SharesPost

This is WAY TOO new to really evaluate, but I wanted to pass it on. From what I can tell, it's another great idea that well, may or may not make it. As always, do your research before investing any anything, but again - this looks like a great idea. From the site:

About Us

Welcome to SharesPost. Here is an overview of who we are and what we've set out to do.

THE PROBLEM WE’RE TRYING TO SOLVE

Just about everyone in the private equity industry recognizes that some fundamental problems jeopardize the prospects for the industry’s participants. Many limited partners need to liquidate substantial portions of their private equity holdings but can’t find an efficient way to do so. Venture capital firms are unable to show attractive ROI’s in large part because there is no liquidity on public exchanges into which even their strongest portfolio companies can exit. Founders who have built successful companies for over a decade find their entire net worth still locked up in a single, illiquid asset. Companies have no way to divest shareholders clamoring for a quick sale despite the companies’ great long term prospects. Regulators, in an effort to create greater transparency, have required funds to mark their assets to “market” but, given there actually is no real market, have left everyone scratching their heads.

The central deficiency giving rise to these dilemmas is the absence of an efficient secondaries market for private equity. If buyers and sellers could find each other efficiently and in volume then LP’s and venture funds could find buyers for their equity, founders could gain some measure of diversification and liquidity, companies could create a shareholder base united around a long term vision for growing the enterprise and regulators (and the rest of us) would finally see what price a willing buyer and willing seller would put on a company’s shares. As Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures said: “[t]he efforts of a few brave souls to create secondary markets for private company stock is going to lead to more data, more transparency, and more liquidity without having to register and do an IPO or sell your company.”

At SharesPost, we set out to solve these problems while complying with the letter and spirit of the securities laws and protecting the interests of companies, investors and entrepreneurs. It’s a big problem and it requires us to balance some competing interests, but we think we’ve done it. SharesPost is all about making private equity liquid.

WHO WE ARE

SharesPost was founded by Greg Brogger in early 2009 with a small team from BrightHouse, the Santa Monica based incubator. Greg has been both a successful entrepreneur and a securities lawyer in the past and draws upon both of those experiences in the building of SharesPost. Our company was launched with the support of a community of distinguished entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, industry luminaries, securities lawyers and technologists. This larger group came together in part of course to build a successful and valuable company but also to rally around the bigger vision, to introduce a much needed liquidity solution for the private equity industry.

CONTACT US

We welcome your input at SharesPost, so please tell us what you think – click here to email us.