All Hands — The Next Best Thing to UBI

Act I

Companies stopped going public.
Retail investors got locked out.

For the last 20 years — driven by Sarbanes-Oxley compliance costs, abundant private capital, and founder-friendly market dynamics — high-growth technology companies have been staying private longer and longer. Many never go public at all.

4 yrs

Median age at IPO
1999

→

12 yrs

Median age at IPO
2024

7,322

Public U.S. companies in 1996

4,300

Public U.S. companies in 2024
— a 41% decline

$13T+

Total value held in U.S. private markets (2024, McKinsey Global Private Markets Review)

582

U.S. unicorns (private companies valued at $1B+) as of 2024 — a record high
— CB Insights

💡

The most transformative companies of the past two decades — from Facebook to Uber to SpaceX — created the majority of their value while still private. By the time retail investors could buy a single share, the exponential growth phase was already over.

Facebook

Worth $104 billion at IPO. Early private investors earned 2,000x+ returns.

Uber

Stayed private for 10 years. Raised $25B in private capital. IPO investors have seen negative returns for most of its public life.

SpaceX

Valued at >$1T+ and still private.

Stripe

The world's most valuable fintech at $65B. Founded in 2010. Still no public shares after 15 years.

Act II

This isn't just a finance problem.
It's a civilizational one.

When the greatest wealth-creation engine in human history — technology — is accessible only to the already-wealthy, inequality doesn't just grow. It compounds. And history tells us what happens next.

Top 1%

now owns more wealth than the entire bottom 90% combined

— Federal Reserve, 2024

63%

of Americans cannot cover a $500 emergency expense without borrowing

— Bankrate, 2024

0.45 → 0.49

U.S. Gini coefficient increase since 1990 — approaching levels seen before historic social upheavals

— World Bank

U.S. Gini Coefficient (1967–2023)

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

"Throughout history, extreme inequality has been one of the most reliable predictors of societal collapse. When the gap between elites and the general population widens past a tipping point, the social contract fractures — not gradually, but suddenly."

— Luke Kemp, Goliath's Curse: The History and Future of Societal Collapse

Inequality is spiking across the entire Western world

🇺🇸 United States Top 10% hold 70% of all wealth

🇬🇧 United Kingdom Top 10% hold 57% of all wealth

🇩🇪 Germany Top 10% hold 60% of all wealth

🇫🇷 France Top 10% hold 55% of all wealth

🇨🇦 Canada Top 10% hold 58% of all wealth

🇦🇺 Australia Top 10% hold 52% of all wealth

Act III

And now AI is putting this
on fast-forward.

Artificial intelligence isn't a distant threat — it's actively reshaping the labor market right now. White-collar jobs that were considered "safe" are being automated at unprecedented speed, while the wealth created by AI companies flows almost exclusively to private market investors.

Goldman Sachs Research

"AI could replace the equivalent of 300 million full-time jobs worldwide"

McKinsey Global Institute

"Up to 30% of hours worked in the U.S. could be automated by 2030"

World Economic Forum

"AI will displace 85 million jobs globally by 2025"

Challenger, Gray & Christmas

"Tech layoffs in 2023–2025 exceeded 400,000 workers, with AI cited as a primary factor"

The AI Paradox

$15.7T

Projected AI contribution to global GDP by 2030 (PwC)

but

~0.1%

Of the population — primarily VCs, founders, and institutional LPs in private AI companies

⚠️

The bottom line: Fund managers, venture capitalists, governments, and AI startup founders all have the same problem — if they don't find a way to give some of the massive wealth-creation returns from their companies and investments back to the everyday investor, the pitchforks are coming.

Act IV

A trillion-dollar opportunity
hiding in plain sight.

The demand for retail-accessible private market investments isn't theoretical. It's massive, measurable, and growing every day. But existing vehicles — closed-end funds, interval funds — are too complicated, too expensive, and too illiquid for the everyday investor.

Estimated Retail Demand for Private Market Access

$1T

$4T

Sources: Bain & Co., Morgan Stanley, KKR retail strategy reports

$36T

Total U.S. retirement assets — virtually none allocated to private markets

ICI, 2024

73%

of individual investors say they want access to private market investments

Fidelity Investor Survey, 2023

<5%

of retail investor portfolios are allocated to private markets (vs. 30–50% for endowments)

Cambridge Associates

So why hasn't anyone solved this?

🏛️

Sarbanes-Oxley

SOX compliance costs $1–5M/year for public companies. It isn't getting repealed anytime soon, and it's a major reason companies stay private longer.

💸

Closed-End Funds

Typically 1.5–3% annual fees, opaque structures, chronic NAV discounts of 10–20%. Not a retail-friendly solution.

🔒

Interval Funds

Limited quarterly redemptions (usually 5% of shares), high minimums, and expense ratios above 2%. Too illiquid for most investors.

📋

Accreditation Rules

SEC rules restrict most private investments to "accredited investors" — those with $1M+ net worth. The very people who don't need the access.

Act V — The Breakthrough

All Hands has cracked the code.

