This is such a terrible investment. Let’s try a thought experiment: Option A: Invest in a specific company. You have a business plan etc and you can talk to t

This is such a terrible investment. Let’s try a thought experiment: Option A: Invest in a specific company. You have a business plan etc and you can talk to the founder(s) to see what you think of them. If the business makes money hopefully you get some kind of exit. This is VC. You can make a decision based on the idea, what you think of the founders, the general market for exits or a bit of all of the above. It’s pretty uncertain but the companies that work out make you returns that hopefully compensate for the others. Option B: Invest in those two brothers. They may or may not come up with a viable business at some point in the future. This has all the downside and risk of option A except that you also don’t know what business idea they may come up with, how much capital that idea will need (ie you could be further diluted or they may not be able to deploy all the capital, reducing your rate of return) and how long you have to wait until they do that. Now, if they had a good idea, why would they not tell you about it as part of their sales pitch for investment? (Ie why would they not insist on option A?). This would decrease risk for investors and thereby mean they wouldn’t need to sell as big a slice to raise the capital they need. It feels like by going down this route, they are self-declaring that they don’t have any business ideas likely to stand up to scrutiny.