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'Super Angels' Shake Up Venture Capital

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Soren Jonas Bruun May 30, 2009 9:19 AM GMT Finally ! .... somebody dares to tell the truth: Indeed the venture model is broken. The buyers can get what they need in terms of acquired technology and innovation without paying the billions of dollars that justified the scaled up VC model until a few years ago. In fact the whole eco-system is under fire. The Venture Alphabet with A, B, C, etc. rounds rarely works. Better and much safer to sell the company directly after the A round. This way the gorillas outthere (The Cisco's, VM Ware's, Adobe's of this world) get the technologies while they are fresh and reasonably priced. This is the model that our company, 1CT (www.1corptech.com)has worked with for 4 years with 14 exits to date as a result.
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Al Stevens May 29, 2009 12:48 AM GMT It only makes sense to me that this should work. It's getting overextended (through promising such big returns on such large funds) that cause the overinflated prices that too many Web 2.0 companies started getting several years ago. The fact that people are coming to their senses after the YouTube and MySpace debacles only shows that Kopelman is on the right track.
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Bruce Yates May 28, 2009 2:32 PM GMT I would like info as to the process for joining in this organization - both as an investor and someone who could possibly bring ventures to the group. I have been doing this both on my own and thru various "angel groups" for the past 10 years.Thank you.
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Come Lague May 26, 2009 11:51 PM GMT Nueva Ventures has been doing "super angel" investing since 2005 and I'd agree that this is a great time to be investing with a more back to roots approach. We're about to complete our 4th investment this year.More on the super angel investing model (also known as micro-cap vc) here:http://blog.nuevaventures.com/2009/02/12/micro-cap-vc/
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Scott May 26, 2009 5:36 PM GMT The fly in the VC ointment is the term "angel." All VC money is devil cash in my opinion. It's all a fraud perpetrated by the money people to sink their fangs into new meat because they themselves don't have the creativity to do for themselves.
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Tom Keleiner May 26, 2009 6:25 AM GMT the hole in this story is that eventually those seed investments need follow on capital...sometimes $5m to $25m...and regular VCs are the source for that...if they don't invest, it's DOA
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Roger Matus May 25, 2009 12:32 PM GMT I have a particular endorsement to make because InBoxer, the company I co-founded, was the second ever investment made by First Round. They were also InBoxer's first outside investor. So, you could say that I worked with First Round Capital from the beginning. Josh also served on InBoxer's Board of Directors. So, I got to work with him closely for four years.I want to emphasize what a fantastic experience it has been to work with Josh and the First Round team. Their advice and counsel was always helpful and made me a better entrepreneur. Their support was even more valuable than their money. They really are "Super" angels. (Josh's blog returned the favor and called me a "true entrepreneur." That would not have been true without Josh.) To echo Josh's words, it has been an honor to have worked with him and a thrill to see him so recognized in the leading national business weekly. Now that InBoxer has been sold, my contact with Josh will be much less often. I can only hope to have the opportunity to get into the foxhole and work with him again.http://www.deathbyemail.com
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Arjan May 25, 2009 2:35 AM GMT Typical new White VCS helping another new White Entrepreneurs instead of the usual Harvard Mafia.I know a few companies by colored people which did these innovations few years back but they died for the lack of funding access.
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Mike May 24, 2009 3:12 PM GMT While the model of smaller investments works for some projects or industries, it does not work for all... what happens if your project requires 20-30 people and 2 years of effort to realize? That is a $5-6M investment, and they used to get done all the time.We can't all write Web 2.0 or iPhone apps...
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Paul Baron May 23, 2009 3:13 AM GMT Check out hometowntimes.com .. ask for more information - this franchise network of community and advertising website could use some attention from a resource described here ... and as far as Business Week may be concerned -- Hometowntimes.com solves "what's next for journalism."
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