A lot of us have heard about Corporate IPOs? But what about Human IPOs? Sounds
interesting? Then here it is: Human IPOs is a marketplace where you invest
in…well.. “People”. Let’s discuss this in detail.
So What Are the Examples of Human IPOs?
One of the leading global examples of a Human IPO is Tristan Pollock.
Being a startup investor, Pollock had gone public on a Human IPO earlier this year.
And, that’s not all: in his platform people can sell up to 500 hours of their time,
that too in the open market, at one hour per “share”. They can also choose a price
they wish to quote.
This Is How It Typically Works
investors bet on those hours, which they feel is definitely worth more in the future,
whether to them or someone else. In turn, share owners can redeem that time. The
value of a person can move up and down depending on the dynamics of the market
conditions.
Another example of a Human IPO is that of Kirill Goryunov and Vlas Lezin.These
co-founders of Human IPO, figured out this idea in 2018, after a deep conversation,
wherein they concluded that people are often the best assets of a company.
Having spent his career working in the tech space, most recently in Google
Goryunov and Lezin, a former VP at Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo, together
agreed that “human capital” is truly the untapped potential of a business…it’s that
intangible value of a person in the workplace.
Accordingly, they unveiled the Human IPO, albeit quietly. The tagline there read
“Issue, trade, and redeem human equity backed by time.” What’s more, the site
garnered lots of attention, especially when a feature on the site termed “Product
Hunt” brought in a wave of curious visitors.
According to Goryunov, Human IPO has over a thousand “investors” with a healthy
pipeline of around 600 applicants who are eager to sell their time on the platform.
In other words, Human IPOs let individuals establish their own price.
Further, Goryunov and Lezin are designing a machine-learning algorithm which
gleans data from platforms like LinkedIn and Glassdoor. The data thus extracted
can be used to assess an individual and suggest their initial “stock” price.
Limitations of Human IPOs
One of the limitations is that algorithms can be only as good as their inputs.
Parameters to determine someone’s value in the contemporary business world,
such as salary, designations and the opportunities they have received are full of
biases.
At times there are also questions being raised about the ethicality of implementing
such a concept. Critics also point out that the return on investment is never nearly
as good as RoI in the stock market.
Final Thoughts
Simply put, Human IPOs are nothing but a marketplace to invest in people. If you want to invest in
Human IPOs all you have to do is explore and discover some of the promising and talented people
whom you believe in.
Furthermore, you have to buy, sell and exchange human equity…all backed by future time.
So, explore this new-age concept of Human IPOs now…
