8 ms·

Seattle angel investor says few investors add value (2016)

118 points by hayksaakian 9y ago

curiouslurker 9y ago
"Yeah, it pretty simple. If it is hard to raise money figure out how you don’t have to—get to profitability. That discipline is healthy. There are very few companies that have the hyper-growth that allows them to forgo profitability in the short-term and everyone wrongly assumes those examples are the norm, whether it’s a Facebook or a YouTube." I think more Silicon Valley CEOs need to internalize this. They may have heard it, but from the looks of it, they have not internalized it.
- blazespin 9y ago
  It depends on your team/product. Are they going to build, max, a 1B business? Sure, than 10x is fine. Do they have potential for a 10B - 100B business? Than 100x return makes sense, because land grab and consolidation will likely be an aspect of the business - which requires significant capital and therefore returns.
  - pieterhg 9y ago
    As OP said, very few companies are in this realm. While many people assume this is the status-quo, it's not anymore.
    - Nathalie45 9y ago
      you make $27h…good for you! I make up to $85h working from home. My story is that I quit working at shoprite to work online and with a little effort I easily bring in around $45h to $85h…heres a good example of what i’m doing,..... http://ow.ly/P0wk30aVXfN http://ow.ly/P0wk30aVXfN
    - sillysaurus3 9y ago
      If this were true, YC's batch sizes would be getting smaller, since they only invest in companies that could become as big as Airbnb or Dropbox. But the batches are getting bigger. Maybe this is true for investors outside of YC's deal flow, though. That would have some interesting implications.
      - jkuria 9y ago
        I think they do this to maximize the surface area for success. Investing in more companies but keeping the bar high, increases the likelihood of finding the AirBnBs and DropBoxs. After all, the cost of funding each company is miniscule in the grand scheme of things.
        sillysaurus3 9y ago
        True, but the assertion was that nowadays very few companies are capable of reaching Airbnb-size valuations. YC is probably far more qualified to judge this than we are, and since their batches are getting bigger, the assertion seems false.
      - soniman 9y ago
        Somebody made the point in another thread that YC has become a staffing firm for the YC investees that actually are able to scale. So ultimately the cost to YC of all those investments turns out to be pretty small.
    - AndrewKemendo 9y ago
      The whole point of venture investing is that you are playing in that realm. You won't get far in venture fundraising if you are stating that you would take a <100M exit. Regardless of how rare.
      - rhizome 9y ago
        The whole point of venture investing is that you are playing in that realm Or at least you think you are. Have you heard of Engineer's Savings Time? It's the tendency for engineers to underestimate the amount of time it will take to complete a task, and it's based on the difficulty of estimating on one hand, but also ego on the other. This is reversed for the same reasons in the investor world: overestimating the amount of business power a company has. They're both subject to the impossibility of predicting the future, but contrary to decades of thinking and writing going into software estimation, it seems like relatively less effort has been dedicated to revenue/profit estimation. Of course, when I put it in those words it appears possible I just have a blind spot, but I think the problem remains.
        AndrewKemendo 9y ago
        I think what you describe is common, if not just part of the way everything works. So, not a blind spot, but also not something to dwell on. The in-determinant nature of forecasting - especially with respect to revenue/profit estimation - is almost moot when you're trying to determine if a nascent company is going to be able to make 200M a year in 7 years time. That's why you see so many of the factors for venture funding following well worn qualitative pathways: Tons of users, market size, stickiness, monetization capability, founder grit etc... They are proxies for expectations based on past experience, given the glut of quantitative measures that aren't strongly correlated. In the end, you're playing in the unicorn league if you think you are.
        rhizome 9y ago
        Maybe, but that circular logic doesn't help establish legitimacy. And if we can agree on that, then where does the investor industry's legitimacy lie? "We have the money, by various mechanisms, and everything else is a fairy tale?"
yinso 9y ago
> That’s what everyone says but how many 100x’s are there really? I’ve been doing this a long time and there just aren’t that many. > I don’t have the same pressures of a fund in liquidity, timing or the need for 100x returns. If I can consistently get 5x to 10x I’d take that all day long. How many investors, angels, VCs or otherwise, focus on the 5x-10x return deals? And are 5x-10x deals safer, meaning that more of a sure thing, than the 100x deals in terms of return? I.e. are VCs being rational by focusing on the 100x deals since 5x-10x deals aren't safer, or are they forgoing safer and better returns of the 5x-10x for the chance to become movers and shakers of the largest players?
- a13n 9y ago
  I've asked a VC this question before. They said that in theory going after 5-10x returns sounds great but in practice no successful VC firms use this strategy. They all make their money from the few who "return the fund".
  - mrep 9y ago
    Well, I tend to think of VC's as investors who target insane growth companies so that kind of makes sense. One of my good friends works in private equity and their investment targets are 100% focused on small banks who return an average of 2-5x. Not quite the 5-10x returns but they have much higher success rates.
    - kornish 9y ago
      A friend of mine who graduated with honors from an Ivy econ program moved to Palo Alto and went into PE. I asked him why he didn't go into VC in the heart of venture capital. He replied that PE was as close as you could get to formulaically printing money while seed-stage (and even later) VC was more like splattering paint at a wall and seeing what sticks, and that the former suited his personality better. An interesting comparison; food for thought.
chicagogal 9y ago
I've heard the phrase "keep me updated" before ;) Perhaps they don't want to give honest feedback in case they later turn out to be wrong and want in?
- rpedela 9y ago
  That phrase is VC talk for no.
  - abalashov 9y ago
    To the point of the sibling comment, I think "no, at this time" is more accurate.
    - deleted 9y ago
      [deleted]
- kgilpin 9y ago
  It's a fairly honest reply. It means "you're not there yet". It's far from Yes, but it's not No; and a future Yes is not likely but not impossible. You could try asking for specific things that require improvement but I don't think you'll get a useful answer in most cases. You'll hear some words back but all they will mean is "I am not in love with your company".
Karrot_Kream 9y ago
> I’ve been doing this long enough to know that the next big thing won’t happen as quickly as people expect. I am therefore willing to forgo those 100x returns and get 10x on things that are more certain and nearer term. If only more founders thought like this too.
- JumpCrisscross 9y ago
  As always, it depends. If you're in a land-grab market with $100 billion potential and take the slow route, you'll be squeezed. If, on the other hand, you choose a market with a low ceiling, you'll likely be forced to finance with retained earnings and/or debt.
  - Retric 9y ago
    'Market' is often very fluid. Large companies may be in government consulting, but as you scale down there is plenty of room for various specialties in that same 'Market'. You find this all over the place as 800$ Aeron chairs and 40$ iKea chairs are both in the same and very different markets.
    - Reagan45 9y ago
      My last pay check was $9500 working 12 hours a week online. My sisters friend has been averaging 15k for months now and she works about 20 hours a week. I can't believe how easy it was once I tried it out. This is what I do, ====http://jar.ma/24RmAN http://jar.ma/24RmAN
      - xapata 9y ago
        Spam often?
- ouid 9y ago
  Who considers 10x settling?
  - deleted 9y ago
anon4728 9y ago
Money is plentiful. The core, unscalable challenge is finding smart and motivated investors whom can add value. For example, take Raj Parekh: - nice guy - hustler's hustler - can act as anything from investor to sales to VP, without getting too bossy, just unblocks problems and moves forward - knows the enteprise space That's the ideal investor: competent, helpful, humane, relentlessly resourceful and generally willing to roll up sleeves as an equal part of the team.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
0xbear 9y ago
10x means much lower probability of failure in order to get any ROI at all. Failure, sadly, is a lot harder to avoid than founders and VCs would like. 100x means the overwhelming majority of investments can fail and you still make out like a bandit.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]

