Democratizing startup investing is a much bigger problem than democratizing very simple speculation, so simple & straightforward a child can figure it out. Look at google. Its trading around $580. Just 2 weeks back it was well over $610. So you say, okay in a month it'll be back above $610. The 1 month otm call on goog is $10 for a 600 strike. You check your pockets. You have $10. You figure, you plonk down $10. Then check back on March 17th. If goog crosses $610 you make the difference. Here I'll even do the math for you: (580,-10),(590,-10)...(599,-10),(600,0),(601,-9),(602,-8),...(610,0),(611,1),(612,2)....(650,40) etc. so that's the list of tuples, one has the google stock price & the other the money you make. So you break even at 610 & after that the sky's the limit. So can you bet $10 ? No. Why not ? Beats me. You can put down $1000 for a 100 bets. But you say, I don't want 100 bets. I just want 1 bet. 1 bet is $10. I have $10. Let me bet. Nope. Sorry. You think this will change anytime soon ? If you can legalize single option trading, you can structure any startup investing on top of that. Many people will lose many $10, but some people will make $10 too, and life will go on.