A private-company stake usually starts in the tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars. Linqto's first order is $2,500. Two conditions come attached: the platform admits accredited investors only, and it won't say how much it adds to the price of each share.
Linqto Owns the Shares Before You Buy Them
Linqto differs from most private-market deals in one structural respect: you aren't buying stock directly from the issuer. The sellers are people who already hold stock in the company, early investors, company advisors, and current and former employees. Linqto buys from them in blocks and then sells pieces of each block to users on its platform.
In a conventional private placement, the company decides who gets on the cap table and can turn a buyer away. Because Linqto already holds the shares, the platform says the issuer has no say in the transaction and orders close immediately rather than waiting on approval.
The company was founded in 2010 and opened to the public in 2020. It's based in San Francisco and led by CEO and co-founder Bill Sarris, who previously built applications for companies including Microsoft and Intuit. Linqto reports that more than 750,000 users worldwide have invested more than $350 million across more than 60 companies.
The Minimum Is $2,500 to Start, $5,000 After That
The first order is $2,500 and every order after it is $5,000. There's no management fee and no stated account minimum beyond those per-order thresholds, and the only account type on offer is a personal investment account.
Against other private-market platforms, that entry point is low. Against a brokerage account where you can buy a fraction of a share, it isn't, which is part of why this sits in the category of money an investor can afford to have tied up and illiquid.
No Fees, but a Per-Share Markup You Can't See
Linqto charges no brokerage fee, no management fee, and no administrative fee. It makes money instead by marking up each share. The company's position is that buying in large blocks gets it a low enough price that it can add what it calls a reasonable markup and still keep shares affordable.
What it does not do is publish the size of that markup. So the cost is real, it's baked into the price you pay per share, and you can't calculate it.
That matters most when you're comparing platforms. An investor weighing Linqto against EquityZen, which charges a sales fee of 3% to 5% of the investment amount, can price the EquityZen deal exactly and can't price the Linqto one at all, which leaves the question of which one is cheaper open.
Worth knowing more generally: private shares don't have a running market quote the way listed stocks do. Valuations get refreshed at funding rounds and other events, not continuously, so an entry price on any private-market platform reflects a much thinner set of reference points than a public share price does.
Only Accredited Investors Get In, and U.S. Users Self-Verify
To invest, you must be an accredited investor. Under the standard, that means any one of the following:
- Income above $200,000 in each of the past two years, with a reasonable expectation of the same or more in the current year
- Combined income with a spouse or spousal equivalent above $300,000 in each of the past two years, with the same expectation for the current year
- Net worth above $1 million, alone or with a spouse or spousal equivalent, excluding the value of a primary residence
- A Series 7, 65, or 82 license in good standing
Investors in the United States can self-verify: you review the accreditation standards, confirm you meet them, and start investing, with no document upload and no third-party attestation. The absence of a check at signup doesn't loosen the standard, which still applies.
A 90-Day Hold Replaces the Usual Multi-Year Lockup
Private investments are typically locked up for years. Linqto sets a minimum hold period of 90 days, after which you may be able to sell the position or roll it into shares of a different company on the platform.
Selling works like this: pick the company in your portfolio, hit "Sell," enter the number of units, and submit. Cash from the sale lands in your Linqto account immediately.
The caveat is in the word "may." Sometimes the Sell button isn't there for a given company, and the platform points to a lack of buy-side demand or a pending company event as the reasons. The 90 days govern when you're allowed to sell; whether a buyer exists on day 91 is a separate question.
What Happens to Your Shares in an IPO, an Acquisition, or a Linqto Shutdown
Things can happen to a position before you sell it. The company can go public. It can be acquired. Linqto can go out of business. In each of those cases, you still own the shares you bought, and Linqto says it will walk holders through what comes next, transferring public shares into a brokerage account, for example.
Five Funding Routes, Including a Self-Directed IRA
Cash for the Linqto account can come from:
- ACH transfer from a linked bank account
- Wire transfer
- Uphold, which lets you pay with U.S. dollars, foreign currency, cryptocurrencies, commodities, and other assets
- Existing Linqto holdings, once you own something; when that's available it appears under the "Pay With" section of an order
- A self-directed IRA, solo 401(k), or another entity, by linking the account and moving funds into your Linqto cash account
The retirement route only works for self-directed accounts. A standard IRA at a mainstream brokerage can't be used.
The Marketplace Skews Toward Late-Stage Tech
Linqto targets mid-to-late-stage companies it expects to go public or be acquired within about five years, and it restricts itself to firms that are already generating revenue and backed by institutional venture capital or private equity. It also weighs leadership, looking for a track record of actually shipping products and services to market.
In practice that produces a tech-heavy list: blockchain and cryptocurrency businesses, software, fintech. Names currently or recently on the platform include Ripple, Kraken, Stripe, Liquid Death, Patreon, Calm, M1 Finance, and Acorns.
Browsing works about how you'd expect. Filter by sector, sort by valuation, or search a company by name, then open the listing, enter an amount, and click "Begin Order."
A revenue-generating, institutionally funded company is further along than a seed-stage startup, and Linqto frames that as a lower failure risk. The five-year window describes what the platform is aiming for when it picks companies. Plenty of companies stay private longer than anyone expected, and delayed exits are common.
Referrals Pay $1,000 in Linqto Bucks
Share your referral link and you get $1,000 Linqto Bucks when someone signs up through it; they get $500 Linqto Bucks. The credits go toward buying investments on the platform. There's no cap on how many people you can refer or how much you can accumulate.
How Linqto Compares With EquityZen and AngelList
| Linqto | EquityZen | AngelList | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum | $2,500 first, $5,000 after | $10,000 first investment; $20,000 with one to five deals | From $1,000, depending on the deal |
| Disclosed fees | None stated; undisclosed per-share markup | 3% to 5% sales fee by investment size; carried interest or recurring management fees on actively managed funds | Venture funds: 2% management fee, 20% carried interest; individual deals: a share of profit retained as carry |
| What you buy | Individual companies | Single-company funds, multi-company funds, direct share acquisitions | Individual companies or venture funds |
| Extra eligibility rule | Accredited investor | Accredited investor | Accredited investor, plus having worked for, invested in, or advised a startup |
EquityZen has invested in hundreds of companies, a broader pre-IPO selection than Linqto's, and it publishes its pricing. Its minimums are the highest of the three. AngelList has the lowest entry point and clear fee terms, but its startup-background requirement rules out a lot of otherwise-accredited investors.
Customer Support Falls Short of a Mainstream Brokerage
Support at Linqto is limited next to what a mainstream brokerage offers. For a product where a single order starts at $2,500 and the asset can't be sold on demand, that's worth factoring in alongside the pricing.
What the 90-Day Hold Is Worth Against an Unpublished Markup
The two features that set Linqto apart pull against each other. On one side, the 90-day minimum hold is short by private-market standards, the $2,500 first order is low, and the companies listed are ones most people have heard of. On the other, every share price includes a markup Linqto won't quantify, so there's no way to check what you paid against what the platform paid, and an earlier exit is only worth something if a buyer turns up once the 90 days are done. Support is thin either way.
An investor who wants to know exactly what a deal costs, or who wants to spread money across a fund of several companies rather than pick one at a time, will find EquityZen and AngelList more forthcoming on both counts, at a higher minimum in EquityZen's case and behind a startup-experience gate in AngelList's. Pre-IPO shares are a category where losses are ordinary, and where there may be no bid to sell into at the moment you want one.