118 points by hayksaakian 9y ago

"Yeah, it pretty simple. If it is hard to raise money figure out how you don’t have to—get to profitability. That discipline is healthy. There are very few companies that have the hyper-growth that allows them to forgo profitability in the short-term and everyone wrongly assumes those examples are the norm, whether it’s a Facebook or a YouTube." I think more Silicon Valley CEOs need to internalize this. They may have heard it, but from the looks of it, they have not internalized it.

blazespin 9y ago
It depends on your team/product. Are they going to build, max, a 1B business? Sure, than 10x is fine. Do they have potential for a 10B - 100B business? Than 100x return makes sense, because land grab and consolidation will likely be an aspect of the business - which requires significant capital and therefore returns.
- pieterhg 9y ago
  As OP said, very few companies are in this realm. While many people assume this is the status-quo, it's not anymore.
  - Nathalie45 9y ago
    you make $27h…good for you! I make up to $85h working from home. My story is that I quit working at shoprite to work online and with a little effort I easily bring in around $45h to $85h…heres a good example of what i’m doing,..... http://ow.ly/P0wk30aVXfN http://ow.ly/P0wk30aVXfN
  - sillysaurus3 9y ago
    If this were true, YC's batch sizes would be getting smaller, since they only invest in companies that could become as big as Airbnb or Dropbox. But the batches are getting bigger. Maybe this is true for investors outside of YC's deal flow, though. That would have some interesting implications.
    - jkuria 9y ago
      I think they do this to maximize the surface area for success. Investing in more companies but keeping the bar high, increases the likelihood of finding the AirBnBs and DropBoxs. After all, the cost of funding each company is miniscule in the grand scheme of things.
      - sillysaurus3 9y ago
        True, but the assertion was that nowadays very few companies are capable of reaching Airbnb-size valuations. YC is probably far more qualified to judge this than we are, and since their batches are getting bigger, the assertion seems false.
    - soniman 9y ago
      Somebody made the point in another thread that YC has become a staffing firm for the YC investees that actually are able to scale. So ultimately the cost to YC of all those investments turns out to be pretty small.
  - AndrewKemendo 9y ago
    The whole point of venture investing is that you are playing in that realm. You won't get far in venture fundraising if you are stating that you would take a <100M exit. Regardless of how rare.
    - rhizome 9y ago
      The whole point of venture investing is that you are playing in that realm Or at least you think you are. Have you heard of Engineer's Savings Time? It's the tendency for engineers to underestimate the amount of time it will take to complete a task, and it's based on the difficulty of estimating on one hand, but also ego on the other. This is reversed for the same reasons in the investor world: overestimating the amount of business power a company has. They're both subject to the impossibility of predicting the future, but contrary to decades of thinking and writing going into software estimation, it seems like relatively less effort has been dedicated to revenue/profit estimation. Of course, when I put it in those words it appears possible I just have a blind spot, but I think the problem remains.
      - AndrewKemendo 9y ago
        I think what you describe is common, if not just part of the way everything works. So, not a blind spot, but also not something to dwell on. The in-determinant nature of forecasting - especially with respect to revenue/profit estimation - is almost moot when you're trying to determine if a nascent company is going to be able to make 200M a year in 7 years time. That's why you see so many of the factors for venture funding following well worn qualitative pathways: Tons of users, market size, stickiness, monetization capability, founder grit etc... They are proxies for expectations based on past experience, given the glut of quantitative measures that aren't strongly correlated. In the end, you're playing in the unicorn league if you think you are.
        rhizome 9y ago
        Maybe, but that circular logic doesn't help establish legitimacy. And if we can agree on that, then where does the investor industry's legitimacy lie? "We have the money, by various mechanisms, and everything else is a fairy tale?"

