Seed investing is not something for amateurs, in fact frankly I don't think investing in public companies is for amateurs. I would tell ordinary people to invest in index funds and don't invest in startups at all. You should not be investing in startups because you think it is going to change your life. You shouldn't be doing it unless you're rich enough that your life wouldn't be changed by making lots of money. - P…
Wefunder (YC W13): Invest in Startups
31–40 of 83 posts
Re: Wefunder (YC W13): Invest in Startups
#32Seed investing is not something for amateurs, in fact frankly I don't think investing in public companies is for amateurs. I would tell ordinary people to invest in index funds and don't invest in startups at all. You should not be investing in startups because you think it is going to change your life. You shouldn't be doing it unless you're rich enough that your life wouldn't be changed by making lots of money. - P…
Wow, that's funny. As I was reading that, I was thinking "what a thoughtful comment for HN." At least I'm consistent. Twould be nice if you punctuated it properly though.
Re: Wefunder (YC W13): Invest in Startups
#33Seed investing is not something for amateurs, in fact frankly I don't think investing in public companies is for amateurs. I would tell ordinary people to invest in index funds and don't invest in startups at all. You should not be investing in startups because you think it is going to change your life. You shouldn't be doing it unless you're rich enough that your life wouldn't be changed by making lots of money. - P…
Re: Wefunder (YC W13): Invest in Startups
#34Seed investing is not something for amateurs, in fact frankly I don't think investing in public companies is for amateurs. I would tell ordinary people to invest in index funds and don't invest in startups at all. You should not be investing in startups because you think it is going to change your life. You shouldn't be doing it unless you're rich enough that your life wouldn't be changed by making lots of money. - P…
Wow, that's funny. As I was reading that, I was thinking "what a thoughtful comment for HN." At least I'm consistent. Twould be nice if you punctuated it properly though.
Re: Wefunder (YC W13): Invest in Startups
#35Startups Fundraising Get first access to hot deals. 7 days left.
with no start ups listed. It seemed like there were a few presign up...
Re: Wefunder (YC W13): Invest in Startups
#36"All the small investors (often So your company must create and manage a new investment vehicle for each startup to raise money on Wefunder? I assume so, otherwise the investors in one holding will incur the liability of the fund being sued by the investors/investment of another. According to your FAQ, you are not charging any fees yet and have raised about $500k to support your operations. On top of operating the pa…
That's right, small investors invest in a separate investment vehicle for each company that will requiere many of the actions that you describe. Second Market and Funders Club work the same way, and the costs do not amount to 10's of thousands of dollars per year. We have set aside enough funds deal with the future costs of each entity.
Funders Club is also a somewhat different animal -- they offer investors access to venture funds where risk is pooled, and also do single-purpose funds that resemble your product.
You are exclusively offering investors access to one investment and one set of risk. Let's say you can get it down to $4k/yr:
* Accountant to prepare and send out K1s to 50 shareholders $1000
* Delaware agent & franchise tax $400
* Legal, regulatory filings, 4 hrs $1000
* Your or your lawyer's time to give legally binding answers to questions from 50 shareholders $?
* Valuation analyst hired by you or firm, 5 hrs $600
* Broker dealer / misc / insurance $1000
These numbers sound pretty low to me but let's say you have economies of scale.
Making money solely when investors make money still seems like a reach. If you make 100 investments per year and have a decent team you will be burning a lot of cash -- the only way to recoup that cash will be to charge a transaction fee or keep raising money until carried interest pays out (which it often doesn't). Either way, it's something you should address in your disclosures.
It's one thing not to have a fleshed-out revenue model if you are a consumer site: nothing will happen if you die except for some upset users, but you can't just suddenly unwind a group of 400 investment funds when the underlying capital is tied up in illiquid private stock.
Re: Wefunder (YC W13): Invest in Startups
#37I hope this becomes the default for YC companies. Fuck the VC's - invite the public to demo day and crowd fund the seed rounds!
Quick math: investing $1k into Facebook with the same terms would be worth over $8 million today. For Dropbox, over $600k. For an OMGPOP-sized exit, $25k.
Re: Wefunder (YC W13): Invest in Startups
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wow, that's funny. As I was reading that, I was thinking "what a thoughtful comment for HN." At least I'm consistent. Twould be nice if you punctuated it properly though.
Interesting. It looks like one can summon PG by just quoting him. We should try this more often.
Re: Wefunder (YC W13): Invest in Startups
#39Seed investing is not something for amateurs, in fact frankly I don't think investing in public companies is for amateurs. I would tell ordinary people to invest in index funds and don't invest in startups at all. You should not be investing in startups because you think it is going to change your life. You shouldn't be doing it unless you're rich enough that your life wouldn't be changed by making lots of money. - P…
Wow, that's funny. As I was reading that, I was thinking "what a thoughtful comment for HN." At least I'm consistent. Twould be nice if you punctuated it properly though.
Re: Wefunder (YC W13): Invest in Startups
#40Seed investing is not something for amateurs, in fact frankly I don't think investing in public companies is for amateurs. I would tell ordinary people to invest in index funds and don't invest in startups at all. You should not be investing in startups because you think it is going to change your life. You shouldn't be doing it unless you're rich enough that your life wouldn't be changed by making lots of money. - P…
I agree that ordinary people shouldn't bet their life savings on startups. But this allows an average well-informed SF employee to invest $1,000-2,000/month of his/her salary into any startup they like - hardly a life changing amount. See it as a Kickstarter on steroids. At least this gives us a chance too to invest in the next Dropbox and Airbnb.