System and method for funding companies

Abstract

A system and method for funding investment seeking companies (ISCs), e.g., startup companies, by a funding company is disclosed. For each of the ISCs, in exchange for private equity therein, the funding company issues a corresponding publicly tradable class of its own stock substantially based on the performance of the ISC. The ISCs are categorized according to characteristics important to investors, e.g., type of technology, revenue, and products or services (to be) offered so that ISCs in a same category compete against one another for funding distributions from the funding company. In particular, income returns on the investments of proceeds from public sales of each class of stock are periodically distributed among competing ISCs according to, e.g., the share prices of their corresponding class of funding company stocks.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method for managing investments, comprising:
 establishing a separate enterprise;   providing a network interface for facilitating communication between potential and actual investors and the separate enterprise and a plurality of privately held enterprises;   collecting, for at least one of the plurality of privately held enterprises, money and/or equity for the purpose of making investments through the separate entity;   investing, for at least one of the plurality of privately held enterprises, proceeds from the collecting of money and/or equity for at least one of the plurality of privately held enterprises by the separate entity;   evaluating, using specifically configured computational machinery, the at least one of the privately held enterprises for allocating a portion of the invested proceeds to the at least one privately held enterprises; and   assigning the at least one privately held enterprises with their corresponding allocated portions of the invested proceeds;   wherein the steps are performed using a computational machine specifically configured to assist in managing the invested proceeds;   wherein the step of evaluating includes comparing, using specifically configured computational machinery, the return to the at least one privately held enterprise to the return to at least one other privately held enterprise receiving a return on the invested proceeds; and   wherein the method further comprises a non-transitory computer readable medium having machine instructions encoded therein for implementing the step of providing the at least one privately held enterprises with their corresponding portions of the invested proceeds.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the system includes a network site for communicating, via the network, with investors for buying or selling shares of the separate entity stock in a plurality of classes, comprising:
 machine instructions encoding an evaluator for determining a funding distribution to one or more of the plurality of privately held enterprises, wherein the evaluator uses a share price of the corresponding shares based on the equity in a first of the plurality of privately held enterprises to determine a funding distribution to at least a first privately held enterprise, and evaluator uses a share price of the corresponding public shares based on the equity in at least a second privately held enterprise to determine a funding distribution to the second enterprise; 
 wherein the evaluator determines the funding distribution to the at least a first privately held enterprise according to a computational process that relates the funding distribution for the first privately held enterprise to the share price of the corresponding public shares based on the equity in the first privately held enterprise; 
 wherein the evaluator determines the funding distribution to the at least a second privately held enterprise in a manner that varies proportionally to the funding distribution to the first privately held enterprise; 
 wherein the evaluator is in operative communication with the network site or data storage accessible by the network site for presenting information indicative of the funding distributions to at least one of: (i) one of the investors and the first privately held enterprise. 
 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the investments comprise one or more of principal, interest, equity, privately traded shares of stock, publicly traded shares of stock, private contracts and phantom stock. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the class of separate entity stock for the first privately held enterprise is purchasable by one or more investors separately from a purchase of the class of separate entity stock for the second privately held enterprise, and the class of separate entity stock for the second privately held enterprise is purchasable by one or more investors separately from a purchase of the class of separate entity stock for the first privately held enterprise. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 2 , further including a step of determining the corresponding portion of the invested proceeds to be provided to the first privately held enterprise by modifying an initially determined first distribution amount to conform to one or more predetermined funding criteria. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 3 , wherein the equity obtained by the separate entity in each of the plurality of privately held enterprises is private equity. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the separate entity is a privately held company. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 2 , further including a step of combining the invested proceeds from at least a first privately held enterprise with the invested proceeds from at least a second privately held enterprise. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 2 , further including a step of collecting a monetary fee from one or more of the plurality of privately held enterprises by the separate entity prior to the step of investing proceeds. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the step of evaluating includes determining corresponding equity in the first privately held enterprise dependent upon one of a bid and an asked for value. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the step of evaluating includes determining the portion of the invested proceeds for assigning to the at least one privately held enterprise in a manner that considers the value of the equity held by the managing enterprise in the at least one privately held enterprise. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 2 , further including:
 receiving a return on the invested proceeds for at least one first privately held enterprise and one second privately held enterprise of the plurality of privately held enterprises;   evaluating, by specifically configured computational machinery, each of the at least one first and one second privately held enterprises for determining a corresponding portion of the return to be provided to each the at least one first and second privately held enterprises, wherein an evaluation of the at least one first privately held enterprise in this second evaluating step is dependent upon a value of the equity held by the separate entity in the at least one first privately held enterprise, and wherein an evaluation of the at least one second privately held enterprise in this second evaluating step is dependent upon a value of the equity held by the separate entity in the at least one second privately held enterprise; and   providing each of the at least one first and second privately held enterprises with their corresponding portions of the return.   
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein the second evaluating step is not dependent on the corresponding allocated portion assigned to the at least one first privately held enterprise. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 2  further including repeating the steps of investing, evaluating, and assigning, wherein in each subsequent repetition, performance of a corresponding instance of the evaluating step determines the value of the equity held by the separate entity in each of the plurality of privately held enterprises at a later time than each previous step of evaluating. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 2  further including a step of issuing, by the separate entity, shares in at least one of the plurality of privately held enterprises. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein a share price of the corresponding shares for the at least one of the plurality of privately held companies is based on the equity held by the separate entity in the at least one of the plurality of privately held enterprises. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 16  further including the step of receiving a disbursement from the at least one first privately held enterprise, and distributing the disbursement to one or more investors owning the shares based on the equity held by the one or more investors in the at least one first privately held enterprise. 
     
