Education

pre-ipo

What If You Had Invested $10,000 in SpaceX’s Series A in 2002? A 23-Year Investment Journey

💡In this article, we explore the hypothetical of investing $10,000 into SpaceX’s Series A round in December 2002, and what that investment would be worth by June 2025—approximately $129 million, reflecting an extraordinary 12,915x return, and an annualized return of around 52.4%.* Introduction In December

Mike Ivancie Jun 24, 2025 schedule 6 min read

Education

pre-ipo

private-markets

UpMarket

schedule 7 min read

How to Buy Pre-IPO Stock: A Step-by-Step Guide for Private Market Investors

Pre-IPO investing offers a compelling opportunity to gain early exposure to high-growth companies—often before the public markets catch on. But buying shares in a company before it goes public is not as straightforward as logging into a brokerage account. In this guide, we’ll walk you through how to

Mike Ivancie May 13, 2025

Education

private-markets

pre-ipo

schedule 6 min read

Free Pre-IPO Investment Checklist: A Practical Guide to Venture Secondaries

If you’re considering an investment in a private pre-IPO company, particularly through the secondary market, this free checklist is a valuable resource. Investing in companies that have not yet gone public can offer strong potential upside, but it also involves unique risks, limited information, and longer holding periods.  UpMarket’

Mike Ivancie May 13, 2025

Education

ai

schedule 21 min read

The Best AI Chatbots & LLMs of Q1 2025: Complete Comparison Guide (and Research Firm Ranks)

Welcome to our guide to the top-ranking Large Language Models (LLMs) and AI Chatbot tools currently available.  In this article, we will review the top-performing Chatbot/LLMs that are widely available today. We’ll break down the leading firms developing these models (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, etc.) and how they rank

Mike Ivancie Feb 14, 2025

ai

private-markets

News

schedule 4 min read

China’s DeepSeek R1: A New Era of AI Competition and Cost Efficiency

The AI world just got a lot more interesting.  DeepSeek, a Chinese AI research firm, has dropped a bombshell with its new model, R1.  It’s faster, cheaper, and, in some cases, better than OpenAI’s top-tier (and most expensive) models.  DeepSeek R1: Key Takeaways What’s special about this

Mike Ivancie Jan 29, 2025

real estate

alternatives

private-markets

schedule 3 min read

Real Estate’s Potential Comeback: Why Hated Assets Deserve a Second Glance

When Nicolai Tangen, CEO of Norway’s $1.8 trillion sovereign wealth fund, stood at Davos on January 22nd and urged investors to “do the opposite of everybody else,” his words felt almost rebellious. Sell U.S. tech stocks? Buy unloved sectors like China? His contrarian call—to lean into

Mike Ivancie Jan 28, 2025

tools

UpMarket

private-markets

pre-ipo

schedule 4 min read

UpMarket's Pre-IPO Revenue & Exit Valuation Calculator Tool

The Revenue & Exit Multiple Calculator helps visualize potential growth trajectories and valuations for companies over a 5-year period. By inputting your assumptions about current valuation, revenue, growth rates, and exit multiples, you can explore how different scenarios might play out. The calculator generates three scenarios: * 🚀 Bull (optimistic) * 🎯 Mid (base)

Mike Ivancie Jan 17, 2025

private-markets

schedule 7 min read

OnlyFans Official Revenue, Net Profit, Creator and Subscriber data - Updated September 2024

OnlyFans is one of the most popular websites in the world and a source of income for a large number of online content creators. Since they published their most recent user and financial data, we thought it’d be worth highlighting some of the most impressive and interesting figures from

Mike Ivancie Sep 11, 2024

Education

private-markets

pre-ipo

schedule 7 min read

Understanding SAFEs: A Quick Guide to Simple Agreements for Future Equity

A SAFE, or Simple Agreement for Future Equity (SAFE), is a financial instrument used by startups to raise capital. Introduced by Y Combinator in 2013, SAFEs have become a popular alternative to convertible notes for early-stage funding. This guide will explain what SAFEs are, how they work, and the most

Mike Ivancie Jul 19, 2024

Education

tools

schedule 3 min read

Accredited Investor Quiz: Discover Your Investor Status in Minutes

Are you curious whether you qualify as an individual accredited investor? UpMarket's quick and easy Accredited Investor Quiz can help you determine if you likely meet the criteria set by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Being an accredited investor is required to access certain investment

Mike Ivancie Jul 10, 2024

pre-ipo

private-markets

schedule 8 min read

15 Private AI Companies Driving Innovation (July 2024 with search trend data)

Artificial intelligence has rapidly evolved from a niche technology to a transformative force across industries. Along with OpenAI and Anthropic, several private companies have emerged as key innovators, significantly advancing AI capabilities and applications. These organizations are not only developing cutting-edge technologies but are also shaping how businesses and individuals

Mike Ivancie Jul 9, 2024

Education

pre-ipo

hedge funds

private-markets

schedule 6 min read

Hedge Funds vs. Pre-IPO Investments: Balancing Your Portfolio

Discover the pros and cons of hedge funds vs. pre-IPO investments. Learn how these alternative assets can balance your portfolio for optimal growth and risk management.

