Ask Me Anything About Being An Angel Investor
 

I've been an angel investor for the last 6 years and have invested over 8 million in small businesses. So far none of them have flopped and I've made a lot of money doing this.

Re: Ask Me Anything About Being An Angel Investor
 

I WOULD LIKE TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS, CAN I HAVE IT?

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I WOULD LIKE TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS, CAN I HAVE IT?

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Yes..If you can show me what you'd do with the money and I believe it will work to make more money. I usually don't invest such low amounts of money.

Re: Ask Me Anything About Being An Angel Investor
 

Over/under on how many posts before we see a link to his website?

Re: Ask Me Anything About Being An Angel Investor
 

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Over/under on how many posts before he is banned?

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what exactly is an angel investor? kinda like a venture capitalist? never heard that term b4.

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For certain reasons i won't associate myself with the real world or give any exact examples of what companies i invested into but i'll give you general ideas.

Not selling myself. Just trying to tell you guys how much fun it is to be an an angel investor.

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how did you get started doing this? dont you pretty much need to be very wealthy at the outset to make a career of this?

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how did you get started doing this? dont you pretty much need to be very wealthy at the outset to make a career of this?

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My father did it before me and i inherited money and it came naturally to me. FWIW i'm 26

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wth is an angel investor?

Re: Ask Me Anything About Being An Angel Investor
 

i'd like to open a popular chicken wing franchise in my area and i believe it would be very successful. let's gogogo?

Re: Ask Me Anything About Being An Angel Investor
 

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wth is an angel investor?

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An individual investor who invests in start-up companies that are unable to raise venture capital

Re: Ask Me Anything About Being An Angel Investor
 

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So far none of them have flopped and I've made a lot of money doing this.

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so in other words, you suck at your job

Re: Ask Me Anything About Being An Angel Investor
 

how do you go about "becoming" an angel investor?

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So far none of them have flopped and I've made a lot of money doing this.

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so in other words, you suck at your job

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I suppose compared to other angel investors i might "suck" I only made 6 figures this year.

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how do you go about "becoming" an angel investor?

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Have lots of money that you aren't afraid to lose.

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how do you go about "becoming" an angel investor?

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My father did it before me and i inherited money and it came naturally to me.

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I would like to become an angel investor but have no money, can you get me started?

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Invest in someone who wants to become an Angel investor? Never heard that one before. (serious)

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If he is serious you guys are wasting a great opportunity to ask questions. It takes a minute to google/wiki angel investors and find out what they do.

I believe I have three stellar ideas for internet businesses. Eventually I'll get around to writing out business plans for them and potentially doing some coding. Ideally if it got that far I'd have 2-3 people to help w/ backend coding, design, etc. Anyway, what is the earliest stage that you've invested in a project? Earliest stage that you saw a pitch for?

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stake me for 1k NL. Consider me a startup company

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Basically RiverFenix hit on my questions. How raw an idea will you invest in? have you invested in an idea alone or do you need to see more formal steps toward achieving and monetizing the idea before you are willing to invest?

Re: Ask Me Anything About Being An Angel Investor
 

for serious questions:

What are some of the more creative businesses you've invested in?

How much of your proficiency is based on what you've been taught vs natural ability?

What are some of the biggest projects you've been involved in?

Re: Ask Me Anything About Being An Angel Investor
 

What are some of the key components that you look for in the people/companies that you decide to invest in?

How do you go about finding these people/companies?

On average, how much time per week do you devote to your 'job' as an angel investor?

What is your education backround?

For you, what is a 'normal' sized investment? What would be the highest size investment that you would be comfortable with?

Do you follow a set of 'bankroll' rules?

How do you go about recieving your interest on your investments? What is the typical turnaround for your investments?



Sorry, I work in corporate finance where I work for a company/family that buys and sells companies as investments. I am sure that it is on a much much larger scale than most people could ever imagine, and I am very interested on how someone does this on an individual basis.

Thanks.

Edited: I am an horrible speller and writer, imo.

Re: Ask Me Anything About Being An Angel Investor
 

As an individual, how do you go about doing due diligence prior to investing? I'm guessing you aren't a domain expert across all fields.

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If he is serious you guys are wasting a great opportunity to ask questions. It takes a minute to google/wiki angel investors and find out what they do.

I believe I have three stellar ideas for internet businesses. Eventually I'll get around to writing out business plans for them and potentially doing some coding. Ideally if it got that far I'd have 2-3 people to help w/ backend coding, design, etc. Anyway, what is the earliest stage that you've invested in a project? Earliest stage that you saw a pitch for?

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Heres a good real example.

I met a person that had this idea about a free USPS service to mail out letters to anyone in the united states for free. The idea behind it was every user could send real letters for free to friends family etc. The reason it was free because of local advertisements based on address.

For example. Joe's Cleaners in NYNY is an advertiser for this company. So if someone sends a letter within a set radius of Joe's cleaners their ad is in the middle of the persons letter.

