Hambrecht, the system-bucking champion of using auctions to sell initial public offerings of stock, has developed a following among entrepreneurs since [Google] went public in an auction 18 months ago. Using a method it calls OpenIPO, Hambrecht has auctioned off shares in two companies already this year, after taking five public that way in 2005.

Traffic.com, which provides information about local traffic conditions to radio and TV stations and directly to consumers, raised $78.6 million in late January through an auction led by Hambrecht. A week later, Hambrecht raised $22.5 million in an auction of shares in FortuNet, which makes wireless gambling machines.

Google inspired followers. Last year, Morningstar, a financial research company, hired Hambrecht to take it public in an auction that raised $140.8 million, but only after Morgan Stanley refused to do things Morningstar's way. The underwriters in that deal kept just 2 percent of the proceeds.

If the question of the moment is, ''What did we do before Google?'' at W. R. Hambrecht & Company, the investment bank in San Francisco, the answer is, ''A lot less business.''

Hambrecht, the system-bucking champion of using auctions to sell initial public offerings of stock, has developed a following among entrepreneurs since Google went public in an auction 18 months ago. Using a method it calls OpenIPO, Hambrecht has auctioned off shares in two companies already this year, after taking five public that way in 2005.

Traffic.com, which provides information about local traffic conditions to radio and TV stations and directly to consumers, raised $78.6 million in late January through an auction led by Hambrecht. A week later, Hambrecht raised $22.5 million in an auction of shares in FortuNet, which makes wireless gambling machines.

That is much less than McDonald's took in when it spun off its Chipotle Mexican Grill chain in a traditional initial public offering in late January, but it is a decent start, said Clay Corbus, who shares the chief executive role at Hambrecht with its founder, William Hambrecht.

''We do think it's coming into the mainstream,'' Mr. Corbus said of the auction process, though even he said it could take years and many more auctions before the practice is more than a niche in the lucrative business of investment banking.

Using a system known as a Dutch auction, Hambrecht collects bids from all interested investors, big and small, and groups them by how much each is willing to pay. Its bankers then count down from the top bid until they reach the highest price at which the selling company could sell all of the shares it wants to offer.

The company can choose that price or, for various reasons, a lower one. Hambrecht then sells at the chosen price all the shares that were bid at that price or higher.

In a typical first-time sale of stock, investment bankers meet with managers of mutual funds and hedge funds to gauge their interest in a company, then set a price that is slightly below what they estimate is the market value. That method, as much art as science, often excludes most of the individual investors who want to buy shares and occasionally sets off a frenzied first day of trading.

The underwriters of the Chipotle offering, led by Morgan Stanley, set a price of $22 a share, for 7.9 million shares. But by the end of the day those shares had doubled to $44 and they have not dipped below $40 since.

Jay Ritter, a professor at the University of Florida who studies the public offering market, refers to the difference between what the company received for its shares and what they were worth at the end of the first day as ''money left on the table.'' In Chipotle's case, it amounted to almost $175 million.

In the same week, Traffic.com sold 6.55 million shares for $12 each and they have barely moved up or down since. The absence of a pop did not seem to bother Traffic.com's chief executive, Robert N. Verratti.

Mr. Verratti said he talked to traditional investment banks but hired Hambrecht because the company's goal was to maximize its proceeds from the sale, which it used to pay off $37 million in high-interest debt.

''The board of directors felt it was the fairest way to get a price for the company that was meaningful, that wasn't undervalued or overhyped,'' Mr. Verratti said. ''We are always open to questioning conventional thinking.'' Plus, he added, ''A lot of our board members were big fans of Bill Hambrecht. He knows technology.''

Mr. Hambrecht founded Hambrecht & Quist, which was one of the first investment banks focused on financing the technology boom in Silicon Valley. When he started preaching about the superiority of auctions for raising capital back in the 1990's, he was seen by competitors as a heretic.

After all, investment banks typically keep 7 percent of the proceeds of a public offering and receive streams of trading commissions from customers grateful for having been let in on the ground floor of hot new offerings. None of the major firms would do anything to derail the gravy train, or so the conventional wisdom held.

Then came Google. When its founders insisted on holding an auction of their first public shares, not even the titans of Wall Street dared refuse. Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse managed the sale, a variation on a Dutch auction, and Hambrecht was part of the underwriting team.

Google inspired followers. Last year, Morningstar, a financial research company, hired Hambrecht to take it public in an auction that raised $140.8 million, but only after Morgan Stanley refused to do things Morningstar's way. The underwriters in that deal kept just 2 percent of the proceeds.

''Google was important because it led to Morningstar, but Morningstar was more important because it was a purely run auction'' without any big banks imposing their traditional ways on the process, Mr. Corbus said.

Shares of Morningstar rose $1.55, or about 8.5 percent, on their first day of trading, to close at $20.05. By Mr. Ritter's measure, Morningstar left about $12 million on the table but saved about $7 million in underwriting fees.

Kent L. Womack, a professor at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, said auctions should be ideal for taking public big, well-known companies. ''Smaller companies have more reluctance to go with the method where they're not getting a lot of aggressive salesmanship put on by the investment bank,'' he said.

Yet with the exception of Google, the biggest deals are still done the traditional way. When Burger King filed last month to raise as much as $400 million in an initial public offering, the list of underwriters was just as familiar: J. P Morgan, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.

''You're fighting against some of the strongest brands in the world and some of the best capitalized companies in the world,'' said Mr. Corbus. But, he added, ''We find a lot of companies are listening and taking us seriously.''