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
Seattle Angel Conference III
Tweet You may have noticed the slight increase in posts related to early stage investments and investing lessons from angels & VCs. This year, I am participating in the Seattle Angel Conference as an investor and have been learning a lot as I spend a few hours each week with 20+ other brilliant investors vetting companies. The experience is forcing me to put my thoughts about investment forward and explain to people how I view the world of investment opportunity vs. what others may see. It is highly stimulating and is most certainly making me a better investor of all types of assets. I have slowly been collecting my thoughts on the process itself and want to share those as well. The premise of the group is simple – a bunch of … Read entire article »
Filed under: Entrepreneurship, Investing, Startups, Technology
Investing lessons from Dave McClure
Tweet I was pleasantly surprised to see Jonathan Sposato channeling my investing lesson series in his new member-only series Startup Jedi. Great to see that people like to convey information this way and especially exciting that topics such as what the hell are startup investors looking for is interesting to more people than just me! I haven’t profiled Dave McClure yet, I have profiled some other interesting investors such as Howard Lindzon, Chris Sacca, Fred Wilson, Chris Devore, Jeff Clavier, and others on the way. I had previously avoided McClure as he comes across as such a loose cannon. At least the things that he appears to be investing in and the reasons he appears to be investing appear much more on par with a day trader than they do an investor. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Investing, Startups, stocks, Technology
Investing in lotteries
Tweet Investing is often difficult to discern from gambling, in fact many day trading strategies are based on the same principles of successful gambling. By successful gambling, I am referring to those gambling strategies that leverage the statistical odds built into the wager system to strategically pull out a profit and not the casual betting you and I may do at the school auction. I was recently at an angel investing conference here in Seattle. The conference was put on by the great TechStars Azure team and was focused on explaining the angel investing process. There were a variety of angel investors speaking from professionals like Geoff Entress, Chris Devore, and Andy Sack to angels who also have a day job like T.A. McCann and Christina Storm. During the talk, one comment struck me as … Read entire article »
startup moats
Tweet Figuring out the business strategy for most startups is a hard problem, should there be a focus on users, conversion, margins, licensing, etc? These are all operational aspects that can be changed and adjusted over time and unfortunately these are the primary areas of concern for most startups. What is missing is figuring out where the startup fits in the overall picture, what is their strategic advantage relative to other businesses (young and old)? I came across this tweet by Brad Burnham from Union Square Ventures, they clearly get the question about strategy and have formed an investment thesis around this understanding. USV in 140 characters: invest in large networks of engaged users, differentiated by user experience, and defensible though network effects — Brad Burnham (@BradUSV) June 8, 2011 Looking at USV’s track record, they … Read entire article »
Filed under: Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Investing, Startups
Spray and pray investing
Tweet I came across this post by Dharmesh Shah titled Avoiding Undue Diligence: My Strange Approach To Angel Investing. I was of course intrigued by the title having spent a lot of time building this library of investing insights from venture capitalists and angel investors. I was surprised to find a nice neat list of investing nuggets laid out on the page like the ones that I extract from the many interviews and blog posts that I find from investors. The surprise of course was what I found after digging into Dharmesh’s advice. He had laid out a very nice spray and pray approach to angel investing. No follow-on investments I have heard a lot of people advise, but no due diligence? Seriously? Two guys walk into a bar, they make a good first impression … Read entire article »
Investing Lessons from the World Financial Symposium
Tweet If you haven’t been following the series on investing lessons from venture capitalists, now is a good time to start. The latest in the series comes from some great insight that was provided at the World Financial Symposium here in Seattle. The question of course that everyone has next is what the hell is the world financial symposium and why is it in Seattle? Amazingly of course the angel investors on hand at the symposium generally had the same thought in response to the always outstanding question of why isn’t Seattle a bigger startup community? Regardless of the amount of angel and venture capitalist investment that happens in the region, there is an amazing amount of talent on the entrepreneur and investor sides of the table. Some of the lessons from … Read entire article »
Filed under: Economics, Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Investing, Seattle, Startups, stocks, Technology
