Chicken Soup for the Soul got its start by publishing stories mostly authored by everyday people hoping to share their memorable moments with a wider audience. This summer, the Cos Cob-based company that’s since expanded into numerous industries announced its first stock offering, and it’s not straying far from its roots in the process.
Using a Regulation A+ initial public offering, Chicken Soup for the Soul is marketing 900,000 shares of Class A common stock in the entertainment portion of the company to many of the same people who grew up reading its books.
Using a method that Chicken Soup chief executive Bill Rouhana terms as “Chicken Soupy,” the relatively new sort of stock offering his company chose allows for fans to buy stock alongside traditional Wall Street investors, he said.
“We try to act like our brand would imply,” Rouhana told Hearst Connecticut Media in an interview. “Usually in traditional public offerings, individual investors don’t get a fair share of the offer — institutions get most. We wanted to level the playing field, so we allocated 900,000…