SEM217: Chi Zhang, Kamyar Kaviani, Nikita Vemuri, and Simon Walter (UC Berkeley) - Putting the 'I' in IPO

Tuesday, November 13th @ 11:00-12:30 PM

Putting the 'I' in IPO

Chi Zhang, Kamyar Kaviani, Nikita Vemuri, and Simon Walter (UC Berkeley) 

As an alternative to traditional loans, young people could issue securities that pay dividends that depend on their future financial success in life. This type of a personal IPO is especially desirable for young people, who for example may need money for a college education, because it allows them to shift the risk of repayment to investors who bet on their future success, unlike in a traditional loan setting. In this seminar we will report a framework for estimating an indicative IPO price for individuals and placing the securities with investors. We will also demo an app that is designed to make participating in personal IPOs possible both for experienced and newly starting investors. This work was conducted as part of the Chengdu 80 hackathon and it is joint work with Chris Kennedy and Sören Künzel.