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Pipo — The first stock market for people
Building a career is expensive. Education, training and equipment cost a lot of money! Instead of borrowing, Pipo enables you to raise money from friends, family and your social network in return for shares in your future success.
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@chakabu @rrhoover Hi Ryan, thank you very much for your question. Here'a a few points in reply.
1. We'll monitor closely the people who come onto the platform to become Pipsters - firstly for security (are they who they say they are?), secondly fit for Pipo (do we think they have what it takes to succeed on the platform?) and thirdly does each new profile have the necessary detail (visuals, links, detail on givebacks etc) to be engaging and attract investors?
2. Like with most crowdfunding, we’re expecting that the first investors on Pipo will be family, friends, and a person’s social network. These will be people that know the person well, and so are aware of many details of the Pipster’s life and career. This acts as a strong incentive for the Pipster to be open and transparent, and to maintain a good reputation on Pipo by doing what they promise to do.
3.Lastly, there is the Pipster reputation - today, we all have our own online brand/presence and we don't want to damage it. The practice of people marketing themselves and their careers online has now become a significant part of life for most people. When everything is connected and transparent, it's hard to hide information.
4. In the future we will be looking at adding an additional feature where funds will be distributed to Pipsters in tranches based on hitting certain milestones, just like in venture capital investing.
Hopefully that answers your question?
Love the idea!
Interesting to see this on the same day Lambda announced a $30MM funding round ... 🤔
@lehrjulian Hey Julian thank you for your comment! Yes I was really excited to see the Lambda funding round go live and I think there are some parallels - like with Lambda this is about a different way of funding some of the expensive stages of life (like education) in return for a share in your future success.
Sounds a lot like Upstart.com that was created by former Google Exec Dave Girouard. They were forced to pivot to essentially be a loan company (https://www.bizjournals.com/sanj...).
One difference here is Upstart had funds allocated to the individuals vs open market. So the risk here is on the supporters and less on the company, but it does not address the fundamental risk of the business model. Can you enforce this? Will the Pips pay back, etc. Upstart has been turned into a debt collection agency more than ever because of these issues.
@tomkuhn great point thank you. I think there are a few big differences. Pipo is for many, many verticals, not just one like education. Pipo is aimed initially at least at young talented people raising money from friends, family and their social network - not professional investors - although everyone is welcome. For questions on the business model and givebacks, please see my answers above to @mastemine and @coconidodev or check out our FAQ: https://pipo.io/faq
Neat idea, and I do think will exist in one form or another at some point. Main feedback now: a) should be more clear on the site that it's not actually real people, and b) I'd be concerned about securities laws and complete earnings auditing to make sure investors actually get their proper return (e.g. there's a reason why the SEC and IRS exist :). Interested to see where this product and/or concept in general goes.
Pros:Neat idea, and can serve a real need with proper execution
Cons:Unclear on the site that it's not real people, plus potential securities and auditing issues
Hi Mishe, thank you for checking out Pipo.
As I wrote in the post, the current profiles are dummy profiles. And no, we don't accept ETH for these profiles. They are connected to the Ethereum QA network (Rinkeby) and no one can invest in these profiles so we are not taking any $ from anyone.
@chakabu Thanks for your reply, and I updated my review accordingly. Suggestion: may want to make that more clear on the site itself :)
@tostartafire i googled the names and profile pictures and it is all fake. they do not make this clear on the website and yet you see comments by so called investors. This project is a scam, nothing more, nothing less!
@tostartafire Hi Dan, thank you very much for your comments. If you go to the site again now you will see that we have added a clear "DEMO" label to all of the profiles so that there is no confusion. We updated this first thing this morning. Thank you!
This is a subject I have been thinking about for years and years. I remember seeing Mike Merill do this back in 2014. Just this month, @jamesg_oca IPO'd himself too (https://trade.jamesgallagher.app/).
It really got me thinking about this as a funding strategy for makers. I have been diving in to the financial models for this type of funding and it is quite complex. It would be great to get a more detailed explanation on the "how it works" that runs through the numbers. #
Last but not least, what are the legalities of it all? More specifically the legal accountability from all parties involved. What can you tell us about that?
I believe that this financial model is one that will be huge in the near future and I LOVE what you have done here. It's a huge step in the right direction but I feel there are so many small knots that still need to be untied before this type of model can truly be adopted.
@jamesg_oca @colinwinhall First of all thank you for your comment! Our FAQs https://pipo.io/faq have a lot of the answers to your questions.
@jamesg_oca @colinwinhall We would love to connect with you and tell you how we're getting round this. @chakabu
@ben_thompson3 Thanks for the reply. I just read through the entire FAQ. Am I right in saying that a "giveback" is basically a security that isn't a security. It comes across that it is a security, just given a different name and without any legal obligations and underwriting that securities come with.
I DM'ed you. We can take this chat away from the comments. I have a lot more questions :-)
@ben_thompson3 @colinwinhall Hi Colin. Thanks for the reply - I will be in touch privately - but for the benefit of others, no a giveback isn't a security, it's more like a dividend - it's given at the discretion of the Pipster.
