Word: kleine
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...place at the table? And might not these populist wrinkles--Wit plans to sell similar venture-capital shares in pre-IPO start-ups--affect numerous deals down the line, shifting profits from bankers to entrepreneurs and the masses, perhaps even changing the way whole industries get financed? Might Andy Klein have just sparked a financial revolution...
...owes it all to beer. Klein, 37, is a law student turned securities expert who had his '90s-dropout experience when he fell for two things: a Dutch woman who became his wife and a spicy Dutch brew called witbier (wheat beer), which became his first start-up. The Spring Street Brewing Co. was born in January 1993, and its growth-fueled cash crunch gave Klein his big vision of offering stock to his customers via the Internet...
...like Post-it notes, an idea so impeccable it's hard to imagine that it once didn't exist. Some 3,500 intrepid souls bought $1.6 million in stock via the Spring Street Website; 18 months and numerous SEC consultations later, Klein hopes that by year's end 100,000 customers will each have invested around $16,000--a total of $16 billion--in Wit Capital...
What's worse, Wit penalizes customers who flip their buys for quick bucks. Selling Wit IPO shares less than two months after you buy them will not only cost you 5% of the sale price but also land you at the back of the line next time around. Klein admits this radical strategy--aimed at both encouraging stay-the-course investing and stroking the underwriters who want to stabilize their young companies' stock--removes one ace from his customers' hands. Still, he argues, buying and holding at the offering price is a better bet than buying during...
...investor, you're still on your own. Wit and E*TRADE will balloon your net worth faster than the average high-growth mutual fund only if you do your homework and deduce which deals are worth betting on. "We're only going to be as good as our reputation," Klein says calmly. "We do the due diligence, we investigate the company, we determine what we think is a fair price." Klein thinks that's a winner, but then it's easy to be sanguine when you've got wheat beer to fall back...