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Angel Investing (1): Dealflow – Are You Sitting at The Right Poker Table?

Both Sides of the Table

I believe the rise in angel investing is here to stay and the professionalization of this class (aka “super angels&# or “micro VC&# ) is a good thing for the VC industry and for entrepreneurs. But I fear that for most angel investors who invest over the long haul angel investing will not be a profitable endeavor.

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Angel Investing: Skill 3 – Relationships with VCs

Both Sides of the Table

I’d rather be Roger Ehrenberg with a thesis around data-centric companies and base my investment decisions on the skills I’ve developed in my career. To some extent Keith Rabois agreed with me about domain knowledge and argued that most of his investments are in the consumer Internet space as a result.

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Angel Investing Skill 2 – Domain Knowledge

Both Sides of the Table

And we all know that Ron Conway is considered the savviest of angel investors and yet by definition not all of his investments succeed. I like to invest where I have a personally strong connection with the entrepreneur and/or a strong intuition on the market from prior experience. Who ultimately invested in FourSquare?

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Angel Investing 4 – Why You Need Deep Pockets to Win Big

Both Sides of the Table

The first three skills I espoused were: access to the highest-quality deal-flow, domain knowledge of the topic area in which you’re investing and access to VCs to help fund the next stages of development. Markets like these are very kind to angel investors because you get taken out early and see a nice pop on your investment.

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Angel Investing – The Most Underrated Skill: Access to Buyers

Both Sides of the Table

I’m obviously only naming a small fraction of their investments since I don’t feel inclined to research them all and many other great venture firms have this kind of access. It’s hard for me to imagine that angel investing outcomes judged 10 years from now will have a drastically different profile. Or the CEO?

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Why Has Seed Investing Declined? And What Does this Mean for the Future?

Both Sides of the Table

Seed investments are down by any measure (funds, deals, dollars) over the past 3 years in deals < $1 million AND in deals between $1–5 million. thus the rise of “pre seed” investing). It’s very noticeable in terms of funds raised, dollars invested and deals completed. What gives?

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How come ability to hire isn't a criteria for investment?

This is going to be BIG.

Top talent drives revenues, business development, great product development. I've placed almost 30 people at startup companies, from developers to designers, in the past few years because there's no greater impact I can make on a company. Oh, you're going to hire 15 engineers with my $5mm?