I loved the idea and would of invested on the spot. But you don't only invest in the idea, you also invest in the person. This person didn't seem motivated enough to make this happen and would of wasted my idea.

But if the right person pitched me that idea back then I would of signed a check on the spot.

Re: Ask Me Anything About Being An Angel Investor
 

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What are some of the key components that you look for in the people/companies that you decide to invest in?

How do you go about finding these people/companies?

On average, how much time per week do you devote to your 'job' as an angel investor?

What is your education backround?

For you, what is a 'normal' sized investment? What would be the highest size investment that you would be comfortable with?

Do you follow a set of 'bankroll' rules?

How do you go about recieving your interest on your investments? What is the typical turnaround for your investments?



Sorry, I work in corporate finance where I work for a company/family that buys and sells companies as investments. I am sure that it is on a much much larger scale than most people could ever imagine, and I am very interested on how someone does this on an individual basis.

Thanks.

Edited: I am an horrible speller and writer, imo.

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Recommendations from people I already worked with or they find me and submit ideas to me.

20 hours a week.

Some college..stopped once i realized i didn't need anymore school.

Normal investment = 250k highest i've done was 2.25m but it was a sure thing.

I try to only invest 40% of my BR at one time. The rest is invested in mutual funds.

Turnaround is about 1 year.

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You realize the USPS has a government sanctioned monopoly on first class mail right?

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http://www.cityofangel.com/council/faqs/bca.jpg

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You realize the USPS has a government sanctioned monopoly on first class mail right?

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What would be wrong with me paying the bill for you sending out a letter?

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I try to only invest 40% of my BR at one time. The rest is invested in mutual funds.

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but how much of that 40% will you invest in individual ideas/companies?

how do you structure your investments? do you get equity, are you making high interest loans, do you get bought out when VC decides to invest, do you ever keep your equity past the beginning stages?

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You realize the USPS has a government sanctioned monopoly on first class mail right?

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kipin,
i imagine the idea was the company would give away the postage for free in exchange for the advertising, not that they would be doing their own letter delivery.

Re: Ask Me Anything About Being An Angel Investor
 

How did your dad get started in it?

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I try to only invest 40% of my BR at one time. The rest is invested in mutual funds.

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but how much of that 40% will you invest in individual ideas/companies?

how do you structure your investments? do you get equity, are you making high interest loans, do you get bought out when VC decides to invest, do you ever keep your equity past the beginning stages?



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Yea, this is more along the question I was trying to ask.

Will you really drop 40% of your portfolio on one individual investment?

Also, due to the high risk of your investments, how much say do you have in the way of how there are operated?

Do you use 3rd parties to moniter the progress of these investments?

Re: Ask Me Anything About Being An Angel Investor
 

Surprised some of you haven't heard the term angel investor--I thought it was pretty common.

What kind of accountability do the people who you invest in have to show? Like you just write a check and they promise to pay back a percent of money once they start turning a profit? Seems risky

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Percentagewise how much of the profit would you take from a company that is a moderate success? A huge success?

To what extent is the relationship between you and your portfolio cos. governed by contractual arrangements and how much by informal means?

Re: Ask Me Anything About Being An Angel Investor
 

If i was going to invest 40% of my BR into one single company that be approx 11m. It's not out of the question but highly unlikely to happen. I'd say 3m i'd do.

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I WOULD LIKE TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS, CAN I HAVE IT?

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Yes..If you can show me what you'd do with the money and I believe it will work to make more money. I usually don't invest such low amounts of money.

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MOSTLY ROLL AROUND IN IT.

ALSO I WANT A GRILL (the kind you cook food with)

Re: Ask Me Anything About Being An Angel Investor
 

can you please provide an example of a transaction, obviously you don't have to use a real example if there's confidentiality issues. how much money did you invest, what share of the company did you get for your money, how long did your investment last before you cashed out, etc.

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I suppose compared to other angel investors i might "suck" I only made 6 figures this year.

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since 5% of the 11mm you have to invest in this stuff is already >500k, making 6 figures isn't really saying that much, especially if you haven't had any big failures yet. i would guess returns on successful projects should be well into the double digits annually to justify the high risk of total loss when investing in startups, so why aren't you making 7 figures?

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A year seems like a short time to get a return. What's you're usual exit strategy?

Generally the angel round is pretty early in a company's life. Do you look for the quick exit or are you willing to hang in there through further rounds of financing until a buyout/public happens?

Our company has been around for a long time and is just building sales for that VC round, where would that sort of company fit in your plans?

Re: Ask Me Anything About Being An Angel Investor
 

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I WOULD LIKE TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS, CAN I HAVE IT?

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Yes..If you can show me what you'd do with the money and I believe it will work to make more money. I usually don't invest such low amounts of money.

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MOSTLY ROLL AROUND IN IT.

ALSO I WANT A GRILL (the kind you cook food with)

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If you are going to make quality sammiches for 2+2ers at a expensive price with this grill. Then we might be able to do business. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]