorrow and move on. In private markets the same mistake is locked in for years, which is why the arithmetic deserves more attention here than it would for a listed position.

That asymmetry is why we publish tools rather than recommendations. The specific number a calculator returns matters far less than whether the structure survives a pessimistic set of assumptions.

It also reframes what a good deal looks like. A position that returns 3x over eight years, after fees, is a materially different proposition from the same 3x over three years - and the fee stack is what usually separates them.

minimum Investment Finder: worked example

Take a straightforward case. An investor commits 100,000 to a pooled vehicle holding a single late-stage company, with a placement fee, an annual management fee, and carry on any gain above a hurdle.

Of the 100,000 committed, a portion is consumed by the placement fee before anything is invested. Management fees accrue annually on committed capital regardless of performance, and carry applies to the gain at exit. The net multiple is meaningfully lower than the gross.

The lesson is not that fees make private investing pointless - it is that the fee stack has to be modelled against a realistic holding period before a deal can be called attractive.

Using the minimum Investment Finder to sanity-check a deal

• Model the pessimistic case first. If a deal only works at a high multiple and a short hold, it is a bet on conditions rather than on the business.
• Compare entry price to the last primary round. An unexplained premium is the most common way investors lose money in secondaries even when the company performs.
• Assume the exit is late. Add two years to whatever timeline you are given and see whether the return still justifies the illiquidity.
• Check what happens if you are diluted. Later rounds can raise at terms that reduce your effective ownership or rank ahead of you.
• Test the total-loss case. If losing the full amount would change your plans, the position is too large regardless of the modelled return.

None of this requires sophisticated modelling. It requires writing down the assumptions and being honest about which of them you are actually confident in.

Costs the minimum Investment Finder leaves out

Calculators handle the visible costs. Three invisible ones routinely change the outcome and belong in your own model.

Tax. Treatment depends on your jurisdiction, your holding period and whether the asset is domestic or foreign. It can move a net return by a wide margin and is rarely included in any provider's illustration.

Currency. If you invest across borders, your return is the company's performance multiplied by the exchange rate move over the full hold. Over seven years that second term can dominate the first.

Opportunity cost. Capital locked in an illiquid position for seven years is capital unavailable for anything else, including the opportunities that appear during those seven years.

A note on minimum Investment Finder precision

Every output here is only as good as the inputs, and in private markets the most important inputs are the least certain.

Use these tools comparatively rather than predictively. They are good at answering "is structure A cheaper than structure B over this horizon" and poor at answering "what will I make".

Using the minimum Investment Finder alongside the rest of the site

A calculator answers one narrow question. The decision usually needs three, and the other two live elsewhere on this site.

First, can you access the deal at all? Eligibility eliminates more options than price does - start with accredited investor requirements. Second, what would you actually own? The difference between holding a share and holding a unit in a vehicle changes your rights, fees and exit; what is an SPV explains it. Third, what can go wrong? Risks of pre-IPO investing covers illiquidity, dilution and information asymmetry.

Once those are settled, the arithmetic here becomes decision-useful rather than academic. Compare providers on total cost over your actual expected hold.

After the minimum Investment Finder: compare funds that fit

Once the numbers survive a pessimistic run, the question becomes which providers can actually serve you at that ticket size and from your jurisdiction.

Frequently asked questions