Mike Merrill
Kenneth Michael Merrill (born May 17, 1977), known as Mike Merrill or K. Mike Merrill, is an American entrepreneur, content producer, and the creator of KmikeyM, the world’s first publicly traded person platform. Since 2008, shareholders have purchased shares in his life and voted on his personal decisions.
Early life
Merrill grew up in Coldfoot, Alaska, an unincorporated community with a population of roughly 10. His father served as an Alaska State Trooper. His mother ran the CARES rescue squad. He has two brothers, Gene and Curt. The family was homeschooled.
For high school, Merrill attended school on the Kenai Peninsula in Soldotna, then transferred to Sitka for his senior year.
Military service
At 17 (approximately 1995), Merrill enlisted in the US Army. He served as a Military Police officer stationed in Heidelberg, Germany, for roughly two and a half years. Merrill has described his time in the Army as formative but does not romanticize it.
Career
Portland and Panic (1998-2013)
After leaving the Army, Merrill moved to Portland, Oregon, around 1998 with childhood friend Josh Berezin. He joined Panic Inc., the software company, where he worked in customer service for approximately 10 years. He was not a programmer. Merrill has described his time at Panic as an apprenticeship, calling it the closest thing he has to a formal education.
Around 2001, Merrill co-founded Urban Honking with Steve Schroeder and Jona Bechtolt. The group produced interactive web projects, games, and events in the Portland creative scene.
On November 4, 2003, Merrill first recorded the idea that would become KmikeyM. On January 26, 2008, he launched the IPO, selling shares in himself at $1.00 each.
In 2013, after a WIRED feature brought the KmikeyM shareholder count past 500, Merrill quit Panic and co-founded Chroma with Marcus Estes. The decision to leave Panic was made by shareholder vote. Chroma was accepted into the Nike+ Accelerator, later launched Chroma Fund, and became the first company to register a legal security on a blockchain.
Los Angeles (2017-2024)
In 2017, Merrill moved to Los Angeles. He did not put the move to a shareholder vote, and his approval rating on KmikeyM crashed to 34%. He worked at Sandwich Video, a production company, in a role he described as “Major Domo.”
During the LA period, Fox Searchlight optioned his life rights. Amazon later developed “JNNA,” a series based on the KmikeyM concept.
McDonald’s, Vibes, and AI agents (2025-2026)
In 2025, Merrill worked at McDonald’s for six months, a period that coincided with the second season of his Hamburger Business Review content series. He then joined Vibes, a startup, as Head of Content. By 2026, he was operating five AI agents to manage different areas of his life and work. He relocated to Kosovo, running the agent system remotely.
Personal life
Relationships
Merrill’s romantic relationships have sometimes been subject to KmikeyM shareholder votes:
- A girlfriend during the early KmikeyM period (2006-2011), central to The Vasectomy Vote.
- Marijke (2012-2018): Shareholders voted to approve a formal relationship contract.
- Kathryn: Current partner as of 2026.
Key friendships include Josh (childhood friend from Alaska) and Marcus (frequent collaborator and Chroma co-founder).
Public statements
Merrill’s public remarks tend toward self-aware deflection. At TEDxVienna, he told the audience: “The persona of the publicly traded person, the character who only wore Brooks Brothers and was an exceptional success, is over. The publicly traded person is now just me.”
In an interview with Matt Lauer on The Today Show, when asked what worries him, he said: “I worry about disappointing myself.”
He has been direct about the limits of the KmikeyM model: “This is not a model that in any way I’m promoting that everyone should do.”
Media
Merrill has been featured in WIRED, The Today Show, VICE, The Atlantic, Fast Company, CNBC, Playboy, and The Hustle. He presented at TEDxVienna. Fox Searchlight, Jason Bateman, and Amazon have all pursued adaptations of his story.
References
- The Publicly Traded Human Goes NSFW — Playboy, 2017
- Meet the Man Who Sold His Fate to Investors at $1 a Share — Wired, 2013
- How I Became the World’s First Publicly Traded Person — TEDxVienna, 2021
- The World’s First Publicly Traded Person — Marketplace, 2021
- Publicly Traded Man — Spectrum News 1, 2021
- Der Mann, der über sein Leben abstimmen lässt — NZZ, 2018
- The Man Who Sold His Life — Nas Daily, 2024