     
         18 . A method for managing investments in a plurality of privately held enterprises, comprising:
 providing a network interface for communication between potential and actual investors and the separate entity and the plurality of privately held enterprises;   collecting, for each of the plurality of privately held enterprises, money and/or equity for the purpose of making investments through the separate entity;   investing, for each of the plurality of privately held enterprises, proceeds from the collecting of money and/or equity for each of the plurality of privately held enterprises by the separate entity;   evaluating, using specifically configured computational machinery, one or more of the at least one private enterprises for determining a portion of the return to provide to one or more of the at least one private enterprises; and   providing one or more of the plurality of privately held enterprises with their corresponding portions of the return;   wherein the method further comprises a non-transitory computer readable medium having machine instructions encoded therein for implementing the step of providing one or more of the plurality of privately held enterprises with their corresponding portions of the return; and   wherein the system includes a network site for communicating, via the network, with investors for buying or selling shares of the separate entity stock in a plurality of classes, comprising:   machine instructions encoding an evaluator for determining a funding distribution to one or more of the plurality of privately held enterprises, wherein the evaluator uses a share price of the corresponding shares based on the equity in a first of the plurality of privately held enterprises to determine a funding distribution to at least a first privately held enterprise, and evaluator uses a share price of the corresponding public shares based on the equity in at least a second privately held enterprise to determine a funding distribution to the second enterprise;   wherein the evaluator determines the funding distribution to the at least a first privately held enterprise according to a computational process that relates the funding distribution for the first privately held enterprise to the share price of the corresponding public shares based on the equity in the first privately held enterprise;   wherein the evaluator is in operative communication with the network site or data storage accessible by the network site for presenting information indicative of the funding distributions to at least one of: (i) one of the investors and (ii) the first privately held enterprise.   
     
     
         19 . A method for managing investments made for a plurality of privately held enterprises, comprising:
 providing a network interface for communication between potential and actual investors and the separate entity and the plurality of privately held enterprises;   collecting, for each of the plurality of privately held enterprises, money and/or equity for the purpose of making investments through the separate entity;   investing, for each of the plurality of privately held enterprises, proceeds from the collecting of money and/or equity for each of the plurality of privately held enterprises by the separate entity;   evaluating, using specifically configured computational machinery, one or more of the at least one private enterprises for determining a portion of the return to provide to one or more of the at least one private enterprises; and   providing one or more of the plurality of privately held enterprises with their corresponding portions of the return;   wherein the separate entity obtains a minority share of private equity in each of the plurality of privately held enterprises;   wherein for each of the plurality of privately held enterprises, the separate entity issues corresponding public shares of a class of separate entity stock, wherein the corresponding separate entity shares for the class are based on at least a portion of the separate entity's equity in the privately held enterprises;   wherein for each of the privately held enterprises, the separate entity receives a return on invested proceeds from a sale of the corresponding separate entity class of public shares based on the equity in the privately held enterprises, comprising:   performing, using specifically configured computational machinery, at least the steps of:
 evaluating each of the first and the second privately held enterprises for obtaining, respective first and second data related to a corresponding portion of the return to be provided to each of the first and second privately held enterprises, wherein the evaluation of the first privately held enterprise is dependent upon a first value of the corresponding public shares based on the equity in the first privately held enterprise, and wherein the evaluation of a second privately held enterprise is dependent upon a second value of the corresponding public shares based on the equity in the second privately held enterprise; and 
 determining, dependent upon a result from the evaluating step, a corresponding portion of the return to be provided to each of the first and second privately held enterprises; and 
 providing each of the first and second privately held enterprises with their corresponding portions of the return.