LOYAL3: Own What You Love™

This case features San Francisco–based financial technology startup, LOYAL3. Founded in 2008, the company seeks to disrupt the capital markets and democratize access to those markets for retail investors. By the fall of 2014, LOYAL3 had three products. In the first, the Social IPO Platform™, LOYAL3 acted as co-manager of an issuing company's initial public offering (IPO), enabling individual investors to purchase IPO shares at the same price—and the same time—as institutional investors. The second product, the Social Stock Plan™, allowed investors to purchase stock in publicly traded companies they liked. The third product, Stock Rewards™, enabled companies to grant free stock to customers in lieu of promotional discounts or in recognition of brand loyalty. LOYAL3 CEO Barry Schneider viewed 2014 as a watershed year. The company had participated in 10 initial public offerings to date. In the case he contemplates the product roadmap going forward.