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I am a junior angel in Silicon Valley. AMA

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Re: I am a junior angel in Silicon Valley. AMA

#221

Post by foomarks »

pclark wrote: post #172

I think that delicious is really awesome. I still use it pretty much every day, even though if anything the product has almost declined in quality over the past few years. It feels like Delicious could have been the start of something even larger than a bookmark service, it's my primary resource for finding specific content (eg: rails + tutorial, photo + howto, etc.) I'm aware that that is a fairly large technical ba…

I second this! Please someone buy back Delicious, or make a new one:

+ Delicious is lagging behind in mobile support.

+ Delicious could be taking more advantage of the conversation that people are having in their Notes section.

+ Delicious could be taking advantage of the links that are shared between users: help me find users that have similar but unique interests as I do. This would be true social networking on Delicious!

+ Delicious places priority on what is "Hot". This is not terribly useful since a lot of "Hot" links have already made the rounds on Twitter or in my Google Reader first.

+ Delicious could be taking advantage of links that are not yet popular but have a strong interest in category niches.

+ Delicious could be taking advantage of a user's top 10 tags: it's not an accurate assessment of a user's interest, but it gives me a quick assessment if I want to subscribe to their feed.

(I wish I could make another Delicious, but I'm not a programmer!)

Re: I am a junior angel in Silicon Valley. AMA

#222

Post by Utility »

I am thinking about accepting an offer to join a startup with two founders (one technical, one non-technical) to be the first employee in a Biz Dev role. The company has no funding and a prototype will release in 1 month. I think the founders have been working for 5-6 months on it (probably 75% of their time in total).

They offer no salary, but a 1k / month stipend, and a very fair commission structure for sales revenues I bring in.

They offered me 1.0 - 1.5 % in common stock equity that will vest (as will theirs) over a typical 4 yr / 1 yr cliff path.

I feel that the equity offered is too low, given that my joining is a risky investment for me financially, similar to theirs as founders. What do you think is the appropriate amount of equity to ask for?

Re: I am a junior angel in Silicon Valley. AMA

#223

Post by joshu »

Utility wrote: post #222

I am thinking about accepting an offer to join a startup with two founders (one technical, one non-technical) to be the first employee in a Biz Dev role. The company has no funding and a prototype will release in 1 month. I think the founders have been working for 5-6 months on it (probably 75% of their time in total). They offer no salary, but a 1k / month stipend, and a very fair commission structure for sales reve…

Would they fail if you didn't hire you?

Re: I am a junior angel in Silicon Valley. AMA

#224

Post by joshu »

foomarks wrote: post #221
pclark wrote: post #172

I think that delicious is really awesome. I still use it pretty much every day, even though if anything the product has almost declined in quality over the past few years. It feels like Delicious could have been the start of something even larger than a bookmark service, it's my primary resource for finding specific content (eg: rails + tutorial, photo + howto, etc.) I'm aware that that is a fairly large technical ba…

I second this! Please someone buy back Delicious, or make a new one: + Delicious is lagging behind in mobile support. + Delicious could be taking more advantage of the conversation that people are having in their Notes section. + Delicious could be taking advantage of the links that are shared between users: help me find users that have similar but unique interests as I do. This would be true social networking on Del…

I actually did at least several of these. But they forgot how those parts worked and rewrote them poorly.

Re: I am a junior angel in Silicon Valley. AMA

#225

Post by joshu »

coryl wrote: post #209

Hi Joshu, 1) How aggressive are you in getting deals done? Are you more like "lets have a chat, sign here" or more like "okay, call me if you ever need funding."? 2) I'm actually working on a site similar to Delicious, http://www.howl.com . Its not quite bookmarking, we call it link blogging. What do you make of the market? Thanks

I am not that aggressive. If the entrepreneur doesn't understand how I can help/add value/etc then I don't really push it. It's not something that comes up a lot.

Looks kinda neat. Feels tumblr-y. As an investor I avoid content-y stuff like this (how do you monetize? ads probably) but as a user and as a developer I like stuff like this.

Re: I am a junior angel in Silicon Valley. AMA

#226

Post by joshu »

adrianscott wrote: post #211

I've done a series of angel investments, but was most active 99-01. Performance would probably put me in top decile v.c. for that time. Had two liquidity events in last 2 years from advisory shares. Expecting an IPO in next year. Most famous startup I passed on: Paypal, back when they were doing palmpilot stuff. ;) Most famous startup I invested in: Napster, which went bankrupt Best return: Giganet, acquired quickly…

> Paypal

Ouch. I know the feeling.

Doesn't Emulex make connectors?

I would like to see some liquidity someday myself.

What's the startup?

We overlapped - I was at BofA Securities. My boss went on to Epoch Capital and then Schwab.

Re: I am a junior angel in Silicon Valley. AMA

#228

Post by Utility »

joshu wrote: post #223
Utility wrote: post #222

I am thinking about accepting an offer to join a startup with two founders (one technical, one non-technical) to be the first employee in a Biz Dev role. The company has no funding and a prototype will release in 1 month. I think the founders have been working for 5-6 months on it (probably 75% of their time in total). They offer no salary, but a 1k / month stipend, and a very fair commission structure for sales reve…

Would they fail if you didn't hire you?

Nope. I estimate that I can add 5% to the likelihood they succeed (which in itself is small), and about 20% to the upside if they make it.

Re: I am a junior angel in Silicon Valley. AMA

#229

Post by toppy »

joshu wrote: post #227
toppy wrote: post #210

Have you considered investing outside US, Central Europe for instance?

Not really. Maybe if I visited there. I don't like doing deals sight unseen.

Why not? In Poland we have beautiful girls ;) Additionally put an eye on http://www.globstar2010.com/en/index.php

Re: I am a junior angel in Silicon Valley. AMA

#230

Post by joshu »

rdl wrote: post #207
joshu wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess anything that works. In my experience, companies raising less than 500k are making a huge mistake.

Is there anything you'd invest $10k on a $4mm pre in that you wouldn't invest $25k in on a $4mm pre? Assuming a $500k-1mm raise. i.e., do you invest within your range based on your feelings about the investment, or just how oversubscribed the round is? For me, a $10k investment and a $25k investment would take roughly the same amount of thought and time, so really it's just a 2.5x bigger payoff if you win.

Usually. 10k is when it feels more speculative. But often it is because I got cut down.
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