Open letter from Cake CEO - Kim Hansen

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Hi Founder,

You may recently have heard about equity management companies taking private data and - without the customer’s permission - using that data to try and encourage secondary transactions. Quite understandably this breach of trust has upset a lot of people.

I am writing to be very clear that this is not something Cake has done, or will ever do. You have our absolute assurance that we will never take your data and use it in any way other than what you have entrusted us to do with it. We are in the business of helping you manage your equity, motivate and engage your teams and to do so in a way which is in line with our shared values of integrity and reliability.

We are unequivocal about this.

Building a startup is tough. We need to push the boundaries, find new ways, explore the gray zones and to succeed in having a massive impact we need to do things differently. As the world continues to transition from capital abundance and high late stage valuations to capital scarcity, things have become a lot tougher. I understand how hard it is to find new ways of generating reliable revenue streams.

But as founders and startup teams our role is also to set boundaries. It has never been growth at all cost at Cake, particularly if that cost includes integrity and trust. We all seek to thrive in this environment. And we know that it is a long hard journey to build a successful startup. Please know that we support you, we respect you, and above all we appreciate you and your trust and we will never, ever take it for granted. We are on this journey with you.

If you have any questions or any feedback, or you would like to find out more about our privacy and non-solicitation policies, please click here.

Yours sincerely,
Kim Hansen
Co-founder and CEO