Kelly Rodriques: The Private Markets Moment We're In

Go to Yahoo Finance. Search SpaceX. You'll find a price. That number comes from Forge.Private markets are the fastest-growing part of institutional finance, and they've never had what public markets took fifty years to build: reliable price discovery, standardized custody, a trading infrastructure that works at scale.Kelly Rodriques spent his career positioning as the infrastructure layer of industries at their inflection points. And in 2018, he took over a Y Combinator trading platform, rebranded it Forge and set out to build all three simultaneously.In July 2025, he demoed the next-generation platform to the ten largest financial institutions in the country. Several came back wanting to buy the company. One sent Chuck Schwab himself to take the meeting.In this episode, Kelly and Marc cover:The price discovery gap: why none of the funds currently packaging private shares are anchored to underlying NAV and why that should alarm every allocator watching this spaceThe 401(k) moment: an executive order opened $18 trillion in retirement savings to private markets, and the infrastructure to absorb it is still being builtThe civic case: 8,000 public companies in 1999, 4,000 today - and why restricting private markets to accredited investors is an inequality problemPISCES: why global exchanges are racing to know private companies before they go public"In the early 70s, we set out to democratize investing. And we've been watching you for a couple of years, and you're democratizing the private markets."Chuck Schwab said that to Kelly Rodriques in a conference room in 2025. When Chuck Schwab buys your company, democratization stops being a vision. It becomes an obligation.