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Founders

Supporting Founders at Every Stage

As your company grows, decisions about capital, ownership, your employees and your personal wealth become increasingly connected. See how integrated advice, workplace solutions and wealth management can help.

Capabilities

Tailored Solutions for Growth

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Personal Wealth Management

Get integrated, tailored advice and planning that grow with your business, including tax optimization, trust and estate planning, and private share lending for liquidity.

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Corporate and Workplace Solutions

Support your business and your workforce with cash management, equity administration, cap-table capabilities, retirement plans, executive services and related workplace solutions, so you can focus on building.

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Capital Raising and Strategic Advisory

Evaluate equity or debt financing, mergers and acquisitions, an IPO and other strategic transactions with investment-banking and capital-markets guidance.

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Research and Founder Insights

Tap into proprietary, industry-leading research and insights on public and private market valuations, growth trends and trade-offs to help inform strategy, capital decisions and planning.

Founder Specialists for Wealth Management

Building a company can reshape your wealth, your priorities and your future all at once. Our Founders Specialist Financial Advisors understand the personal and professional decisions that come with ownership, liquidity, equity compensation and growth. While you focus on building the business, we help you secure your financial interests.

Founders

Tailored Advice

The ability to anticipate your needs as you navigate every stage of your company’s evolution and your personal wealth journey, offering guidance and solutions to help manage the intersection of the two.

Founders

Unique Experience

Insights into the distinctive financial position of founders, including an understanding of the monetary and emotional value of your company stock holdings, plus tailored recommendations for your portfolio.

Founders

Integrated Expertise

Connect to relevant capabilities across capital-raising and cash-flow management, stock plan administration, liquidity strategies and more.

Founders

A Dedicated Team

We offer unparalleled client service to support you and your vision with customized solutions and personalized service—all delivered in a secure, digitally sophisticated environment.

Contact Us

Connect with a dedicated Morgan Stanley team to discuss your personal and business wealth planning, capital raising and workplace solutions needs.

Client Stories

How the Integrated Firm Delivers

The Morgan Stanley Blueprint video series shares the operating model that powers our clients’ most defining moments—where visionary founders and executives achieve breakthrough growth with the support of Morgan Stanley’s integrated expertise across capital raising, wealth optimization and workplace solutions.

 

Reddit is the most human place on the internet, according to Founder and CEO Steve Huffman. In this Blueprint episode, he shares why involving Reddit’s users was central to the company’s IPO. Partnering with Morgan Stanley, Reddit shaped a differentiated investor story that was community-first and brought its moderators into the room. It also offered a Directed Share Program that allowed Reddit users to become real owners of the company.

Our users are the editors and gatekeepers, and then in the IPO, our users got to invest alongside the pros. Now we're on the same team. It’s great for us, it's great for them, it's great for the platform. And I think being public provided that alignment.

Steve Huffman

Reddit Founder & CEO

Founder Survey Reveals Insights on Growth, Capital and the Path to Liquidity

Founders are broadening capital strategies, embracing interim liquidity solutions such as tender offers, and paying close attention to IPO readiness, according to Morgan Stanley’s Founder Survey.

Key Decisions Shaping the Founder Journey

As founders navigate growth and liquidity, critical choices emerge across ownership, capital strategy and technology. Morgan Stanley experts share how to approach equity, M&A and AI.

Insights

Founder Insights

The latest research, trends, ideas and perspectives for founders.

Wealth Management

The Exit Option Most Founders Forget

Global Capital Markets

A Larger, Broader IPO Market Takes Shape

Morgan Stanley At Work

Liquidity Perspectives From Private Company Leaders

Investment Banking

5 Forces Driving Mergers and Acquisitions in 2026

Investment Banking

Private Company Strategies in the Age of AI

Wealth Management

Tax-Savvy Investment Strategies for Founders

Wealth Management

Navigating the Emotional Transition of Selling a Business

Research

Wellhub CEO: Redefining Corporate Well-Being

Wealth Management

How Company Founders Can Maximize Tax Savings

Wealth Management

How to Manage Taxes on Equity Compensation

Wealth Management

How to Sell Your Own Company’s Stock

Wealth Management

4 Personal Wealth Considerations Ahead of Your Company’s IPO

This material has been prepared for informational purposes only. It is not an offer to buy or sell or a solicitation of any offer to buy or sell any security or other financial instrument or to participate in any trading strategy. This material does not provide individually tailored investment advice and has been prepared without regard to the individual financial circumstances and objectives of persons who receive it. Past performance is not a guarantee of future results. Diversification does not guarantee a profit or protect against loss. Morgan Stanley does not provide legal, accounting or tax advice. Individuals should consult their tax advisor for matters involving taxation and tax planning, and their attorney for legal matters. For the purposes hereof, Morgan Stanley includes Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) and its affiliates.

Output from an artificial intelligence tool or service may be convincing but is subject to limitations, including accuracy, incompleteness, or embedded bias.

 

Morgan Stanley Wealth Management’s Outsourced Chief Investment Officer (OCIO) program, provides a discretionary investment management solution for accounts generally in excess of $50 million in assets. The program’s robust investment process includes investment policy statement development and review, customized asset allocation, investment product selection, risk management, disciplined rebalancing and ongoing portfolio monitoring. To learn more about the OCIO program, read the applicable Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC ADV brochure and/or brochure supplement, available at www.morganstanley.com/ADV. In the OCIO program, accounts are subject to an annual asset-based fee which is payable quarterly in advance (some account types may be billed differently). In general, the Fee covers all fees or charges of Morgan Stanley (including investment advisory services, brokerage commissions, compensation to Morgan Stanley Financial Advisors and Morgan Stanley custodial charges) except certain costs or charges associated with the account such as any applicable Sub-Manager fees or certain securities transactions, including dealer mark-ups or mark-downs, auction fees, certain odd-lot differentials, exchange fees, transfer taxes, electronic fund and wire transfer fees; charges imposed by custodians other than Morgan Stanley.

 

Participating in a new issue/syndicate is subject to availability. IPOs are highly speculative and may not be appropriate for all investors because they lack a stock-trading history and usually involve smaller and newer companies that tend to have limited operating histories, less- experienced management teams, and fewer products or customers. Also, the offering price of an IPO reflects a negotiated estimate as to the value of the company, which may bear little relationship to the trading price of the securities, and it is not uncommon for the closing price of the shares shortly after the IPO to be well above or below the offering price.

 

Morgan Stanley at Work services are provided by Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC, member SIPC, and/or its affiliates, all wholly owned subsidiaries of Morgan Stanley.

 

The testimonial may not be representative of the experience of other customers and is no guarantee of future performance or success. Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC has not provided any compensation in exchange for the testimonial and testimonial provider was a current client of Morgan Stanley at the time of the testimonial’s publication.

 

NOT ALL PRODUCTS AND SERVICES ARE AVAILABLE IN ALL COUNTRIES OR JURISDICTIONS.

 

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