Models without contracts need some seed capital to get their career off the ground. Aspiring super models list their details on the site, and ask people to invest in them. Anyone can buy a share in the model, and the “stakes” start at $1. Once a model reaches $10,000 in sponsorship they obtain “golden beauty” status and are flown to Paris and London for photo-shoots with top fashion photographers. Each Golden Beauty gets a professional modeling portfolio assembled from photos taken at those sessions, and will be introduced to international modeling agencies in order to obtain castings. All accommodation and other expenses will are taken care off.

Sponsors in return get a 50% cut of the models earnings for one year should the model reach golden beauty status, divided by the value of their stake.

The obvious question is will a golden beauty be fully promoted to her full potential, or will punters simply lose their money. The answer is that Beauty Holdings takes a 10% gross cut of earnings and gets a one year exclusive contract on the model, so it’s in their own interests to maximize potential income from each golden beauty, otherwise they miss out as well.

The concept of betting on future earnings isn’t new. Sports stars and even movie productions have offered investments on future earnings in the past, although this is the first time I’ve seen it with models. It is however, like any investment, a high risk gamble with no guarantees of future success.

The site is also fairly new, so there is no model yet to even obtain $1000 in sponsorship, let alone $10,000, so the concept is unproven now and possibly well into the future, but that doesn’t make it a bad idea. There’s also only one way to find out. VictoriaW for the win.