Name: Michael Sha
Age: 29
Location: San Francisco, CA
Why we care: Mike Sha believes people can generate better investment research than banks and brokerages can. He founded Wikinvest to prove it — and if he's right, there will be a lot more unemployed stock brokers in a few years.

Were you always an entrepreneur? Did you have a lemonade stand or something as a kid?
I used to collect bottles and cans for recycling. In Pennsylvania, where I grew up, there was no return, but in New York, you got a nickel. I spent a month with my grandmother in Queens every summer, so I'd save the cans, haul them up to NYC and collect the money. You could put all the cans in the can-crushing recycling machine and hit the button at the end to get all the money, but I found it more satisfying to get the nickel each time I put in a can.

Let's talk about Wikinvest. Online trading has proliferated since the dot-com boom, but it took a long time to make it "wiki-ed."
The stockbroker as we knew him, the guy that executed the trade for $60-100 a pop, will be a thing of the past 10 or 20 years from now. There'll always be people that you call to consult for information, but the transactional product has moved online. That founded the basis for Wikinvest: accessible, usable information for the public.

How do you pay yourself? Have you given yourself a raise recently?
I actually elected not to take a salary. Founding the company, making something out of nothing, was a really payment for me. I've always felt that the capital we raised would be better deployed in the growth of the company.

So how are you supporting yourself? And how long can that last?
Personal savings and investment income — I should be fine for the foreseeable future, and of course if at some point I choose to be paid, I can stop foregoing my salary!

How did you get interested in investing?
My mom was always interested in investing. During summers, my mom would enlist my help in calculating her capital gains and losses. I had to figure out what was short-term, what was long term, and what it all meant.

How old were you? That sounds like a boring way for a kid to spend his summer.
I was in 4th or 5th grade. I actually enjoyed it. It really gave me a familiarity with finance that helped me out with Wikinvest.

How did you actually calculate all that at 10 years old?
If you can believe it, I did it all using Lotus 1-2-3. When I went to college, in the late '90s, with trading going online and the tech stock upheaval, I got involved in day trading and excited by the money and all the stocks moving upward.

Did you get burned in the crash?
Like almost everyone, my portfolio took a bit of a hit, but I think Wikinvest benefited in the long run. When the markets started going south, a lot of people started paying attention to their investment accounts and trying to figure out what to do. Wikinvest ends up being a great tool to help answer some of those questions.

Do you still day-trade?
No, not right now. There's no time.

How are you investing now?
If I were investing, I'd be looking hard at emerging markets. Medical technology. Mobile. Online advertising. I think we're only beginning to scratch the surface of what these industries can be.

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