@coconidodev Hi Nicolo,
Each Pipster defines his or her terms, and the milestones for returning givebacks as part of their campaigns. But no, we’re not expecting this to be for life.
Pipsters will be incentivised to do what they say they will do in the campaign phase in a number of ways:
Firstly, Pipsters will be financially incentivised to keep investors updated and to deliver on their promised givebacks - when each Pip hits a new highest price, the Pipster gets 1% of the transaction value from that investor’s pips-purchase. This incentivises the Pipster to maintain a strong, active and reliable profile on Pipo and to regularly update the chat.
Secondly, there is the Pipster reputation - today, we all have our own online brand/presence and we don't want to damage it. The practice of people marketing themselves and their careers online has now become a significant part of life for most people. When everything is connected and transparent, it's hard to hide information.
Thirdly, like with most crowdfunding, we’re expecting that the first investors on Pipo will be family, friends, and a person’s social network. These will be people that know the person well and have a relationship outside of the digital world. This will act as a strong incentive for the Pipster to be open and transparent, and to maintain a good reputation on Pipo by doing what they promise to do.
Lastly, in future we will be looking at adding an additional feature where funds will be distributed to Pipsters in tranches based on hitting certain milestones, just like in venture capital investing.
Love the concept.. it will be nice to see people actually give back tim returns and how they go about .
Pros:It will be awesome to invest in bunch of people's
Cons:Not sure if the investments be authentically tracked
Hi Omkar! Thank you so much for your comments - our FAQ section has some more information about how givebacks are managed, please check out: https://pipo.io/faq#interacting-...
Hello!
I'm really excited today to present our work and to launch Pipo (early Beta) - a global marketplace for investing in people.
🤔Why did we build Pipo?
We’ve all heard the expression, “the best investments are those made in people”. There are lots of people around us that might be the next big thing - it could be our classmate, one of our colleagues or our neighbour’s son. We know these people’s talent and their chances of success far better than we know the inside operations of Apple, Microsoft or Walmart, right?
So why can’t we invest in the people we believe in?
👩💻How does Pipo work?
Talented individuals (we call them Pipsters) can go public just like companies do, create an attractive profile, issue their own pips (just like shares), and attract investors. Pipsters pay givebacks (like dividends) every month or whenever they reach a significant milestone.
Investors and Pipsters form a mutually beneficial relationship, based on transparent incentives:
--
Pipster gets:
💵Cash investment to fund their talent
👏Financial bonus each time their pip price reaches new high
🧚A supportive community, invested in their success
--
Investor gets:
💸Givebacks from the Pipster
📈Pip-sale - investors enjoy the rise of pips price when trading them in the Exchange
🥰Play a part in the success of someone they believe in
--
🙆Why now?
Social media created the personal brand ➡️
Crowdfunding proved that community funding works at scale ➡️
Freelancing popularity shows the evolution from companies/projects to individual talent ➡️
All of the pieces are now in place to invest in people, not in projects or startups - in people!
👦🏻👩🏻🍳👧🏻👨🏻👩🏻🕵🏻👩🏻⚕️👱🏻♀👱🏻👨🏻⚕️👨🏻🍳👩🏻🎓👨🏻🏫👩🏻🏭👨🏻💻👩🏻💼👨🏻💼👨🏻🔧👩🏻🔬👨🏻🎨👩🏻🚀👨🏻⚖️🤵🏻🙋🏻🙋🏻♂️
🔧We have used the blockchain to quickly develop the Beta platform. Our next step is to adjust the platform to serve non-crypto users as well.
🥳If you’re a talented individual, such as a content creator, digital marketer, sports player, gamer, developer, promising student... create your own Pipo now ➡️https://pipo.io/go-pipo
💜We’d love to hear any feedback, thoughts or suggestions you may have.
Don’t hesitate to play around, create profiles and communicate in the chats. The current profiles are just dummy ones, and it’s a very early version, so have fun!
Thank you very much,
Shahar
@chakabu Glad to see someone pursuing this concept again. I've met with two groups here in SF that tried this concept 2 years ago and they ran into heavy securities laws with the SEC to operate in the US. Given the laws around this in the US are you only launching with investors and talent in a specific country?
I really love this idea! way to go guys. As a solo maker I can definitely see this come in handy. Good luck, see you in my IPO 🕶
Recently watched a short documentary on a guy who started doing this with his life a few years back, interesting concept, still don't know how to feel though
@aaronoleary @jamesg_oca _oca Hi Aaron and James thank you so much for these comments, and congrats James on being publically traded - @chakabu and I would love to connect and fine out more!
@chakabu I was listening to a podcast in which Daniel Gross was the guest. He mentioned a similar idea but warned of a few issues, namely: How do you stop peoples pip value from plummeting after a bad day, just like stocks might? An individual could have one bad day (negative mention in the press or social media) and see the pip value drop, investors could see the falling pip value and see this as a signal to sell causing the pip value to drop even more?
