Going public with an IPO is a game the big boys, however if a collection of the smaller guys (that includes me), say 40 or so, got together and combined their virtual real estate to form a decent size company (that may also have a "value greater than the sum of its parts" factor going for it) then going public become very fesable. The result is that the contributing website owners will realise a sales value that is maybe around 10 times the annual earnings rather than the typical 1-2 times as is found of the private sale sector. I have spoken to some IPO chaps about this and in theory it works, but has anyone got any thoughts about such a project?
It does not take 2M. Show 300K in earnings and you can make a PO. You can also do micro/penny or smaller stock markets for less. In theory perhaps it might work, however delegating between 40 owners and evaluating worth/return/monetizing each for a buy out would seem messier than a farm... I would grab your top 3-5 candidates at most. Show earnings, be careful of pump and dumps, get a real ebitda made up for all your partners and focus on SanFran Bay area, that's where the most VC's and Angel Investors are that look for network buyouts. Best of luck. NC.