Velira vs Secfi
Secfi is a specialist for startup employees with equity in venture-backed companies. Alongside equity-planning tools and guidance, its distinctive offering is capital: non-recourse financing to exercise pre-IPO stock options (and cover the tax that exercise triggers), plus support for secondary sales and liquidity — typically for later-stage private companies. If your central problem is 'how do I afford to exercise my options,' Secfi is purpose-built for exactly that.
Velira is a whole-balance-sheet engine, not an equity-financing provider. It is a read-only decision-support app for people whose money is complicated — investments alongside business equity, illiquid stakes, earnouts, and private notes — that tells you the move your plan calls for each day, grounded in survival math, with an auditable rule trace. It models equity compensation and exercise/IPO/liquidity decisions in depth (ISO/NSO/RSU/ESPP/QSBS with AMT), and its higher tiers add a dedicated fiduciary CFP, a dedicated CPA for personal tax planning and 1040 filing, and a dedicated Estate Planner — all flat-fee, no AUM. What it does not do is lend the money to exercise or broker the share sale.
The distinction is the job each does. Secfi solves the capital and liquidity problem for one asset — your startup equity. Velira solves the decision and survival problem across your entire balance sheet, with human advisors available, keeping confirmed money strictly separate from contingent upside. For someone with concentrated startup equity, they can be genuinely complementary.
| Capability | Velira | Secfi |
|---|---|---|
| Core job | A daily decision engine over your whole balance sheet, with a human advisory layer on the higher tiers. | A startup-equity specialist: planning tools plus financing to exercise pre-IPO options. |
| Scope | Your entire picture — brokerage, business equity, real estate, private notes, earnouts, cash, and debt. | Focused on startup stock options and pre-IPO equity for venture-backed-company employees. |
| Option-exercise financing | Models the exercise, tax, and cash-flow decision and can advise on it — but does not provide the capital to exercise. | Provides non-recourse financing to exercise pre-IPO options and cover the exercise tax. |
| Secondary / liquidity | Models liquidity, IPO, secondary, and 10b5-1 scenarios; does not broker or transact share sales. | Supports secondary sales and liquidity for eligible private-company shares. |
| Equity-comp modeling | ISO/NSO/RSU/ESPP/QSBS with AMT and exercise-timing analysis, inside the full plan. | Equity-planning tools and models tailored to startup stock options and their tax. |
| Human advisors | Higher tiers add a dedicated fiduciary CFP, a CPA (personal tax planning + 1040 filing), and an Estate Planner — flat-fee, no AUM. | Personalized guidance plus a free AI equity assistant for stock-option questions. |
| Eligibility | Open to anyone with a complex balance sheet — no company stage, valuation, or equity requirement. | Financing typically targets later-stage private companies expected to exit within a few years. |
| Money management & custody | Read-only by architecture — models and recommends; never takes custody, lends, or executes a trade. | Provides financing capital and, where applicable, facilitates share transactions. |
| Confirmed vs. contingent money | Two-ledger discipline: confirmed 'honest floor' kept strictly separate from probability-weighted upside. | Helps model equity value and outcomes so you can decide on exercising or selling. |
Who Velira is for
Velira is for people with complex, affluent balance sheets who want a daily engine that watches their real, connected accounts and tells them the move their plan calls for — across everything they own, not one asset in isolation — with human CFP, CPA, and Estate Planner support available on the higher tiers.
For a startup employee, that means seeing concentrated equity in the context of the whole plan: how an exercise or a sale changes the survival floor, the tax picture, and the confirmed-versus-contingent split — decisions Velira models in depth and can advise on, without lending the capital or brokering the trade.
Where Secfi may fit better
If your central need is capital — non-recourse financing to exercise pre-IPO options and cover the tax, or help selling shares on the secondary market — Secfi is purpose-built for that and is the right tool. Velira models and advises on the exercise-and-liquidity decision, but it does not provide the financing or broker the sale.
Secfi and Velira are naturally complementary for someone with concentrated startup equity: use Secfi for the capital and liquidity mechanics of the options themselves, and Velira to place that equity inside a daily, survival-grounded view of the entire balance sheet — with human advisors on call — and confirmed and contingent money kept apart. Pick the tool that matches the problem in front of you today.
See Velira on your own numbers
Velira is read-only by architecture and never executes a trade — it tells you the move your plan calls for, and you place it. It is decision-support, not financial advice.