> As an angel investor, he’s famous for cutting a $100,000 check to Google’s founders even before they had chosen their now-famous name. In an e-mail, Bechtolsheim confirmed that the check has netted him more than $1 billion.
> Bechtolsheim also expressed a sober perspective on the emergence of former Google employees as angels and entrepreneurs. "When people are part of a new company that gets very successful very quickly, such as Google (but this effect is by no means limited to Google), they sometimes confuse the root of this success and incorrectly assume that the success was due to their own actions. They then want to translate this experience to other opportunities, either in the same or in related spaces, which in some cases may turn out, but in most cases will fail, just like the majority of all VC investments fail. … The only thing different about the Google mafia compared to other similar periods in history is that more money was made at Google by more people (and more money will be lost here)."
That's technically true, but not quite what I was thinking. Let's define Xooglers as people who were pre-IPO at Google. Or even just people who didn't originally come to Google through the acquisition of another company.
I'll tell you another story about Andy Bechtolsheim: he invested in a competitor of my startup about 10 years ago, would never give us the time of day when we tried to raise money. We never got to pitch to him, which is unfortunate considering that he was the one angel specialized in our space. Fast forward 5 years, we acquired the company he had invested in.
Who you know (or rather, who knows you) matters. We were out of towners at the time.
"Who you know (or rather, who knows you) matters."
Yea, if Andy had known you guys well enough to understand that you would kick the other's company's butt and acquire them, he could have just invested in your company directly and got a better return. :)
It sure would. But we've been operating such a short time that all the acquisitions so far have been early acquisitions, which are always for small amounts.
I'm pretty sure we're ahead on paper, but I've never tried to calculate how far ahead.
Too bad the transaction costs are so high. I guess their would be ample opportunities to invest relatively small sums in newish companies, based on some statistics about them.
YC is probably two or three intermediate value (35 mm) highly probable acquisitions away from a 100% ROR, assuming 2.58 million invested thus far (129 companies * 20 k avg investment). Between loopt, scribd, jtv, et al they'll easily clear that barrier. This is assuming they're at breakeven now.
Interesting that pg is second only to Ron Conway, in number of investments (I'm guessing this is YCombinator vs. Ron Conway Inc.) 190 vs 129 given that YC has only been doing it for 5 years.
I find that list really dubious -- it's very hard to believe that 97% of Ron Conway's investments have worked out. The only way I can imagine that being true is if there are strings pulled so that there's a fire-sale at the end that's being counted as an exit.
Right, as Paul pointed out, the numbers for Conway are way low (maybe these are just the SV Angels numbers?), but over the course of Conway's investments in the last 20 years, it's astronomically unlikely that 97% of them are "not dead".
The cynic in me is thinking that it's because BusinessWeek is based out of NYC. Don't get me wrong though, cdixon's blog is pretty insightful, and it sounds like he's got a good rep.
Wikipedians strongly recommend against that and get annoyed when people do it. Anyone that wants to fix their own mistaken Wikipedia page is best off doing it by posting a link on the talk page with the correct information and letting someone else fix it, or having someone else do it for them.
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[ 3.6 ms ] story [ 101 ms ] threadhttp://images.businessweek.com/ss/10/02/0225_angel_investors...
> As an angel investor, he’s famous for cutting a $100,000 check to Google’s founders even before they had chosen their now-famous name. In an e-mail, Bechtolsheim confirmed that the check has netted him more than $1 billion.
> Bechtolsheim also expressed a sober perspective on the emergence of former Google employees as angels and entrepreneurs. "When people are part of a new company that gets very successful very quickly, such as Google (but this effect is by no means limited to Google), they sometimes confuse the root of this success and incorrectly assume that the success was due to their own actions. They then want to translate this experience to other opportunities, either in the same or in related spaces, which in some cases may turn out, but in most cases will fail, just like the majority of all VC investments fail. … The only thing different about the Google mafia compared to other similar periods in history is that more money was made at Google by more people (and more money will be lost here)."
How about in that case?
Who you know (or rather, who knows you) matters. We were out of towners at the time.
Yea, if Andy had known you guys well enough to understand that you would kick the other's company's butt and acquire them, he could have just invested in your company directly and got a better return. :)
I'm pretty sure we're ahead on paper, but I've never tried to calculate how far ahead.
Too bad the transaction costs are so high. I guess their would be ample opportunities to invest relatively small sums in newish companies, based on some statistics about them.
EDIT: link to table: http://bwnt.businessweek.com/interactive_reports/future_of_t...
The number for Ron also seems wrong. He's made a lot more than 190 investments. He's been doing this since the 1980s.
