EX-LEHMAN ANALYST’S SITE IS FULL OF HOT AIR
WHEELER dealers in the City may already be aware of the name Nicolas Dickreuter the former Lehman Brothers M&A analyst who hit the headlines last year with a penny auction site, psychoauction.com, offering iPods, stereos and other expensive goods for a fraction of the price.
Not content with his first stab at entrepreneurialism, Dickreuter is now making a second comeback with his second business, psychobanker.com.
And although the new site seems at first glance to be a regular trading platform, there’s a twist in that users are trading none other than seemingly worthless commodities such as “hot air” (yes, really) and grains of sand.
“It’s a model of the City in miniature,” enthuses Dickreuter. “You get the same rush when you make a deal, the same highs and lows, but you’re dealing with smaller sums that belong to you.”
All very novel, I’m sure, though our man’s ex-Lehman colleagues aren’t overly impressed with his big ideas, judging by a scathing blog post on the bank’s online alumni forum.
Quoting a Dickreuter quip that “if I keep on losing money, I may have to look for investors”, one former co-worker deadpans: “If only he had been introduced to Dick Fuld in time…”