In this edition of “Behind the Waterfall”, our Business Development Manager in the US, Tate Stone-Frisina, shares his journey to private markets and qashqade and what makes the company special.
Tate, what brought you to qashqade?
I originally came to Switzerland in May of 2025 to coach baseball. I had been working in technical consulting for a couple years and left my role in Chicago to explore what I wanted to do in my career. I met Oliver, qashqade’s CEO, through the Challengers baseball club in Zurich and we actually coached a team together. I was interested to learn about his company and I was instantly drawn to passion he showed when talking about qashqade and the people involved. I always wanted to be part of a smaller company with a great culture, so when Oliver floated the idea of me coming aboard, I jumped at it. So far, it has been a wonderful decision and I have enjoyed the collaborative and innovative culture of qashqade.
What makes qashqade special in your eyes?
As I have deepened my understanding of both the Private Markets industry and qashqade’s product, I have realized just how special and unique the product is. The platform we offer is truly one of a kind, and as someone who is on the sales side, this is incredibly exciting. The product stands alone in my opinion, but the people are definitely the best part of this company. I have been impressed with the culture that has been built within qashqade and that is what makes me excited every day.
Why private markets? What initially sparked your interest in the industry?
Working in this space is interesting to me because private markets involve companies from every industry in the world. Every trend or geopolitical move matters and must be taken into account. I have enjoyed learning the intricacies of different segments of the market and the everchanging landscape is definitely exciting. I worked with a diverse group of people from all backgrounds in my time in consulting and I feel as though I can get to know anybody. I am very excited to make more connections within the industry and meet people from all parts of the globe.
What trends are you seeing in your area of work?
The most exciting part of the industry, for me, plays directly into our product. That shift is towards automation and efficiency in every part of businesses. Our product when plugged into a process can be a gamechanger for most companies when it comes to efficiency and automating a very tedious part of private equity. Waterfall calculations historically, have been tracked on large spreadsheets where one mistake can take hours to find. Transparency and trust are also age-old trends in the industry that I think we have seen come to the forefront more in recent years. Eliminating as much risk as possible will only benefit companies.
What’s something exciting happening at qashqade right now?
The newest release of the software, version 25.0.0, is an exciting new development. I joined the company in the middle of the testing phase and seeing how much work has been put into this release is amazing. The improvements to being user friendly are something I have experienced firsthand as I am learning the product hands on. The ability for people outside of the company to be able to understand and use the software is exciting.
