Bill Payne, one of the most respected people in the organized angel investing community, wrote an interesting piece applying concept of the book Wisdom of Crowds to angel investing models. [The author's] message for optimizing returns in angel funds is that members need to be as independently informed as possible on each deal, debate the [...]
I have been following Bitcoins for a year now, in large part because of the involvement in that project of a friend and former CTO, Gavin Andresen. In a show of support for that delightfully ambitious startup currency and the people behind it, I am now accepting payment denominated in bitcoins . I’m not alone, [...]
In two of my online classes I have the students play the role of angels deciding if they want to invest in a (fictitious) company. In the simulation the students are all angels, members of the same angel group, and a the deal before them is being championed by several of their peers from the [...]
For those of you who, like me, have been tied up with other things and haven’t gotten up to speed on AngelList, I found a thoughtful post summarizing and linking to a number of other blog posts: both pro and con. It includes a detailing explanation of potential costs and benefits for different users (entrepreneurs, [...]
I have had the pleasure of hearing Peter Diamandis speak before. His passion is infectiousness. Him ability to accomplish the impossible – by embracing massive amounts of failure in-between, is inspiring. His business models are innovative. And hey, he does really cool stuff . Check out the excellent video interview conducted by the Standord e-Corner [...]
There are a lot of ventures where the end user (person who uses your product) and the customer (person who pays for your product) are not the same. Many of these ventures make a big mistake in telling their story to funders: they only talk about the end user. Talking about the end user is [...]
Ty Danco does it again! A great post on AngelList from the investor’s perspective. A must-read for the angel community (IMHO). Anyone who regularly reads this column knows I love AngelList. It’s the matchmaker service between promising startups and early stage investors which has revolutionized angel and maybe even VC investing. There has been a slew [...]
Remember your executive summary and/or elevator pitch and/or slide deck is one of dozens or hundreds a potential funder will look at. EVERYTHING you write/say needs to help differentiate you from the other exec sums being looked at. Remember, when seeking funding your competitors are not the other companies selling stuff like you – they [...]
This interview brings one person’s view on social media & gaming. My major take-away is that the angel community might be taking stronger interest in the game industry… now that it is merging with mobile & social. http://www.bloomberg.com/video/66749774/
Entrepreneurs tend to explain to funders how they will use money. Most of the time by listing a bunch of expenses. Seems logical. But it sends the wrong message. "Don’t tell me how much of my money you will burn. Tell me what amazing accomplishments my money will allow." BAD EXAMPLE: "This round of financing [...]