Mike Ivancie Jul 5, 2024

Education

pre-ipo

private-markets

tools

schedule 20 min read

Private Market Investment Term Glossary

At UpMarket, our mission is to increase access to private markets for individual investors, enabling them to participate in high-potential opportunities traditionally reserved for ultra-wealthy, connected, and institutional investors. The Private Market Investment Term Glossary is designed to be an essential tool to educate UpMarket clients about common private-market terminology

Mike Ivancie Jun 19, 2024

tools

schedule 4 min read

Private Investment Fee and Net Return Calculator

This calculator will allow you to estimate the net return of a private investment after common fees and your investment's IRR based on fees and hold time. Please input only positive values. For hold time, you input decimals, e.g., 1.5, to represent an 18-month hold time.

Mike Ivancie May 17, 2024

pre-ipo

private-markets

schedule 5 min read

Are xAI and its co-founder Yuhuai “Tony” Wu Building an AI Mathematician?

xAI’s team comprises top talent from well-known companies like Tesla, SpaceX, OpenAI, Google Research, and Microsoft Research. Co-founder Tony Wu is among those on this list. Tony Wu’s research focuses on quantitative reasoning and building an AI mathematician. As he helps lead xAI, you would expect his focus

Mike Ivancie Apr 9, 2024

pre-ipo

private-markets

News

schedule 6 min read

Anthropic’s Claude 3 Launch Brings Real Competition to the AI Chatbot Race

In this article, we’ll explore the technical updates to Claude 3, including the main features, the value proposition, and the pricing structure.

Mike Ivancie Mar 14, 2024

pre-ipo

schedule 8 min read

Everything we know about Elon Musk's anticipated $1 billion fundraising for his xAI artificial intelligence startup

Introduction Elon Musk isn’t new to the realm of disruptive technology, taking part in numerous well-known startups, like PayPal, Tesla, and OpenAI. After an unsuccessful bid to take over the management of OpenAI, Elon Musk opened his own artificial intelligence startup, xAI. xAI was founded on March 9, 2023,

Mike Ivancie Feb 29, 2024

pre-ipo

private-markets

schedule 10 min read

15 of the Hottest AI Companies

The artificial intelligence (AI) sector is exploding, with companies making major advancements in natural language processing, computer vision, robotics, and more. As AI transforms how we live and work, investors are taking notice and seeking opportunities to contribute to the growth of this dynamic industry. But with so many AI

Mike Ivancie Oct 19, 2023

pre-ipo

private-markets

schedule 7 min read

OnlyFans Official Revenue, Profit, User Data, and Other Financials - Updated September 2023

Note that this post is for 2023 reported data. Click here to view data from OnlyFan's 2024 parent company report. OnlyFans is one of the most popular websites in the world and a source of income for a large number of online content creators. So when they published

Mike Ivancie Sep 9, 2023

Education

schedule 6 min read

What is the Difference Between a Qualified Purchaser and an Accredited Investor

Summary & Key Takeaways * Accredited Investor: This term generally refers to an investor that meets specific financial criteria set by the SEC, such as an annual income in excess of $200,000 or a net worth exceeding $1 million, excluding the primary residence. Accredited investors are allowed to invest in

Mike Ivancie May 12, 2023

Education

schedule 6 min read

IRA vs. 401(k) – What’s the Difference?

Explore the key differences between IRAs and 401(k)s. Learn contribution limits, tax implications, and the benefits of each to retirement strategy.

Mike Ivancie May 3, 2023

pre-ipo

private-markets

Education

schedule 5 min read

Can OpenAI keep its lead in the artificial intelligence arms race?

