Student offers a slice of capital investing

Rising Engineering sophomore Rohan Shah believes that “business comes as a result of you solving a problem.” And that’s just what he’s doing with his startup, Slice Capital — Shah is seeking to make buying and selling shares in startups more accessible.

“Slice Capital is a platform that allows anybody to buy and sell shares in the coolest, newest startups,” he said. “We’re looking to democratize the funding space so that the power is not only in the hands of venture capitalists and angels.”

Shah feels that allowing people to invest in the startups they believe in creates a more intimate relationship than simply buying a product or a service.

“By allowing people to invest in the startups, they’re personally invested in the long-term growth of the company,” he said.

Shah started working on his idea in December 2014, and by the next summer, he and co-founder Krish Dholakiya began actually implementing their plan. At the time, they were only planning on allowing people to buy shares, but they’ve since expanded to allowing people to sell them as well.

“It’s going to be like a full-on stock market,” Shah said.

He thinks the company is going to be a “game changer” by giving people flexibility.

“If people put, say, two thousand dollars into this pseudo stock market, they’re not going to want their two thousand dollars stuck in the system for five to seven years until the company exits, right?” he said. “We’re trying to make the capital as accessible as possible.”

Shah predicts his company will continue to grow and change, to even allow people to invest in already successful startups.

“My vision is having ... a market where people can buy not just startups that they may not have heard of, but maybe the newest, coolest startups that they use on a day-to-day basis, like Uber or Lyft or Airbnb,” he said.

He also acknowledged the risk of investing, and his desire to make it more accessible for most people. He thinks one way to achieve this accessibility is by allowing people to purchase index funds, or to disperse their money among shares of multiple companies.

“Startups are inherently risky,” Shah noted. “If you invest in a bunch of companies at once, there’s a much higher chance of one of them doing well, and there’s a much higher chance of your investment being profitable.”

In light of his experience in creating a startup, Shah also had advice for other aspiring entrepreneurs, suggesting that success in business is often born from necessity, not just a desire to start a business.

“If you’re looking into getting into entrepreneurship just for the sake of getting into entrepreneurship, then it’s probably not a path that you want to go down,” Shah said.

To get on the waitlist for Slice Capital, go to www.slice.capital

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