Re: "What is really frustrating[ ]. Perhaps Intel should spin out a holding company to Intel shareholders"
It is frustrating. Intel should spin off some type of IntelVC fund and allow private investors to invest into their fund, but at reasonable allotment sizes for the average investor. Right now, the average investor is excluded from IPOs, unless you consider things like (I heard but have not verified) Etrade's 50,000 pre-IPO iVillage shares a fair deal for anyone who was not a platinum investor and (heard) even platinum investors who registered within 4 minutes of the IPO deal announcement didn't get in on the deal. If true, totally exclusive and disgusting.
There's an investment window between early seed stage and IPO-day which is totally exclusive and this shouldn't be the case. Here's the deal:
Generally, the min allotment sizes for pre-IPOs in the VC stage, seem to be 150k, which is nuts. It's unfairly exclusive. Once the VCs get in on these deals, they tend not to let private investors in on them (unless a private investor has brandname appeal to be used in their future prospectus.) So, the only option for a brandless common investor seems to be either: a) find an early seed stage that'll take a tiny, tiny amount (but the investment risk is BIG), b) wait until after the IPO, c) get in on an IPO deal which is most likely an undersold deal a broker is unethically pushing, or d) start an Internut company. After a person succeeds with option d), they become "brandname" and get to do it again, and they also get to invest as an affiliate investor into one of the reputable VC firms. Until then, it's looking in from the outside. The window between early seed stage and IPO-day is very exclusive.
Amy J
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