Tag: Angel Investors
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Four Horsemen of the Investor Apocalypse
Contempt That Destroys Investor–Entrepreneur Relationships Contempt is one of the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse. Once it shows up, it is the end of a relationship. Contempt doesn’t look like shouting. It is mostly passive…
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Contempt from Crowdfunded Equity
Entrepreneurs are stuck between two polar opposites. On one hand, they are encouraged – endlessly – to hype, hype, hype. The accelerators and incubators want to see astronomical projections, Total Addressable Markets in the trillions,…
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When Your Capital Strategy Kills Your Commercial Value
How “licensing-only” businesses can get caught in the angel/venture minefield. Let’s walk through the math that every angel investor does. This company is raising money at a 15 million dollar post-money valuation. For us as…
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What Angel Investors Want to Hear vs What is Best for the Startup?
We looked at a company who had been more or less steady-state for several years but wanted an infusion of cash. They were operating in two smaller markets without fully capturing either of the two…
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Bad Behavior By Angel Groups -“Due Diligence”
Due diligence is supposed to help investors and the entrepreneurs, but many times it is a charade. I am a member of several angel investor groups, and I am intimately familiar with many more. In…
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Gullible Angel Investors and Provisional Patent Applications
Last time, we discussed the provisional patent application hoax perpetuated by patent attorneys. In this post, we look at the scam from the inventor/entrepreneur side. Many so-called inventors/entrepreneurs like to file their own provisional patent…
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How accelerators and angel groups lose their way.
Riding on the back of the entrepreneur. Ever drive by a construction site and see dozens of “supervisors” standing around, while one guy with a shovel is actually working? This is the perfect metaphor for…
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The Endless Science Project
Serving two masters, and the enablement of investors. Some startups are the Endless Science Project. They start from a “cool” technological idea and work on endless science projects. They run one science project for a…
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Calling yourself an “Expert”
I avoid anyone who calls themselves an “expert” in anything. I would much rather have men ask why I have no statue, than why I have one. – Cato the Elder, from Plutarch’s Lives I…
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Waiting Room Inventors
“Moonshots” and Abdicating Responsibility as an Angel Investor. A friend who is an angel investor asked my opinion on a company. I did not like it for a number of reasons, not the least of…