Episode 4: Why Private Equity's Reliance on Spreadsheets Is Causing Multi-Million Dollar Distribution Errors with Oliver Freigang

When everyone told Oliver Freigang that automating waterfall calculations was impossible, he saw an opportunity.

After his employer rejected the idea, Oliver and his co-founder Gregor bet their own money that they could solve one of private markets' most complex-and most broken-problems. That bet became qashqade, a Swiss fintech now protecting billions in fund distributions from the kind of errors that keep CFOs up at night.

The shocking reality: Between 80-95% of complex Excel spreadsheets contain errors (KPMG study). When you're calculating who gets paid what from a billion-dollar fund exit, even a small error can mean millions going to the wrong people.

IN THIS EPISODE:

Oliver shares the origin story of building qashqade after being told it wasn't possible, drops the stat that should make every GP and fund administrator pause, and explains why both Excel AND AI fall short when billions are on the line.

We cover:

• Why industry giants said waterfall automation was impossible-and what happened when Oliver proved them wrong
• The real $6 million error that KPMG missed (yes, a major fund administrator)
• Why Excel, the backbone of private markets for decades, is finally meeting its match
• What happens when you try to hand waterfall calculations to AI (spoiler: 4% hallucination on $10 billion = $400 million in potential errors)
• How the finish line handshake works between qashqade's calculations and 6lock's verified money movement
• Oliver's vision to become the global standard for waterfall calculations

CHAPTERS:

00:00 - Cold Open: The KPMG Error Rate Study

03:40 - The qashqade Origin Story: They Said It Was Impossible

12:14 - The Problem: Excel, Error, and the Billion-Dollar Spreadsheet

24:39 - How It Works: Automated Waterfalls and Why Complexity Is Your Friend

34:11 - The AI Question: Can ChatGPT Do Your Waterfall?

46:41 - The Full Money Movement Stack: From Calculation to Secure Movement

52:36 - The Vision: Making qashqade the Global Standard