No. 1
Chris Dixon, 38 Co-founder, Hunch Chris Dixon’s blog
No. of angel investments: 23 Companies funded (a sampling): Skype, Postini, Milo.com, Knewton, DailyBooth
No. 2
Ron Conway Investor
No. of Angel Investments: 190 Companies funded (a sampling): Google, Facebook, bit.ly, Digg, Mint.com, Twitter
No. 3
Reid Hoffman, 42 Chairman, co-founder, LinkedIn Reid Hoffman’s LinkedIn profile
No. of Angel Investments: 49 Companies funded (a sampling): Digg, Facebook, Flickr, Friendster, Ning, Zynga
No. 4
Esther Dyson, 58 Investor
No. of Angel Investments: 60 Companies funded (a sampling): 23andMe, GridPoint, del.icio.us, Flickr, Meetup
No.5
Peter Thiel, 42 Founder, President, Clarium Capital Management
No. of Angel Investments: 26 Companies funded (a sampling): Facebook, Friendster, LinkedIn, Yelp, Zynga
No. 6
Marc Andreessen, 38 Investor
No. of Angel Investments: 53 Companies funded (a sampling): Business Insider, Digg, LinkedIn, Qik, Scribd, Twitter
No. 7
Jeff Bezos, 46 Chairman, founder, Amazon.com
No. of Angel Investments: 18 Companies funded (a sampling): 37signals, Google, Linden Lab, Social Gaming Network, Twitter
No. 8
Chris Sacca, 34 Managing Director, Lowercase Capital
No. of Angel Investments: 32 Companies funded (a sampling): bit.ly, FanBridge, Gowalla, Posterous, SimpleGeo, Twitter
No. 9
Mike Maples, 42 Investor
No. of Angel Investments: 39 Companies funded (a sampling): Circle of Moms, Digg, Kongregate, Odeo, Twitter, Weebly
No. 10
Andy Bechtolsheim, 54 Founder, Chairman, Chief Development Officer, Astra Networks
No. of Angel Investments: 49 Companies funded (a sampling): Brightmail, Google, Granite Systems, Nvidia, Tapulous
No. 11
Paul Graham, 45 Co-founder, Y Combinator
No. of Angel Investments: 129 Companies funded (a sampling): Bump Technologies, FanChatter, Heyzap, Justin.tv, Scribd
No. 12
Max Levchin, 34 Founder, Chief Executive, Slide
No. of Angel Investments: 7 Companies funded (a sampling): Evernote, MixPanel, Raptr, Slide, Yelp
No. 13
Aydin Senkut, 40 Founder, Felicis Ventures
No. of Angel Investments: 65 Companies funded (a sampling): Foodzie, Mixer Labs, Rapleaf, The Auteurs, TwitVid
No. 14
Bill Joy, 55 Partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
No. of Angel Investments: 24 Companies funded (a sampling): Blazent, NeoPath Networks, Dantz
No. 15
Kevin Rose, 33 Founder, Digg Kevin’s blog
No. of Angel Investments: 12 Companies funded (a sampling): Twitter, 3Crowd Technologies, Foursquare, SimpleGeo
No. 16
Dave Duffield, 69 Founder, Chief Executive, Workday
No. of Angel Investments: 18 Companies funded (a sampling): Acta Technology, Bridgestream, Netcentives
No. 17
Andrea Zurek, 39 Founding partner, XG Ventures
No. of Angel Investments: 26 Companies funded (a sampling): Lotus Vodka, Facebook, Red Mango, and Vaxart
No. 18
Marc Benioff, 44 Founder, Chief Executive, Salesforce.com
No. of Angel Investments: 9 Companies funded (a sampling): Mashery, Qik, Tapulous, Zuora
No. 19
Jeff Clavier, 42 Founder, Managing Partner, SoftTech VC Blog: Jeff Clavier’s blog, Software Only
No. of Angel Investments: 52 Companies funded (a sampling): bit.ly, Circle of Moms, DNAnexus, Mint.com
No. 20
Caterina Fake, 36 Co-founder Hunch Caterina’s blog
No. of Angel Investments: 6 Companies funded (a sampling): Etsy, Maya’s Mom
No. 21
Martin Varsavsky, 49 Founder, Chief Executive, Fon Martin Varsavsky’s blog
No. of Angel Investments: 28 Companies funded (a sampling): 23andMe, Dopplr, Eolia, Joost, Plazes, Tumblr, Wikio
No. 22
Naval Ravikant, 36 Founder, Chairman, Vast.com Blog: Startup Boy
No. of Angel Investments: 21 Companies funded (a sampling): Chatterous, DotSpots, Fluther, Twitter, Vidly
No. 23
Joe Kraus, 38 Partner, Google Ventures
No. of Angel Investments: 5 Companies funded (a sampling): InfraSearch, Linkedin, Napster, Odeo
No. 24
Eric Schmidt, 54 Chairman, Chief Executive, Google
No. of Angel Investments: 9 Companies funded (a sampli...
Not very compelling, but that's their story and they're sticking with it.
I also find this hard to believe.
I've invested in ~ 20 companies over the last four years.
- Two are insanely good, but no liquidity yet - One appears to be dead - One has been acquired
The rest are in various stages of growth.
I wish the "top" angels had some outside SV diversity; I know two thirds of that group pretty much directly.
I thought pg's PhD was in Computer Science?
I'm assuming it largely comes down to the type of people (smart, hardworking, get 'er done) in the startup and the angel's network.
YouNoodle took angel money from Max Levchin, Peter Thiel, and The Founders Fund. [2]
This conflict-of-interest was not disclosed by BusinessWeek.
[1] http://bwnt.businessweek.com/interactive_reports/future_of_t... [2] http://www.crunchbase.com/company/younoodle
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_10/b41690396...