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A "small-time investor"

diegobasch.com

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Re: A "small-time investor"

#11

Post by ashray »

diego wrote: post #9
ashray wrote: post #7

Low five figure investments ? You seem pretty angelic to me. Us mere mortals don't have that kind of ca$h bro!

Most people who work in Silicon Valley for a while can afford to make a few small investments like that if they choose. Others buy a nice car, or whatever. It can be seen as an expensive hobby. Many angel investors are regular working guys/gals.

I'm curious as to how you make such investments though. I thought the rules were that you either need to have net worth > $5MM or a household income of over $300k/year. Those are from the SEC website and I'm not 100% sure of whether they apply to everyone or just on second market. (I guess contract investments work otherwise..)

If those numbers are right then that still does sound out of reach. Though to be honest, $100k per investment also sounds out of reach to me but I haven't had any big silicon valley payouts.

Re: A "small-time investor"

#12

Post by ChuckMcM »

Well as long as nobody invents 'brovesting' I'm ok with it. :-)

I understand that many people have a connection between 'angel' and 'charity' but I've always equated the angel in angel investing with 'guardian angel' which is someone who can see more of the hazards facing the team and give them a heads up or a nudge when one of those comes close to being a 'problem.' This isn't charity, it is providing a heads up sort of service.

Re: A "small-time investor"

#13

Post by shashashasha »

ashray wrote: post #11
diego wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most people who work in Silicon Valley for a while can afford to make a few small investments like that if they choose. Others buy a nice car, or whatever. It can be seen as an expensive hobby. Many angel investors are regular working guys/gals.

I'm curious as to how you make such investments though. I thought the rules were that you either need to have net worth > $5MM or a household income of over $300k/year. Those are from the SEC website and I'm not 100% sure of whether they apply to everyone or just on second market. (I guess contract investments work otherwise..) If those numbers are right then that still does sound out of reach. Though to be honest, $…

The > $5M is for entities, there's also "a natural person who has individual net worth... that exceeds $1 million"

and

"a natural person with income exceeding $200,000 in each of the two most recent years"

http://www.sec.gov/answers/accred.htm

Re: A "small-time investor"

#14

Post by diego »

shashashasha wrote: post #13
ashray wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious as to how you make such investments though. I thought the rules were that you either need to have net worth > $5MM or a household income of over $300k/year. Those are from the SEC website and I'm not 100% sure of whether they apply to everyone or just on second market. (I guess contract investments work otherwise..) If those numbers are right then that still does sound out of reach. Though to be honest, $…

The > $5M is for entities, there's also "a natural person who has individual net worth... that exceeds $1 million" and "a natural person with income exceeding $200,000 in each of the two most recent years" http://www.sec.gov/answers/accred.htm

You can also invest in startups as an unaccredited investor, with some restrictions. I know those laws have been revised recently.

http://www.quora.com/Investing/What-are-unaccredited-investo...

Re: A "small-time investor"

#16

Post by twelvechairs »

Great to see that there are humble people like this out there. I'm not even really in the field but the term 'angel investor' has always struck me as really self-inflating. If there is anyone who is 'angelic' it is the people doing the hard work. Why not just 'seed investor'?

Re: A "small-time investor"

#18

Post by diego »

jjmata wrote: post #10

I know Diego personally and can speak from experience that he's the sort of person that will help you more than most "angels" out there would even if they tried (most don't/can't; spray-n-pray is still in full swing out there, folks!) Maybe we need a new label that identifies people like him. I'd like to believe that I would qualify for whatever it is that we come up with as well, but others need to decide that. For…

Thanks Juanjo for the kind words. Completely agree regarding the game, and the rules are already changing. It's interesting that the same technologies that enable new kinds of startups also enable new investing models. I guess we all like change when it works in our favor, not so much when it's against us :)
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