For the first time ever, All Hands has created a new type of investment vehicle that can bring private market wealth creation to the world's retail investors — at incredibly low fees, with a structure that is infinitely scalable.

🌊

Retail-Accessible

No accreditation required. No $250K minimums. Available to any investor through standard brokerage accounts — the way it should be.

📉

Radically Low Fees

A fraction of the cost of closed-end or interval funds. No 2-and-20. No 1.5% management fees. Designed for retail economics from day one.

🔗

One Leg in Each Market

A fund manager uniquely positioned with one leg in private markets and one in public — bridging the gap that has locked out retail investors for two decades.

📈

Infinitely Scalable

The structure is built to manage not just billions, but hundreds of billions of dollars within a decade. This isn't a niche product — it's infrastructure.

How All Hands Compares

Feature	All Hands	Closed-End Fund	Interval Fund	Direct VC
Retail Accessible	✓ Yes	Partially	Partially	✗ No
Fees	Very Low	1.5–3%	2–3% + carry	2% + 20% carry
Liquidity	Daily	Exchange-traded (at NAV discount)	Quarterly (5% cap)	10+ year lockup
Minimum Investment	~$1 (1 share)	1 share (~$10–50)	$10K–$250K	$250K–$5M
Private Market Exposure	✓ Yes	Limited	✓ Yes	✓ Yes
Scalability	$100B+ potential	Moderate	Limited	Limited

The Deal Flow Mechanism

The hardest part isn't building the vehicle.
It's getting into the rounds.

Private investment rounds from Series D to IPO are among the most competitive assets in the world. The best deals are oversubscribed before most investors even hear about them. Allocations are hoarded by established relationships. The idea that a fund serving retail investors could simply "buy in" is naive.

All Hands needed a mechanism to guarantee access to deal flow — not by competing on capital, but by appealing to something more powerful: self-interest and ethics.

The Mechanism

⚡

The Problem for Founders & VCs

If society continues to watch a tiny elite capture 100% of the wealth created by AI and technology — while everyone else faces job displacement, stagnant wages, and economic exclusion — the social contract will break. The founders and VCs who built that wealth will not be immune to what follows.

History doesn't forgive those who concentrated wealth during revolutions.

→

🤝

The Solution: The Pledge

All Hands is establishing The Pledge — a non-profit modeled after Warren Buffett's Giving Pledge — to rally the most influential investors and founders in Silicon Valley around a shared ethical commitment and a concrete, binding promise.

Sign the Pledge. Protect your legacy. Help society avoid the cliff.

What Signatories Commit To

I

The Ethical Acknowledgement

An admission and understanding that it is the correct ethical imperative for VC funds and startup founders to share a portion of the extraordinary wealth they create — not just with philanthropic causes after the fact, but with the retail investors of the world in real time, as the wealth is being created.

II

The 15% Allocation Promise

A binding promise to allocate 15% of each fundraising round from Series D onwards through IPO to retail investors — via funds structured like All Hands that are specifically designed to pass that access through to everyday people at low cost and with full liquidity.

Inspired By

The Giving Pledge

Warren Buffett & Bill Gates' commitment by the ultra-wealthy to donate the majority of their wealth. 240+ signatories. Trillions committed. Changed the culture of philanthropy.

→

All Hands

The Pledge

A commitment by VC funds and startup founders to allocate 15% of late-stage rounds to retail investors. Not charity — a sustainable mechanism that benefits everyone: founders, VCs, retail investors, and society.

🏛️

A Non-Profit Built for Groundswell

All Hands is in the process of establishing The Pledge as a formal non-profit entity — providing the credibility, governance, and permanence needed to attract high-profile signatories and build a groundswell of commitment across Silicon Valley and beyond.

The goal: create enough signatories that not signing The Pledge becomes a reputational liability — the way not joining the Giving Pledge eventually became a statement in itself.

1

Founders & VCs sign The Pledge

→

2

15% of D-through-IPO rounds reserved for retail vehicles

→

3

All Hands accesses guaranteed allocation

→

4

Retail investors participate in private market growth

→

5

Wealth is shared. Inequality eases. Pitchforks stay down.

Are you a founder or VC fund interested in signing The Pledge?

Express Your Interest

The Investment

We're raising $5M to build the future of
retail investing.

All Hands is raising $5 million into a new type of fund manager with one leg each in the private and public markets.

This fund manager could scale to billions of dollars in revenue. Given the economics and the structural advantages of the vehicle, this will likely be the last money that All Hands ever needs to raise.

Raise Amount

$5M

Addressable Demand

$1T — $4T

Scalability Target

$100B+ AUM

Future Raises Needed

Zero

All Hands Flywheel

Private Market Access

Retail Distribution

Low Fees at Scale

AUM Growth

Get Involved

The tide is rising.
Are you in?

We're in active conversations with investors who understand that democratizing private market access isn't just a good investment — it's a necessity.

Reach out directly

sgs@allhands.space

"All Hands — the next best thing to UBI."

The greatest wealth creation in history
is happening behind closed doors.