Hans Swildens got his start buying distressed venture stakes during the dot-com crash, piecing together early deals out of companies like Enron, InfoSpace, EDS, Williams Communications, and Washington Mutual, and he built his own software and CRM systems to track company, fund, and investor data across the market—an approach shaped by his background as a software entrepreneur who built companies with his brother before starting Industry Ventures. He now focuses on creating liquidity for venture investors through tools like continuation funds and secondaries rather than waiting on IPOs, believes secondaries are becoming a new path to liquidity for venture-backed companies, and is known for structuring deals around what sellers actually need, such as keeping founders in control—an approach built over decades, including a 20-year relationship with Goldman Sachs that evolved from competitor to partner to acquirer.