I love the idea, but couldn't find any concrete information regarding this and other issues and I'm just concerned that everything hasn't been thought out especially with an exchange platform in the works
@chakabu @dannyaziz97 Hi Danny, our FAQ https://pipo.io/faq has a lot of the answers - but simply, Pip prices will be dynamic just like regular share prices. They can go up as well as down. Pipsters will be incentivised to make them go up by giving good givebacks, and keeping in regular touch with their investors through the chat. Please do read the FAQ and if any questions please come back to us!
This is amazing. I'm currently working on this same concept. Congratulations to the Pipo team this is revolutionary.
How do you make sure that these people are going to uphold their end of the deal? Like, what if I invest in them, and then once their "days" are up they just vanish. What if they can't find a job like they wanted to for over a year, then what happens?
One of the top guys on the website right now says
"If I secure a position with over £100,000 starting salary, I will give back 7% of my monthly salary to everyone who invested in me each month."
So what happens if he doesn't get a job with 100,000 starting salary? Then what happens to our money we invested? The way its worded he is saying he is going to give 7% back to everyone who invested in him each month, thats $7,000 per person. There is no way, because after 10 investors he would barely have any money leftover??
@mastemine Hi Logan, thank you very much for the questions!
Pipsters will be incentivised to do what they say they will do in the campaign phase in a number of ways:
Firstly, Pipsters will be financially incentivised to keep investors updated and to deliver on their promised givebacks - when each Pip hits a new highest price, the Pipster gets 1% of the transaction value from that investor’s pips-purchase. This incentivises the Pipster to maintain a strong, active and reliable profile on Pipo and to regularly update the chat.
Secondly, there is the Pipster reputation - today, we all have our own online brand/presence and we don't want to damage it. The practice of people marketing themselves and their careers online has now become a significant part of life for most people. When everything is connected and transparent, it's hard to hide information.
Thirdly, like with most crowdfunding, we’re expecting that the first investors on Pipo will be family, friends, and a person’s social network. These will be people that know the person well and have a relationship outside of the digital world. This will act as a strong incentive for the Pipster to be open and transparent, and to maintain a good reputation on Pipo by doing what they promise to do.
Lastly, in future we will be looking at adding an additional feature where funds will be distributed to Pipsters in tranches based on hitting certain milestones, just like in venture capital investing.
The givebacks - in this case the 7% of the salary will be distributed between all the investors. If the Pipster doesn’t find a job in this case - there will be no givebacks. The investor wins when the Pipster wins - it’s a success based investment.
Interesting concept. Definitely sparked enough curiosity to go and read more on your site.
After reading most of the homepage it's not immediately clear what investors get in return for investing in someone. Sure they get givebacks and can sell their pips, but if I was going to use the platform I'd need to understand much more clearly and more concretely what that all looks like.
Even if I just want to use it as a Pipster, because I'm thinking "Will my friends get value for investing in me? Or am I asking for a donation here?"
Just some thoughts from a copywriting perspective (I'm a startup copywriter), but I think you've got something here :)
@pete_zbrojkiewicz hi Pete. Each Pipster will set their individual Pip price and givebacks as their campaign starts. So if you’re the Pipster, you will tell your friends, family and your wider network how you plan to give back. It’s up to you to make it both achievable and attractive to potential investors - just like in start-up funding. Thank you for checking out our site! Did you read our FAQ? https://pipo.io/faq
@tapkain @ben_thompson2 I can't get Google results for Emma Toms and the picture is used everywhere and probably fake. And looks a heck of a lot like Nina Kraviz....
Awesome idea!! wonder how the execution part is gonna be . . . !! Curious to know about the terms and conditions for the investors and the people (who rise funds).
I hope you guys will be shortlisting profiles(who can raise funds) based on various aspects .. if yes .. what are those?
@pradeep_vicky Thank you so much for your question! We're hoping that many different types of people will want to become Pipsters; gamers, fashion designers, web developers, sports people and athletes, vloggers, bloggers and promising MBA students!
We'll monitor closely the people who come onto the platform to become Pipsters - firstly for security (are they who they say they are?), secondly fit for Pipo (do we think they have what it takes to succeed on the platform?) and thirdly does each new profile have the necessary detail (visuals, links, detail on givebacks etc) to be engaging and attract investors?
We have taken inspiration from the initial public offering (IPO), when companies first offer their shares to the public. Pipo works like an IPO for people - that's why we called it "Pipo - the People's IPO. Individuals can Pipo themselves, issue pips, and attract investors. For more detail on how Pipo works please check out our FAQ: https://pipo.io/faq
@ben_thompson2 "Pipsters".. huh?? Like the sound of it. Those are greater filters for profiles/people to put in place. Great job - I'm actually thrilled. All the best of luck & congratulations.
Do you guys have a newsletter that I can subscribe to?
@pradeep_vicky Thank you again! We don’t have. Newsletter yet but you can like us on FB, Twitter, Instagram or LinkedIn, and you can write to us here or through www.pipo.io. Why not consider becoming one of the early Pipsters?
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