When faced with a problem or complicated situation it’s not uncommon for a person to ask friends for advice. But would you allow friends to make decisions about how to live your life? In 2008 Mike Merrill decided to split himself into 100,000 shares and set an initial public offering price of $1 per share. Shareholders would get voting privileges and decide what Merrill would do on a daily basis and on a grander scale, no questions asked.
Merrill started out by selling 929 shares to twelve of his friends. He paid $500 to a web developer to create a site with an online trading and voting platform. The share price operates in a free market manner- if shareholders don't like what Merrill is doing, they can simply sell shares and drive the price down. Within five years, Mike sold over 3,700 shares of himself and his stock price, which is calculated in real time, hit a high of $20.
“Over time the shareholders decided they wanted more and more control over his life,” he tells The Daily Ticker. “In fact, that was the value proposition to them. They think, ‘Okay, I can buy a share for $1 and I can tell him what to do.’”
Shareholders voted down a vasectomy when Merrill decided he didn't want children, decided he would wear Brooks Brothers exclusively, that he must be a vegetarian and vote Republican. He even granted voting members the rights to his romantic life, approving every date he goes on and every girlfriend.
When Merrill received a $100,000 life insurance policy through his job, shareholders voted that the money would be split amongst them when he passed away.
Shares in Merrill are obviously not FDIC insured, and even Merrill considers himself a “high-risk” investment. Merrill explains that none of this is legally binding on his Web site.
Culled from Yahoo
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