For decades, private equity, hedge funds, and venture capital have been exclusive clubs. Institutional investors, billion-dollar pension funds, and elite family offices have dominated these markets. Why? Because the barriers to entry—high fees, opaque structures, and massive capital requirements—kept everyone else out. But technology is reshaping industry after industry, and investing should be no different. It's time to remove the complexity and open the gates to the rest of the world.
The 2% Problem
Let's start with the fee structure that underpins the traditional private investment world: “2 and 20.” Two percent of assets under management, and 20% of any profits. This model, common in PE, hedge fund, and VC, has become so normalized that it’s rarely questioned. But it should be.
A 2% annual fee might seem modest at first glance. But over the life of a 10-year fund, it quietly drains investor capital before a single dollar of profit is made. Add the 20% performance fee, and you begin to see how stacked the model is in favor of the fund managers. For an average investor, the effective return after fees can be significantly lower than the headline figures. Worse, the lack of transparency in how these fees are charged—especially the "hidden" costs buried in fund operations—only widens the trust gap.
Imagine a platform that takes the opposite approach. Transparent fees. Minimal friction. No fine print. A place where users keep more of what they earn. In an age of near-zero transaction costs and hyper-efficient digital platforms, there's no good reason a fee structure born in the 1980s should still dominate.
Most People Don't Know How to Invest
Here’s a simple truth: most people don’t know how to invest. That’s not a knock on intelligence. It's a reflection of how the system has been designed. Investing, particularly in private markets, is wrapped in a fog of jargon, gatekeeping, and complexity. Due diligence, cap tables, liquidity preference, carried interest—none of this was meant for the average person to understand easily.
Even in public markets, where access is easier, the majority of people either don’t have the time or the confidence to manage their money effectively. That’s why robo-advisors, ETFs, and index funds gained popularity. They removed the friction, gave people a starting point, and helped them feel in control. But private markets never had that moment. They’re still run on PDFs, gatekeepers, and conversations behind closed doors.
The right platform can abstract all of this away. Instead of expecting users to become experts in private investing, it should offer intelligently curated opportunities, contextual education, and a user experience built on clarity. It should make it as easy to invest in a private opportunity as it is to book a flight or send a payment online. No acronyms. No financial engineering. Just clean, simple access.
The Barrier of the Buy-In
There’s another problem. Even if someone wants to invest in private equity or venture deals, they’re likely to be blocked by the minimum investment amounts. It’s not uncommon for PE funds to require $250,000 or more just to get in the door. Most venture capital funds aren’t much different. This isn’t just a filter for quality—it’s a moat built to keep most people out.
Why? Part of it is regulatory. Part of it is legacy thinking. But most of it is inertia. No one has seriously tried to build a system that makes these assets available in smaller, more manageable bites. The result is a private capital market that serves institutions while ignoring individuals. It's an inefficient system that locks up trillions of dollars of potential demand simply because no one bothered to design an on-ramp for retail.
This isn't about tokenizing everything or gamifying investing. It's about building infrastructure that brings trust, accessibility, and scale to the space. It means structuring deals so that someone can start investing $1,000 instead of $100,000, and still get exposure to high-growth companies or unique real estate assets. It means legal, financial, and digital engineering working together to break down the wall between "them" and "us."
From Complexity to Clarity
Great products remove friction. They don’t ask users to become experts; they do the hard work behind the scenes and present the result in a way that feels obvious. Think of how Stripe made payments seamless for developers. Or how AWS abstracted away the mess of server management. Or how Tesla made electric cars not only viable, but better. In each case, complexity wasn’t eliminated—it was hidden under a clean interface.
Investing should be no different. Users shouldn't have to parse through 50-page pitch decks or understand a waterfall structure just to make a decision. They should be presented with simple, transparent opportunities, along with clear risk signals and performance tracking. If you can shop online with one click, you should be able to invest with similar ease—and with more control.
What’s required is a shift in mindset. From exclusivity to accessibility. From complexity to simplicity. From legacy systems to software-first thinking.
Why Now
The timing couldn’t be better. We’re in a period of technological maturity where infrastructure, compliance, and UX can finally converge to make this happen. Fintech has already proven that people want better financial tools—look at the rise of platforms like Robinhood, Coinbase, and SoFi. The next frontier is private markets.
Explore this Platform: Openvest
By abstracting away the hard parts—legal structure, deal sourcing, due diligence, fund administration—a modern platform can give people what they’ve never had: access. Real access. Not just a crowdfunding site or a backdoor through a syndicate. But a serious, scalable alternative to the traditional wealth machine.
And in doing so, it can unlock billions in dormant capital, empower a new generation of investors, and ultimately shift the balance of financial opportunity.
The Opportunity Ahead
When we look back a decade from now, we’ll wonder why it took so long. Why did we allow opaque fees, high barriers, and outdated systems to dominate one of the most powerful wealth-building tools in the world?
We don’t need more complexity. We need better design. We need systems that work for people, not just institutions. We need platforms that do what the best products always do: make the hard things feel simple.
The wealth gap isn’t just about income. It’s about access. And access starts with removing the friction. One click at a time.