[mordae]

Or maybe 20 customers who believe that having a shared ship might form a join stock company to take care of their respective 5%... and when the venture proves itself, they might convert it to a publicly traded company and let it scale up with demand.

[tonymillion]

that's literally an angel investor financed startup

[munificent]

> Or maybe 20 customers who believe that having a shared ship

You might describe these people as "capitalizing a venture", in fact, or "venture capitalists".