Legendary LSU and NBA basketball star Shaquille O’Neal wants to make it easier for you to buy into initial public offerings.
As The Wall Street Journal reports, O’Neal has made an investment in tech startup Loyal3 Holdings Inc., a San Francisco brokerage firm whose website and mobile app enable companies to sell a piece of their IPOs directly to small investors looking to put as little as $100 to work.
Shaq, as he’s known to the world, says that while private investments are rare for him, he was struck by the company’s aim of fee-free trading and wide access to IPOs after meeting Loyal3 CEO Barry Schneider.
“Before Loyal3, you read a lot about IPOs that only certain people and friends and family can get their hands on,” he says. “Loyal3 is all about the common man.”
Unlike a typical IPO distribution, where buyers are hand-picked by bankers and the sellers, the shares sold through Loyal3 are made available on a first-come, first-serve basis to the companies’ customers or the general public, in amounts ranging from $100 to $10,000.
“I was the first mega superstar to get rid of his $100 shoe deal, and now I sell affordable shoes at Walmart and stores like that,” O’Neal says. “I’m all about the guys who go to work every day and need a paycheck for their family.”
O’Neal says that in the early ‘90s he only invested in bonds—“I was terrified,” he notes—before cautiously wading into stocks, first with PepsiCo Inc., then Apple Inc., then General Electric Co. What’s worked best for him, he says, is investing in companies where he felt a personal connection.
“When I believe in a product and a company, I stand behind it. When I’ve tried to make a quick buck, it’s never worked. I’m zero for fifty,” he says.
O’Neal had previously invested in Google, before its 2004 IPO, and in Tout, a mobile video platform that is still private, in 2011. He will also join Loyal3’s advisory board, and says he’ll try to help promote the company.