On November 30, 2022, OpenAI released ChatGPT. Two months after its launch, ChatGPT reached 100 million users. To illustrate just how impressive that is, it took TikTok nine months and Instagram over two years to reach the same user milestone. The Basics of OpenAI’s ChatGPT ChatGPT is an artificial

Mike Ivancie Mar 17, 2023

pre-ipo

private-markets

Education

schedule 6 min read

OpenAI: A Guide for Investors' Common Questions

Following the launch and mass adoption of ChatGPT, OpenAI is on pace to become a household name. In response, companies have inked strategic partnerships with OpenAI, made large investments, and former OpenAI team members are now raising huge sums of money from venture capital firms looking to cash in on

Mike Ivancie Mar 8, 2023

private-markets

Education

schedule 6 min read

Is China's Manufacturing Exodus Overblown? What Investors Need to Know

In this article, we explore the current state of China's manufacturing industry, where it's going, and what investors need to know about the potential impact on their portfolios.

Mike Ivancie Feb 28, 2023

Education

private-markets

schedule 5 min read

The Semiconductor Wars: And the future of Chinese technology development

In 2011 famed VC firm Marc Andreessen wrote an op-ed for the WSJ titled, “Why Software is Eating the World.” Since then software has been a tremendous source of innovation and wealth creation worldwide. We have seen software’s dominance create monoliths like Google and Tencent and enable countless unicorns

Mike Ivancie Feb 13, 2023

News

private-markets

schedule 8 min read

2023 Big Bank Forecasts Summarized

Are you wondering what the world’s largest and most well-known banks are projecting for markets in 2023? Great, we’ve summarized their outlooks below. Executive Summary Following a banner year in 2021 for investments, 2022 proved to be much more challenging. For the first time in decades, Wall Street

Mike Ivancie Jan 10, 2023

Education

schedule 5 min read

Is Elon Musk right: Are Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes the reason Tesla’s stock is down?

Over the last few weeks, Tesla stock has declined sharply. This has put Tesla on pace for its worst month, quarter, and year in history.  Some prominent shareholders recently criticized Musk and made demands for changes to salvage the share price publicly on Twitter. Elon Musk tweeted in response to

Mike Ivancie Dec 29, 2022

schedule 6 min read

What Investors Can Learn from Blackstone Halting Redemptions in its $69 Billion Dollar Private REIT

BREIT halting redemptions serves as a good case study for any investor looking to learn how to navigate the alternative investment market. There are some important lessons we can all take away from these recent headlines.

Mike Ivancie Dec 16, 2022

schedule 2 min read

Crypto Mania to Mayhem: Was almost everyone swimming naked?

FTX, the famed crypto exchange that bought Superbowl ads, stadium naming rights, and had all-star endorsements, filed for bankruptcy on November 22nd

Mike Ivancie Dec 9, 2022

UpMarket

schedule 5 min read

Falling in Love with Natural Gas Again

As countries adjust to a new model of energy scarcity and pricing pressures, we are likely to continue to see volatility across all energy markets.

Mike Ivancie Sep 9, 2022

UpMarket

Webinar

schedule 1 min read

Global Events Access Fund 【中文讲座】

This live webinar was hosted by UpMarket on Tuesday, August 30, 2022. The event was conducted in Mandarin Chinese. The data and views are provided by Divergent Asset Management. Nothing discussed in either a verbal context or from the presentation should be considered as an endorsement or an agreement from

Mike Ivancie Sep 2, 2022

UpMarket

Webinar

schedule 1 min read

Life Settlement Access Fund 【中文讲座】

This live webinar was hosted by UpMarket on Tuesday, August 23, 2022. The event was conducted in Mandarin Chinese. The data and views are provided by CG Analysts. Nothing discussed in either a verbal context or from the presentation should be considered as an endorsement or an agreement from Upmarket

Mike Ivancie Sep 2, 2022

Education

schedule 10 min read

Is Private Equity Eating the World (and your portfolio)?

Do you remember when Facebook went public? It was a huge deal. Facebook became the largest technology IPO in history at the time after raising $16 billion. But these days, there's a new trend in the tech world: companies are staying private longer. In the past twenty years,

Mike Ivancie Aug 15, 2022

Education

UpMarket

schedule 3 min read

Invest in Private Markets and Alternatives using Self-Directed IRAs and UpMarket

At UpMarket we want to unlock private markets for individuals so they are empowered to build diverse portfolios that best meet their objectives. This means unlocking new asset classes like hedge funds and private equity along with simplifying the traditionally opaque private-market investment process using technology. You can read more

Mike Ivancie Jul 8, 2022

Education

schedule 5 min read

Investor Basics: Am I an Accredited Investor?

With an estimated 10.6% of U.S. households qualifying as accredited investors in 2020, it's no wonder more and more people are interested in learning whether they are an accredited investor and what benefits, if any, come with that designation. A primary benefit of accredited investor status

Mike Ivancie Jul 8, 2022