

GoPro IPO on LOYAL3 - vmialik
https://ipo.loyal3.com/gopro

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pavlov
It's always seemed strange to me that IPOs are not open to the public in the
US. Is it some kind of Great Depression legacy?

Here in Finland IPOs have been open since at least the '80s, or maybe
always... In the original dot-com hype days of 1999, there would be long
queues in front of banks as the "Joe Publics" wanted to put their money into
IT stocks that were mostly crap ISPs or web design consultancies. All those
stocks crashed hard a year later, of course. (But then again, you wouldn't
have been much better off investing in the "big and established winners" like
Nokia, which peaked at around 90€ and later traded at below 2€ in the darkest
post-Symbian days.)

~~~
rdl
There was actually a really interesting experiment at the tail end of the
dotcom boom -- the WR+Hambrecht (San Francisco) "OpenIPO". Essentially it was
a dutch auction (I think) for IPO shares, and open to the public. Google was
the big success.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenIPO](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenIPO)

VA Linux did some interesting stuff with their IPO (so did RedHat, I think),
where community members got access above what the public received, too.

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mbesto
Interesting. From the Loyal3 landing page:
[https://www.loyal3.com/](https://www.loyal3.com/)

 _" I love the Amazon brand and service, and now I can invest in this brand
whenever I have a spare $20 or $50." -Jacob Ortiz_

And then on their "About us"

 _We offer a technology platform where people can buy stock in their favorite
brands in 3 easy steps, invest as little as $10 and pay no fees, really.

By using ownership to bring brands together with the people who love them, the
LOYAL3 platform deepens brand engagement and creates more valuable and loyal
stakeholders._

Then the letter from the CEO: [https://www.loyal3.com/about-
loyal3.html#contact](https://www.loyal3.com/about-loyal3.html#contact)

Basically what I read from this is that people can, for as little as $10, own
a piece of any company, especially ones that "they love", and not-legally-
speaking have to do zero financial diligence. I'm all for innovation, but
that's scary.

~~~
rpedela
> Basically what I read from this is that people can, for as little as $10,
> own a piece of any company, especially ones that "they love", and not-
> legally-speaking have to do zero financial diligence. I'm all for
> innovation, but that's scary.

How is that any different than the other trading platforms?

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fatbat
This Loyal3 looks interesting because of the IPOs, credit card purchasing, and
the no fees option.

However I am wondering what happens if the company (LOYAL3) folds since it
allows fractional shares? Closest reference I found was this,

"LOYAL3 Securities, Inc., as a broker-dealer, has to comply with certain
regulations regarding the requirement to have adequate net capital and asset
protection. LOYAL3 segregates your securities holdings and cash in your
account, meaning it keeps your assets separate from the firm’s own assets. In
addition, LOYAL3 Securities, Inc., is a member of SIPC, which protects
securities of the customers of its members up to $500,000 (including $250,000
for claims for cash). An explanatory brochure is available at www.sipc.org."

~~~
hkmurakami
In the case if a full service firm, you can move those shares to another
account at a different institution once the year settles. Should be the car at
this company too, but I suspect that the process would be much more annoying
since you can't just pester a person on the phone for info.

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shaunol
Knowing nothing at all about investing, this looks pretty awesome. I wish they
could provide a global service, being outside of the US.

What are the limitations of using a platform like this to buy shares and what
would the limitations be on their side to be US only?

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imjk
This concept and platform seem like a great thing, but GoPro's $3B valuation
may be aggressive.

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grecy
> _We offer access to all U.S. residents only_

Ugh.

