As a follow up to my post on how to get into micro angel investing, tonight’s thread is about just some of the things that have and can go wrong that you may not have thought about:

>>
1) Embezzlement

I’ve seen this happen 4x. 🤯

And yet, given that I’ve invested in nearly 400 companies, that’s an incredibly low %.

It both gives me faith in humanity that most founders are good people.

But for my friends who were in those 4 cos, they lost it all.
2) You may be wondering “why didn’t they sue? Why didn’t they call the cops?”

They just felt it wasn’t worthwhile because the money was gone.
3) The other interesting thing about these cases is that all the founders of these cos passed background checks. No criminal records. Upstanding citizens.

You can do all the due diligence in the world and still end up working with criminals.
4) Another situation that happened a couple of times: 2 ppl in a relationship start a company together and break up while running the company.

I once had to help a founder figure out how to work out a deal w her ex-husband / former co-founder to get him off the cap table.
5) Another founder of mine overstated his visa in the US. This is obviously a big deal!

The was a precarious situation, and the company likely would have slowed / shut down if they moved back home. I was fortunate to be able to call friends in Canada to help them move there.
6) Many many many founders unfortunately have faced co-founder deaths or illnesses or family health issues etc.

Even if everything is going well, this is incredibly common & often lead to company shutdowns. For this reason, I mentally never count my winners - anything can happen
7) The flip side is if you do meet founders who have faced extreme adversity such as described above or other things & emerge stronger, my learning is to definitely offer to invest.

People who come to mind whom I admire are @bkparikh @anthony_j_zhang @PierreLaguerre5
8) Next, co-founder disputes are common! Sometimes too bitter.

I’ve seen lawsuits! I’ve seen an entrepreneur slander his co-founder on a public website.

They can get bitter and extreme and disrupt the business (as an understatement)
9) Once, a founder I know, physically assaulted his co-founder at a party.

These things are shocking but they happen.
10) I could go on and on...so many things can go wrong in ways you cannot predict.

I think I’ve seen it all and yet I know there’ll be a new variation on any and all of these tmrw.
11) So if ppl wonder what VCs do all day. Certainly the bulk of the work is the usual stuff - fundraising, mtg new cos, working w portfolio cos.

But I don’t think firefighting is something I’ve heard any vc talk about in detail.
And if you have a larger portfolio - regardless of whether you are a fund mgr or a micro angel - statistically speaking, you will be firefighting.

Startup investing is about ppl. And sh*t happens to ppl or ppl make poor decisions.
13) So lastly, if you don’t like dealing w ppl and their issues, investing in startups won’t be fun.

In fact, the #1 complaint I’ve heard about startup investing is that ppl don’t realize they would have to mediate or deal w lots of ppl problems.

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More from @dunkhippo33

22 Jan
Today's thread is a continuation on *how* you generate momentum in fundraising.

Here's a rough conversation I had with a founder (called 'C') over the course of days a few months back.

Read on >>
1) C: I'm having trouble raising. VC A and VC B are taking so long to get back to me.

Me: Oh, when did you meet w/ them?

C: 3 weeks ago.
2) Me: Oh, are you mtg w/ anyone else?

C: No, I got busy working. I had all these sales calls to make.

Me: That's the problem - there isn't a reason for them to move quickly. There's no investor at the table.
Read 14 tweets
22 Jan
Tonight's tweet storm is about how a startup in our portfolio @HustleFundVC just raised $1.5m in 48 hours... and the fundraising journey to get there... 🤯

I've been involved in some fast raises before, but this is hands down, the fastest.

Read on >>
1) First off, some context: the founder didn't have network nor did he know investors from before. In fact, he only moved to the US relatively recently.

For many months, we were basically the only (institutional) investor + a few angel friends of ours who wrote small checks.
2) All of that said, in this round that just came together, he brought in @himinnie @MacConwell @AnnaBPalmer @immad @DSox & I believe @MikeMacCombie @chudson (I can't even keep up) + more.

A dream team I would love to raise from if I had a co.
Read 20 tweets
18 Jan
Since there's been a lot of Twitter chatter about this, here's a thread on

How to Get Started as a Microangel investor in startups?

>>
1) First, my biggest learning (that I wish I'd learned in my 20s) was that there are a LOT of angel investors in Silicon Valley who are investing $1k checks. Seriously.

Previously, I'd thought that you need to be investing $25k+ checks in order to be an angel investor.
2) So while you do need to have *some money* to be able to angel invest, it's not as much as most ppl think. You don't need to be super rich.

So conceptually, angel investing can be pretty accessible. Getting deal flow & education have been the bigger blockers to date.
Read 23 tweets
16 Jan
Some Friday (is it Friday? The days blur together) night thoughts on what makes for a “good startup idea”:

1) First, it’s really in the eyes of the beholder. Investors use their life perspective to assess.

For this reason we need more funders w more varied life perspectives.
2) Next, the way to get big fast is to get a lot of customers quickly. (Obv!)

VCs are not good at articulating this but what they are looking for are fast big sales.

How does this occur?
3) One way this can happen is through network effects or virality.

If you can get the flywheel going here, you can get big really fast.

Marketplaces tend to have these types of characteristics. Some b2b cos do too (eg calendly or zoom)
Read 9 tweets
11 Jan
A thread on capital calls:

-why VCs have basically no cash on hand?
-what are they?
-why should founders and emerging managers care?

>>
1) When you hear that a VC has raised $15m, the biggest misnomer is that you think their investors have actually wired them $15m.

However, that couldn't be further from how things actually work as funny as that sounds!
2) Here's why - when investors (called limited partners or LPs) commit to investing in a fund, they are making a commit over a period of time.

If an investor commits $500k, they don't have $500k just lying around to send to anyone. Usually that money is tied up elsewhere.
Read 30 tweets
5 Jan
I wouldn't have invested in my own startup @launchbit at @HustleFundVC (but really appreciate all of my investors who did!)

This often shocks people but here's why >>
1) On the investor side, there are so many amazing startups. If I said yes to all whom I thought would do well, I would need 5x more $$.

So the bar is HIGH. There are a lot of exceptional ppl & you cannot say yes to everyone. This is what bums me out the most in being a VC.
2) So how do you whittle down who gets that "investment" check? For lack of a better phrase, you basically start nitpicking.

-valuation is too high!
-not enough differentiation / too competitive
-idea isn't unique

etc..
Read 24 tweets

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