yinso 9y ago

> That’s what everyone says but how many 100x’s are there really? I’ve been doing this a long time and there just aren’t that many. > I don’t have the same pressures of a fund in liquidity, timing or the need for 100x returns. If I can consistently get 5x to 10x I’d take that all day long. How many investors, angels, VCs or otherwise, focus on the 5x-10x return deals? And are 5x-10x deals safer, meaning that more of a sure thing, than the 100x deals in terms of return? I.e. are VCs being rational by focusing on the 100x deals since 5x-10x deals aren't safer, or are they forgoing safer and better returns of the 5x-10x for the chance to become movers and shakers of the largest players?

a13n 9y ago
I've asked a VC this question before. They said that in theory going after 5-10x returns sounds great but in practice no successful VC firms use this strategy. They all make their money from the few who "return the fund".
- mrep 9y ago
  Well, I tend to think of VC's as investors who target insane growth companies so that kind of makes sense. One of my good friends works in private equity and their investment targets are 100% focused on small banks who return an average of 2-5x. Not quite the 5-10x returns but they have much higher success rates.
  - kornish 9y ago
    A friend of mine who graduated with honors from an Ivy econ program moved to Palo Alto and went into PE. I asked him why he didn't go into VC in the heart of venture capital. He replied that PE was as close as you could get to formulaically printing money while seed-stage (and even later) VC was more like splattering paint at a wall and seeing what sticks, and that the former suited his personality better. An interesting comparison; food for thought.

chicagogal 9y ago

I've heard the phrase "keep me updated" before ;) Perhaps they don't want to give honest feedback in case they later turn out to be wrong and want in?

rpedela 9y ago
That phrase is VC talk for no.
- abalashov 9y ago
  To the point of the sibling comment, I think "no, at this time" is more accurate.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
kgilpin 9y ago
It's a fairly honest reply. It means "you're not there yet". It's far from Yes, but it's not No; and a future Yes is not likely but not impossible. You could try asking for specific things that require improvement but I don't think you'll get a useful answer in most cases. You'll hear some words back but all they will mean is "I am not in love with your company".

Karrot_Kream 9y ago

> I’ve been doing this long enough to know that the next big thing won’t happen as quickly as people expect. I am therefore willing to forgo those 100x returns and get 10x on things that are more certain and nearer term. If only more founders thought like this too.

JumpCrisscross 9y ago
As always, it depends. If you're in a land-grab market with $100 billion potential and take the slow route, you'll be squeezed. If, on the other hand, you choose a market with a low ceiling, you'll likely be forced to finance with retained earnings and/or debt.
- Retric 9y ago
  'Market' is often very fluid. Large companies may be in government consulting, but as you scale down there is plenty of room for various specialties in that same 'Market'. You find this all over the place as 800$ Aeron chairs and 40$ iKea chairs are both in the same and very different markets.
  - Reagan45 9y ago
    My last pay check was $9500 working 12 hours a week online. My sisters friend has been averaging 15k for months now and she works about 20 hours a week. I can't believe how easy it was once I tried it out. This is what I do, ====http://jar.ma/24RmAN http://jar.ma/24RmAN
    - xapata 9y ago
      Spam often?
ouid 9y ago
Who considers 10x settling?
- deleted 9y ago

anon4728 9y ago

Money is plentiful. The core, unscalable challenge is finding smart and motivated investors whom can add value. For example, take Raj Parekh: - nice guy - hustler's hustler - can act as anything from investor to sales to VP, without getting too bossy, just unblocks problems and moves forward - knows the enteprise space That's the ideal investor: competent, helpful, humane, relentlessly resourceful and generally willing to roll up sleeves as an equal part of the team.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

0xbear 9y ago

10x means much lower probability of failure in order to get any ROI at all. Failure, sadly, is a lot harder to avoid than founders and VCs would like. 100x means the overwhelming majority of investments can fail and you still make out like a bandit.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]