dailylicious!
I have been an angel investor in internet start-ups since 1994, just after Mr Andreessen came to California to start the iconic Netscape. People often ask me why I continue to invest and work with entrepreneurs as vigorously and passionately as ever. The answer is quite simple: these entrepreneurs share their vision of the future with me. And every so often, their vision becomes the future. What could be more interesting than that?
Ron Conway on why he supports entrepreneurship and where he thinks startups will find success is 2012.
American startups are finding it more difficult to raise series A funding and this is very likely caused by the sheer number of startup companies that have surfaced over the last 18 months according to Twitter employee and founder of Mixer Labs Elad Gil.
All the VCs I know tell me times are getting more and more busy for them. They are seeing way more series A deals coming through their doors, but they are funding the same number of deals. This means fewer startups are successfully closing A rounds. Those startups that do close round are often further along then the average series A company was 2-3 years ago.
Cash-rich Japanese retail investors are steadily diversifying their emerging-markets exposure to ASEAN nations from hot favourites China and India as the world’s fastest-growing major economies moderate.
Armed with roughly $15 trillion in personal assets, they are pouring money into funds with flexibility to invest across global emerging markets, Indonesia and other ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) countries, given the region’s solid long-term growth prospects.
The investment traffic between Australia and its Asian neighbors is lopsided in favor of Aussies. Asian investments in Australia are 1.5 times that of Australian investment in Asia.
Masaki Takayanagi, chief executive of SBI Ven Capital, disclosed at the Australian Private Equity Venture Capital Association Conference on Thursday that from 2009 to 2010 about 150 Asian companies invested in Australia. For the same period, only 100 Australian firms made investments in Asia.
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(private equity firms in investment conference) identified Indonesia, China, and Japan as the countries where the best deals would likely rise, particularly in consumer, real estate and healthcare.
the Google sale accomplished three lifelong goals for me: allowing me to set aside enough to pay for my twin toddlers’ college educations, funding my wife and my retirement account, and giving us a financial cushion that means I’ll never have to work at a job I don’t love. It also meant that, overnight, I can pay some karma forward and start investing in startups that I’m excited about
Selling your startup might say to others that you’re a sellout but sometimes it’s what works and if your investors can get more than their capital back, depending on how much, it might offset the loss of the potential that your startup might have had. Also, you might end up with more money that you’d earn if you were working on the startup.
If you want to take this further, there are people like the Samwer brothers who create startups and clones to be sold, but hey, that’s how they got rich.
