The New Yorker Magazine featured an interesting piece a few weeks ago titled Share and Share Alike about two Russian brothers, Daniil and David Liberman, who are selling shares of themselves to investors in a bizarre attempt to bring some form of equity to the entirely unjust world of venture capitalism.
“When we measure the wealth of people, we tote up their cash, assets and debts on a given day and take that as their worth-even if we know they’ll earn more going forward. When, on the other hand, investors value corporations, such as Costco, they take into account the company’s likely growth, and figure out a price for a share with that future in mind … The Libermans convinced themselves that, if you let people move their future wealth value around the way corporations do, people and businesses would be more evenly matched.”
As someone who loves to invest and gamble, and often doesn’t see much of a difference between the two, I’m fascinated by the idea that people, and athletes in particular, can sell shares of themselves to the public to give the little guy a chance to prosper off future accomplishments. Put aside for a moment that the Libermans are elite, white, Russian and don’t appear to be overly interested in helping the poor. If a market like this is formed, it has the potential to open an entirely new lane of investment to a class of people that would otherwise never set foot on Wall Street.
As investors, we all know the biggest advantage we have on our side is time. The longer you hold quality companies, the more likely those companies are to boost your portfolio’s returns. Isn’t the same true of people? How many Akron residents would’ve invested early in Lebron Inc. and become millionaires over the last two decades like early investors in Warren Buffet’s Berskshire Hathaway? How many investors would love to invest in the future tennis earnings of Spain’s Carlos Alcarez or America’s Coco Gauff?
Why can’t an up and coming athlete, musician, actor, or engineer sell shares of themselves to friends, family, or the general public to take the immediate financial pressure off in return for sharing a percentage of future earnings? Of course the details need to be worked out. How long do the shares last? What percentage of future earnings are returned to shareholders? If either party wants out, can you sell shares to other people on the open market?
The more I gamble, the more I realize the best bets are usually the ones that don’t feel like bets at all. Betting on individual games is fun but there’s no way to win long term because the outcomes are so unpredictable. Betting on a team’s long term performance, like season win totals or making the playoffs, is a much better bet because you’re wagering on performance over a longer period of time.
I’ve only seen clips, but I’d like to invest in Victor Wembanyama now. If the Libermans can do it, why can’t we all do it?
