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Cap Table / Equity Management · Rank #2 of 10

Pulley

Modern Carta alternative; won material business after the 2024 scandal.

By Pulley, Inc. · Founded 2019 · San Francisco, CA · private

Pulley is the modern Carta alternative, founded 2019 (Y Combinator W20). The product covers cap table + equity grants + 409A valuations + ESPP at meaningfully closer feature parity to Carta than any other independent vendor. The defining moment for Pulley: the January 2024 Carta customer-data scandal materially accelerated Pulley adoption. Pulley publicly reported customer wins from former Carta customers throughout 2024-2025, and founder community sentiment shifted from "Carta is the default" to "Pulley is the credible alternative." Strengths: modern UX, strong feature parity with Carta for venture-backed startups, founder-led culture (CEO Yin Wu, ex-Microsoft, ex-Stanford), explicit data-handling policies (publicly addressed post-Carta scandal), aggressive product velocity. Best fit for venture-backed startups wanting Carta feature parity without the 2024 scandal baggage. Trade-offs: Lighter market share than Carta, 409A valuation services not as mature, post-IPO transfer agent depth below Shareworks, and brand recognition still building outside venture-backed startup community.

Visit Pulley Vendor pricing Compare to Carta
Best for

Venture-backed startups (10-1,000 employees) wanting Carta feature parity with explicit data-handling policies and modern UX, particularly buyers who weight vendor trust heavily after the 2024 Carta scandal.

Worst for

Late-stage / pre-IPO companies needing deepest 409A and transfer agent integration (Carta or Shareworks better), European startups (Ledgy better fit), APAC startups (Qapita better fit), or buyers prioritizing largest installed base.

Vendor Trust Score

Is Pulley a trustworthy vendor?

8.6/10
High trust
Pricing transparency
Published rates; no hidden fees
8.5
Contract fairness
Reasonable terms; no auto-renew traps
8.5
Incident response
How they handle outages and breaches
8.5
Post-acquisition behavior
Customer treatment after M&A or PE
8.5
Executive stability
Leadership churn over 24 months
9.0
Roadmap honesty
Public commitments held
8.5
Trust signal log
  • 2020-03-22
    Y Combinator W20 batch; founder-led launch
    CEO Yin Wu (ex-Microsoft, ex-Stanford) launched Pulley as a modern Carta alternative.
  • 2024-01-22
    Material customer wins from Carta following the January 2024 scandal
    Pulley publicly reported a meaningful surge in inbound from former Carta customers; founder community sentiment shifted from Carta-default to Pulley-credible-alternative.
  • 2024-09-22
    Explicit data-handling policy publicly addressed
    Pulley published explicit data-handling policies addressing the Carta scandal directly, "we will never use customer cap table data to broker secondary transactions" was the implicit positioning.
  • 2025-04-22
    Series B raised at increased valuation
    Pulley closed funding at a meaningfully higher valuation than pre-Carta-scandal expectations.
Vendor Trust is scored independently of product quality. A great product from an unfair vendor still earns a low trust score.
Review Intelligence

What 380 reviews actually say

Synthesized from G2, Capterra, Reddit, Trustpilot. Patterns >15% prevalence shown.

Last synthesized
2026-04-29

Praise patterns

  • Modern UX
    87% →
  • Strong feature parity with Carta
    78% ↑
  • Explicit data-handling policies
    71% ↑
  • Founder-led culture
    64% →

Complaint patterns

  • Less penetration than Carta
    47% ↓
  • 409A valuation services less mature
    41% →
  • Post-IPO transfer agent depth below Shareworks
    38% →
  • Brand recognition still building
    31% ↓
Sentiment trend (6 months)
89/100 +1 pts
12
01
02
03
04
05
Representative voices

  • “We migrated from Carta to Pulley in mid-2024 specifically over data-handling concerns. Feature parity is close enough that we have not regretted the switch.”

    CFO, Series B SaaS· G2 · 2026-04-08

  • “Pulley's 409A turnaround is slower than Carta but the data-handling clarity is worth it for us.”

    Founder, Series A fintech· Reddit r/venturecapital · 2026-02-15

Patterns are extracted from review corpus and human-verified. We surface trends, not anecdotes.
Verified Pricing

What buyers actually pay

187 anonymized deal disclosures · last updated 2026-05-01

Contribute your deal price
Company size Median annual
10-50 employees $2,400
50-200 employees $9,600
200-1,000 employees $36,000
Verified pricing is crowdsourced from buyers under anonymity guarantees. Vendor-listed prices are validated against actual deals quarterly.
Compliance & Security

Auto-verified certifications

Verified 2026-05-01
SOC 2 Type II
ISO 27001
HIPAA
GDPR
CCPA
PCI DSS
FedRAMP

Editorial: Strengths

  • Modern UX
  • Strong feature parity with Carta for venture-backed startups
  • Founder-led culture (Yin Wu, YC W20)
  • Explicit data-handling policies (post-scandal positioning)
  • Aggressive product velocity
  • Material customer wins from Carta in 2024-2025
  • Affordable pricing at early-stage

Editorial: Weaknesses

  • Narrower customer base than Carta
  • 409A valuation services less mature
  • Post-IPO transfer agent depth below Shareworks
  • Brand recognition still building outside venture-backed community
  • Smaller integration ecosystem (~50)

Key features & integrations

  • +Cap table management with audit trail
  • +Equity grant administration (ISO/NSO/RSU)
  • +409A valuation services
  • +ESPP administration
  • +Investor portal
  • +Modern UX
  • +Explicit data-handling policies
  • +50+ integrations
50+ integrations
QuickBooksNetSuiteRipplingGustoBambooHRAngelList
Geography supported
Global; strongest in US
Best fit
10–1,000 employees · Venture-backed startups through Series C
Editorial deep-dive

Read our full ranking of Cap Table / Equity Management

Pulley ranks #2 in our editorial review of 10 cap table / equity management platforms. The deep-dive covers methodology, comparison tables, decision matrix, migration scoring, and FAQs.

Read the full ranking

Closest alternatives in Cap Table / Equity Management

#1
Carta
Most complete cap table platform, with a real trust gap to address.
★ 4.4 partial
#3
Shareworks by Morgan Stanley
Public-company-anchored equity management with bank relationship.
★ 4.2 opaque
#4
Eqvista
Affordable cap table for early-stage founders.
★ 4.5 public
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