Josh Maher's Blog » Archive
SAC III – Finale
Tweet The Seattle Angel Conference finale was nothing short of amazing. The fact that John Sechrest has been able to slowly grow a new early stage investment mechanism like this says a lot about John and the economic environment here in Seattle. The group of investors is slowly growing and the quality of companies coming into the conference continues to increase making it harder and harder for the growing pool of investors to pick the best ones. My experience through the process is well documented here on my blog. If you are considering participating in a future round or are interested in starting an investment group like this in your city you should go read these posts. There were many great things about the process and a few things that could be improved with the process. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Entrepreneurship, Investing, Seattle, Startups, Technology
SAC III due diligence
Tweet After the semifinals, our group of 33 investors was able to actually vote on the finalists. We announced the finalists over on the SAC blog. They included the following companies: Phytelligence Nimia Shift Labs Staging and Design Network Daily Dollar Guide Analytics The due diligence teams began their deep dive into these companies. I ended up on the Staging and Design Network team and through the many weeks of narrowing the 43 companies to these final six felt that I had friends and responsible investment colleagues performing due diligence on the other companies. This was a good feeling, even if it is only a $5,000 investment – I am not the type of person who is ok with throwing the investment away on a company that isn’t the best risk adjusted option of the group. Through the due … Read entire article »
Filed under: Entrepreneurship, Investing, Seattle, Startups, Technology
Ackman, PG, & Due Dilligence
Tweet An interesting take on one of the larger capital stocks, it seems all the hedgies are excited for large cap stocks these days. What I find interesting though as due diligence for the Seattle Angel Conference III is nearing completion is the amount of depth in Ackman’s presentation. I found a lot of the depth in the research here is not reflected in early stage investment. Although I have seen some early stage research that is 5x more in depth than this and likely too in depth…. A Rising Tide is a Good Gamble – Ira Sohn Conference 2013 Bill Ackman by ValueWalk.com … Read entire article »
Filed under: Investing
SAC III Semifinals
Tweet Due to some scheduling conflicts, we had to move to HUB Seattle’s space for the semifinals. The change of venue was refreshing having already spent 10-12 hours vetting companies at the Davis Wright Tremain offices with this group of investors. So far though, the actual interaction with the other investors was great. The group consists of male and female investors. Some in tech, some in real estate, some in the medical profession, some in the food industry, the list goes on. Meeting and beginning to build relationships with the other investors has been an important part of the process and one that I hope you get the chance to partake in for Seattle Angel Conference IV. The semifinals were great, the pitches were well polished, the attendance from the companies was … Read entire article »
Filed under: Entrepreneurship, Investing, Technology
Letters to my kids – leadership
Tweet Third in the series letters to my kids… Hey guys, I came across this list of lessons that definitely come from life experiences. I personally have learned these lessons and thinking back on some of my career decisions when I was younger, if I knew and believed these lessons were true I could have rapidly accelerated better decision making and been able to do a lot more with my career. While I have gotten better with most of these such as focusing on the people and relationships, looking at my business endeavors as long term marathons, and handling screw ups and moving forward after screw ups. I still struggle with some of these such as finding mentors, focusing on a smaller number of projects, and asking for help. I hope that you boys … Read entire article »
Filed under: career
SAC III Quarterfinals cut meeting
Tweet If you haven’t been following the series of posts, let me quickly recap. The Seattle Angel Conference has pulled 33 investors into a room over a few weeks to sift through 43 companies and ultimately pick 1 company to invest their combined $165,000. The first round the investors picked the top 30 companies they were collectively interested in, then each of those companies presented a 3min pitch in the quarterfinals. Of those 30 companies in the quarterfinals the investors need to narrow the group to 12 semifinalists, then 6 finalists to present at the actual conference on May 16th. I believe there are still tickets to the May 16th event. When the group of investors piled into the Davis Wright Tremain conference room for the quarterfinal cut meeting, the energy was pretty high. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Entrepreneurship, Investing, Technology
On failure
Tweet Failure has such a negative connotation in our society – the word itself though isn’t a negative word, it isn’t derived from some Latin root that forces it to be negative. It is entirely within our own minds and society that we have developed the understanding of the word failure to mean a bad thing. I have suggested on more than one occasion that we should embrace failure more thoroughly in our society. Even suggesting a Most Influential Failure award for Seattle’s GeekWire and including failure in my 10 brief thoughts on success. Most people have a hard time embracing failure though due to these social norms. Even my own kids do a terrible job embracing failure so I doubt that it is something that any one person can easily … Read entire article »
Filed under: career, Entrepreneurship, Innovation
SAC III Quarterfinals
Tweet The quarterfinals were fast and furious, three minute pitches with two minutes of questions afterwards. With 12-13 companies pitching per night, there was a lot of information to process. Each new presenting company was pitching almost immediately after the last one and for the un-prepared investor it was a Jim Cramer lightening round dizzying even the most savvy trader. With the quality and excitement of the companies, the dizziness quickly wore off and all the investors began diving in with questions that went to the heart of the businesses being presented. The room was filled with incredibly intelligent people who have backgrounds in technology, business, the medical field, etc. and the questions that filled the two minutes almost always provided enough insight for the investors to understand where the company stood relative to the … Read entire article »
Filed under: Entrepreneurship, Investing, Technology
