The Liberman brothers might be the oddest entrepreneurs you’ve ever met.
In four decades, David and Daniil have only been apart for a handful of days. They work together, take calls together, and even share a king-size bed.
Why all this togetherness? As Daniil explained, “We realized we are sort of a superhuman when we’re together.”
It sounds strange. But they might be onto something:
In the past decade alone, they’ve sold a startup to Snapchat, created a hit TV show, and come up with a game-changing investment idea. It certainly seems they’ve cracked the code to making money.
And now you can invest in them — literally. In exchange for your capital, you can own a stake in everything they do over the next 30 years.
This might be a weird investment. But it might also be very profitable…
It Works for IBM and Tesla. Why Not for People?
To set the stage here, let’s think about how investors value companies.
When investors value companies, they don’t just value a company’s cash in the bank, or how much it will earn this year.
Instead, they calculate how much it might grow and earn in the future. That’s how they arrive at a fair value for it today.
For example, IBM is priced at about twenty times its current earnings. Tesla, on the other hand, is priced at about one hundred times its current earnings. Investors are expecting a lot of growth for Tesla.
This puts Tesla in an enviable position. To invest in its future, it can sell some of its stock for cash, and then use that cash for things like R&D, hiring technologists, marketing, etc. — in other words, activities that can create significant future value.
But now imagine something new:
What if people could do the same thing as Tesla?
What if you could sell shares in yourself?
LibermansCo
That’s exactly what the Libermans are doing.
In exchange for an investment today in what’s called LibermansCo, investors will receive a piece of the profits from the Libermans’ business and investing activities over the next 30 years.
This includes gains from any companies they start, any private investments they make, and any salaries or commissions they earn.
Effectively, the Libermans are offering a stake in their financial future.
LibermansCo is currently valued at four hundred million dollars, and investors have already snapped up about twelve million dollars of their offering. If all goes well, the Libermans hope to list themselves on the stock market sometime next year.
Should you consider an investment today?
Pros and Cons of an Investment
On the “pro” side, the Libermans have already proven they know how to connect with the rich and powerful and make money. In the past decade:
- The brothers built a startup, Kernel AR, that was acquired by Snapchat.
- After joining Snapchat, the Libermans helped turn the company around. “[They were] the game changer for Snapchat, to reaccelerate growth and success,” says Jerry Murdock, co-founder of Insight Partners, one of the world’s largest venture funds.
- They also created a hit TV show in Russia.
Murdock calls them “hilariously networked.” As he said, “The Dalai Lama seemed to like them a lot. Then I introduced them to Richard Branson.”
Arielle Zuckerberg, a sister of Facebook’s founder, is an investor in the Libermans. She believes the brothers have “almost uncapped upside — because they’re addicted to building, have tons of ideas…”
But on the “con” side, the concept of selling life-shares is unproven. Some believe it’s exploitive. Others are horrified about putting a dollar value on human life.
Furthermore, future returns are nearly impossible to calculate. As venture capitalist Sam Lessin explained, “It works only when someone can squint and say, O.K., you’ll probably fail, but if you work we’re going to make a ton of money.”
A Better Alternative
As you learned today, life-shares are an unusual and controversial investment.
If you’re interested in investing in the Libermans, you can do so here »
The thing is, we have a similar-but-better alternative…
At Crowdability, we often talk about the importance of “investing in people” when we invest in startups. But we mean that figuratively — in other words, we believe you should invest in startups that have high-quality teams.
So, over the next month or so, I’ll be explaining why a strong team is so important to startup investment success…
And I’ll be sharing a number of startups that not only have great teams — but are currently raising capital from investors like you.
Until then, happy investing!
Best Regards,
Founder
Crowdability.com
