Author: Zack Miller

Lessons from Passover: The 4 Sons of Angel Investing

With the holiday of Passover ready to drop at the end of this week, it offers a good time to reflect. One of the best known sections of the Passover ritual meal is the recitation of the “4 Sons”. These prototypical characters represent all of us — different types of people, each with their own types of questions that stem from our experiences and individualized views of the world. Each son asks his own question. Instead of providing an overarching singular answer to these sons’ questions, the Passover Hagaddah answers the 4 sons by addressing the subtext behind the questioner himself (and not just the question itself). Of course, while enjoying the holiday, we’re focused on the experience with our friends and family, but we’re also investors at heart. I couldn’t help but transpose these 4 sons and their questions to the investing world and in the process, address some key tenets core to angel investing and our crowd investing model. So, here it goes… OurCrowd’s 4 Sons (of Angel Investing) The Wise Son: What does the wise son...

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How do I make money investing in startups?

I wish investing in a startup was as easy as “buy low, sell high“, but it’s a bit more complex. Angel investors must consider a variety of factors when they put their capital to work in an early stage company like: Startup valuation: Figuring out how much a startup is worth is as much an art as it is a science. Choosing the right founders: Team plays a critical role in a startup’s success. Investors want to invest in successful founders. Portfolio management: What’s the right number of startups to hold in a portfolio? (Hint: Kauffman Foundation research says at least 6). Taxes: You gotta pay Uncle Sam at some point, right? and lots more…  With all this in mind, a startup investor has to juggle lots of things at once — but ultimately, it’s all about the money. How do I make money investing in startups? As OurCrowd and other equity crowdfunding startups democratize early stage investing, we get asked a lot about how investors make money in startups. Basically, there are 4 ways a startup investor can...

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Don’t believe these 4 myths about equity crowdfunding

Equity crowdfunding is quickly finding its legs. For 2014, we estimated upwards of $700 million of capital invested in startups would be through equity crowdfunding platforms. Investors who have already migrated to these platforms are the early adopters, quick and flexible and open to trying an innovative new way to invest in the next Google, Facebook and Apple. However, many investors are still reticent to getting their feet wet since it’s still not entirely clear how equity crowdfunding works. This article dispels four myths about equity crowdfunding to offer investors a new investment track in some of the most exciting opportunities in the startup scene. Myth #1: Companies that choose crowdfunding couldn’t raise venture capital Raising money via crowdfunding channels may look easy, but in reality, it isn’t. And companies that are considering fielding an investment on an equity crowdfunding platform are, more times than not, choosing between many different sources of funding. Many of these companies have already raised an investment from an early stage venture capital firm or from other angel investors. Many will ultimately go on...

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Take these 8 steps to become an all-star startup investor

Show of hands: Who here doesn’t want to invest in the next Facebook or Google? Didn’t think so. The people who invest in startups have supplanted hedge fund managers as the investment rock stars of our age. What makes startup investing so thrilling is that unlike the passive investing common in the stock market (see our Ultimate Stock Market Investor’s Guide to Investing in Startups), angel investors have the opportunity to provide ongoing value with their experience… and Rolodexes. Whether you’re just kicking off your career as a venture capitalist or starting out in angel investing after making your money in other businesses, investing in startups can be a very lucrative activity. In fact, the data show that well-positioned angel portfolios can return 2.5X over a 4-year period. Returns like these easily trounce stock market returns (and historical returns of most other asset classes). However, investing in startups can be tricky. For example, it’s very likely that some of the startups you invest in will end up folding (less than 50% of startups never reach their 5th birthday). What are...

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The ultimate stock market investor’s guide to investing in startups

Most investors ‘come of age’ learning the mechanics and strategy of investing through their involvement in stock markets. That makes sense: stock markets are typically comprised of the largest and most stable companies within a geography, with enough interest that investors can relatively easily buy and sell shares. Individual shares and mutual funds populate many long-terms investors’ retirement portfolios. And it’s the stock market, we’ve always been told, that deserves investors’ dollars and attention. But as new technology enables investing in newer, different types of assets, stock market investors are beginning to look beyond just investing in the stock market and more towards investing in alternative assets: like real estate, commodities, and more often, startups. For the sake of this article, we’re going to focus on investing in small, growth-oriented private companies (startups). Small companies are the lifeblood of the US economy, driving growth and providing new jobs to the workforce. It’s the allure of large, outsized returns by investing in the next Google, Facebook and Apple that is captivating investors right now. How stock market investors evolve to...

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