HN Explorer

Ask HN: Who Are the Investors on HN?

96 points by lordnacho ↗ HN
Now and again I see someone say they're an investor, perhaps the kind who'd be willing to hear a pitch. Is there a registry or summary of such HNers somewhere? Perhaps one that says what type of investment they want to see, amounts, what stage, etc?

63 comments

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pyb
Perhaps there is space for monthly "Who's raising?" and/or "Who's investing?" threads.
max_
I hope dang is reading this.
choppaface
Investing (especially in start-ups) is about information arbitrage. HN strives to be about actual concrete information. Keep BS off HN.
Kaze404
How is this different from the monthly "Who's hiring" and "Who wants to be hired" posts?
edoceo
Employer/Employee and Investor/Investee relationships are so much more complicated.

If you can't see how they are so different then...well...you're probably not ready to Invest and that lack of experience would be a turn off for Investors

Kaze404
I'm not interested in investing or seeking investment. I'm interested in the question I asked, which was not answered.
caseysoftware
I think this is a terrible idea.

The answer to "who's raising?" is: Almost everyone with an idea, but doesn't mean they should.

The answer to "who's investing?" is: Very few but everyone wants to feel like they could.

On the Raising Side - Beyond the immediate risk of breaking various Blue Sky Laws, the sheer volume of completely unprepared and unvetted people trying to raise will drown out everything else. Most people should NOT raise money yet because they haven't figured out their core value prop, can't express what problem(s) they're solving, or don't know who their target market is. Most are in love with their particular solution and you can't do anything to budge them from that.

And others should not raise money ever because their business can't provide the type of returns necessary OR they have no clue that raising money builds a ticking time bomb in their business.

On the Investor Side - anyone active has no problem finding deals. That's not the problem. The real problem is finding "good" deals. There are NO foolproof ways to prove "good" but referrals from trusted people provide a filter and working directly with founders and getting to know them is another.

And that's not even considering the "investors" who wrote a check once ten years ago and now consider themselves an angel and will waste founders' time with nothing to show for it.

We do NOT need this noise on HN. That's what Angelist, Microventures, Wefunder, your local angel network, accelerators, and your own network are for. If you don't have a network, start building one.. but it takes years before it will be productive for you.

Background: Two IPOs under my belt, a handful of angel investments (one is dead, a couple neutral, others are providing returns), a flock of professional failures, and a decade of mentoring companies before, during, and after accelerators.

rychco
Hate this idea, personally. Everyone thinks they’ve got a million dollar idea.
DC1350
I have some GME
janjones
Not what OP was asking
burnte
Looks like it was a humorous reference to a current event, a "joke" in common parlance.
TrickyQuestion
Over the last 20 years I have founded and co-founded multiple software startups myself so I know a bit about making a software business successful.

I would love to invest something like $100K in small software startups. But I have no idea how to go about it.

My favorite approach would be to band together with a few other small time investors and put $10k of my money into 10 different companies each.

One issue is that all my friends are still in the "dreaming about building a startup" phase. Nobody in my circle has the money/interest to invest.

The other issue is that I don't know how to find startups to invest in.

edoceo
Too big for your first check, spread it around. Check out Seattle Angel Conference for getting your feet wet. Fully booked this round but might be room for next (6mo). Safer than going alone, good crew to educate investors. Don't have to be on Seattle
chris11
Isn't 10k a small investment?
nadspoly
You're not gonna like it but I think buying crypto might provide this. Many projects/teams/small startups provide the equivalent of equity via their tokens. Investing in those is a bit like providing seed funds.

Of course, tons of scams, but there's some real projects out there too.

TrickyQuestion
The problem with crypto is that there is no good on-ramp.

For example: To buy crypto on Coinbase, you have to send them a scan of your passport and your bank accounts. I don't want a foreign company to have a copy of my passport.

throwaway-99482
Not entirely true. You can use https://localbitcoins.com/ to buy bitcoin without an exchange and then use Uniswap to invest into up and coming tokens. If they're on Coinbase, it is often already too late to be an early stage investor.
TrickyQuestion
Localbitcoins seem to do the same digital KYC dance as Coinbase. So you will probably also have to copy your passport for them.
doopy1
I thought localbitcoins was made illegal in the USA unless the seller has a certian money handling license? It could just be an NY/CA thing, but still...
ufmace
I'm fairly skeptical of cryptocurrency hype personally, but if you want to invest 6 figure sums in a startup company, that's a legal agreement, and you're going to be giving a lot more personal information than that to the entities involved. This is no time to be squeamish about who has a copy of your passport.
TrickyQuestion
It is not about providing informtion. But having a copy of my passport allows the other party to identify as me to other parties. That is something I want to avoid.
nadspoly
Unless you're in a country that literally outlawed any form of crypto you must have some sort of local company/exchange that would take your money so you can trade. You just have to look for it.
throwaway-99482
I'm in a similar position. Made money (> 2 mio) with side projects and smart investments and would love to invest 10 ~10k into good looking projects but it is difficult finding them, especially since I don't live in the US or SF. I tried to register for syndicates but they ask for previous investments which is a chicken and egg problem. I haven't invested in other projects before, I successfuly build my own side projects.
joering2
Thank you for sharing - just so you know HN loves to hear stories about successfull side projects. If yoy haven’t already, it would be great if you post about it in great detail.
oliv__
I don't know if this is appropriate, but since it's the only way to contact you:

I run Niceboard.co, currently looking to raise first money (~100-150k), profitable SaaS business, growing month over month, would be happy to send you a pitch deck and chat.

