OK, I’ll be honest.  I just can’t keep up.  There are at least 10 projects I would like to push forward with right now, but without funds, I’m stuck.  Literally, it is the dream where you try to yell out for help as loud as you can, and a muffled whisper is all that comes out.  Rather than carefully putting all my eggs into one perfected basket, and then investing everything I have in that one direction, I have decided to push out in all directions.  Sure, as the funding and interest have started to come in, I have been more focused, but I still do a solid 50 hours a week for my full time government gig, and until I can go without that income, I’m going to be over here yelling out, and I have more than one thing I’m excited about.

I don’t like blogging about myself, but the above intro really is the motivation behind today’s thought.  There really should be an option to crowdfund a person.  I have searched both “crowdfund a person” and “crowdfund an individual” and there is no match out there to either phrase.  All I can think of is it being a really cool option for investors, as opposed to individual projects where factors may not align, or individual efforts may become out-executed.  Also, there is a personal advantage to such a connection, if it is done properly.  Lastly, this model just makes more sense, logically and financially.

Enter the Startup Zoom model.  See Idea 69.  That post should prove the logical and financial argument to investment in a person in a structured way as opposed to just investing in a project.  An agreement to use this as a starting point, would allow for several things.  Accountability and transparency would be foremost for the investor, with an enabling structure and value for the entrepreneur.   Now without going too far down the hypothetical road, I see a model in the future for personal stock.  Imagine investing in a person and having that investment follow them from company to company.

So how would it work?  Well, in brainstorming this idea today, I wound up coming up with idea 69.  It’s all pretty fresh in my head, but the basic structure is pretty simple.  You agree to invest in a particular person, and in return, they agree to give you a percentage of whatever company that money goes towards, on the basis of a pre-determined rate.  For instance, you invest 10k in a person and that money goes 5k to company A and 5k to company B.  You and the investor agreed on 1% per 5k.  This is contrary to the mythological math used to valuate a company.  You know, on Shart Tank, when the entrepreneur asks for 150k for 25%.  This is when one of the “sharks” gets out a pen and paper to do the Great Oz level calculation of multiplying 150X4 and then keenly say, “so, you’re saying your company is worth 600k?”  No, they are simply saying that they have calculated it will take 150k to get the damn thing going and it’s worth giving up 25% to make it happen.  I always laugh when they bring out that “ironclad valuation” statement.

Anyway, I will work on the idea more as time permits.  Sure would be nice to have some funding and time to make this happen.  “Knock, knock…. Is this thing on?”  🙂