It'd be nice if smaller investors (I could probably invest up to $10k or $15k without too much pain) could reasonably be paired up with small percentages of lif

It'd be nice if smaller investors (I could probably invest up to $10k or $15k without too much pain) could reasonably be paired up with small percentages of lifestyle businesses. But nobody is going to get rid of the friction in that market until much, much larger markets have significantly reduced friction. Whoever is de-frictioning needs to make enough money for it to be worth it. And small-to-medium investors willing to tolerate high risk combined with stable, successful businesspeople opening new small businesses has got to be a small total market. At least, compared with startups, VCs and large tech businesses. Still, somebody will eventually make some money by making that market work.