switchstance
Check out https://www.thesyndicate.com/. I just joined, as I’m in a similar boat.
mguerville
I’m part of it and despite Jason C having obviously a very good track record I find myself very unimpressed with deal flow quality. I’ve invested in 75 or so startups via AL and exactly 0 through the syndicate. I’m usually not into consumer stuff though so In fairness that’s a good part of why.
Xt-6
Investing into something like Tinyseed might be what you are looking for.
doopy1
I don't think 10k will go very far. I think it makes more sense to team up with a few people who are also willing to invest and help companies raise $XXX,000 for a serious seed round and take an advisory role to help these companies succeed.
plank_time
The going rate for seed rounds right now in SV is $5M/20%. I know 3 different founders that got this deal relatively easily in the last year.
alepalep7
To find startups have a look at https://upvising.net - there's a matching algo that shows you relevant startups based on your profile.
trykondev
I don't have a solution for this in general, but I do have a specific company that is looking for that level of funding -- feel free to reach out if you're interested to hear more!
gregdoesit
I invest in seed-stage dev tools startups alongside others (most of them are also on HN - here’s a list of people[1]) and I’m also a part of the Uber alumni investment syndicate[2].

[1] https://github.com/sw-yx/devtools-angels/

[2] https://angel.co/uber-alumni-investment-club/syndicate

throwaway-99482
Genuine Question: For somebody not working in the US/SF (and not in a well known startup) but with the desire to invest small amounts into startups (made money with side projects, see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26604106) how would one go about finding a group like that?
edoceo
Seattle Angel Conference. That's what it's all about. Teaching investors and entrepreurs - with actual deals.
dt3ft
I'm building fDeploy[1] which is a dev tool similar to Octopus Deploy, but more simplified in order to keep it lightweight and more affordable. I never intended to make money off this (started building it when Octopus Deploy removed their free tier), but if there is enough interest, I wouldn't mind switching to fulltime...

[1] https://www.fdeploy.com/

holman
Not sure there's a particular spreadsheet or anything of investors on HN, but it could be a fun idea.

For what it's worth- I'm an angel investor (past life: early GitHub, advisor at GitLab). I'm also starting an angel syndicate for former GitHub employees, too, so that might be a good option for you if you're in the devtools space and want a bunch of experienced Hubbers on your cap table.

technicolorwhat
Always liked your blogs and slides even the ones you wrote in about downtime/depression where relatable and helpful. thanks so much, nice to see you're helping others out with your investments!
holman
Thanks! Really appreciate it. :)
joshu
i’ve been angel investing for 15 years in approx 250 companies.

check into angellist and nfx signal. also post your project to show HN and people might reach out (i do.)

sdesol
Just out of curiosity, what criteria do you use to reach out when you see a "Show HN" post? I posted last week and I obviously never hinted at wanted to raise funds or such. I would like to post again and maybe be more direct in future postings.
joshu
it's really just if it's in an area that i'm interested in.
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rokobobo
Great idea. I come from high-frequency trading and robotics, and I'm interested in a fairly broad range of B2B software and some B2C. I do have some deal flow through my friends, although I could always do more, and compare notes/share opportunities with others. My email is my profile. To the rest of you who posted, I'll try to reach out to you!
Badfood
You might want to check your profile, it doesn't look like there is an email address there
influx
I'm looking to join some AngelList syndicates, if anyone out there is looking for some fresh blood.
alercunha
We are a startup trying to revolutionize multi-effect pedalboards and we're raising.

https://moddevices.com

I can be reached by email at ale@<our domain>.

tbenst
I run a small VC fund focused on early/seed companies: https://asimovventures.com/portfolio/

We’ve done a lot in robotics and 3D printing. Love talking to founders working on hard technical problems. Feel free to drop me a note, tyler@ [that website link].

Early days, but if by chance you’re doing anything in neurotech definitely reach out. I’m doing a PhD in neuroscience at Stanford and am keen to invest in this burgeoning space.

lpolovets
I'm an engineer turned VC, and I read HN on most days.

Eng career: one of the first 10 engineers at LinkedIn and Factual, and one of the first 10k engineers at Google.

Investing: I'm a partner at Susa Ventures. We're a $90m seed fund and we've backed companies like Robinhood, Flexport, and Fast at seed stage.

- $1m-$1.5m checks, generally when companies are raising $2m-$5m. - the 4 areas where we're most active are enterprise SaaS, fintech, logistics/supply chain, and healthcare IT. - we can invest pre-launch or pre-product, but prefer for there to be an MVP and idealy a few early pilots/contracts/users. - we like companies that have the potential to build strong moats in the long run (network effects, proprietary data, etc.)

Easiest ways to reach me: @lpolovets on Twitter or leo at susaventures.com

I've gotten more and more bandwidth constrained as our fund has grown, but I do my best to reply to emails/DMs where I'm a fit or could be helpful. If you mention HN, I'll prioritize your email. :)

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dmarlow
Is there a place where founders & investors can more easily connect? Seems like r/startups and r/venturecapital on reddit and AngelList, but I'm wondering if there's a more suitable forum for this type of thing.

Not really a fan of a spreadsheet. We need a place for people at all stages to be able to quantity their asks and be connected.

alepalep7
This is what we are trying to do on https://upvising.net we organize the "pitch academy" and every second week we invite three startups to pitch in front of investors, experts and other startups who asked to be invited.

It is amazing the value that comes out from these meetings.

larrykubin
Republic.co has a list of companies you can invest in. Most recently, you could invest in Gumroad and Backstage Capital, among others. There is also AngelList syndicates.