I was/am in a similar situation. The rule of thumb financial advisors tend to use (and you should take any advice from them with a few grains of salt...) is to

I was/am in a similar situation. The rule of thumb financial advisors tend to use (and you should take any advice from them with a few grains of salt...) is to put around 10% of your portfolio into high-risk investments. The 'typical' route you'll be steered toward are real estate investments. There's a whole world of exotic financial instruments I had never heard of before coming into money, but real estate is probably the most popular, since it seems so familiar to most people. This is what we did. In 2007. Yeah... =) It paid off in the end, surprisingly, but it was a close thing. The best advice I can give you is to invest in things you understand. If you have enough experience with startups to judge them critically, angel investing may be your best option. Putting your money into something you don't understand is little better than gambling.