

Ask HN: What start up would you invest in ? - Murkin

It seems like lately I hear many people say that they wish they could invest in Facebook(twitter/Zynga/etc). But those are big and quite obvious choices.<p>What small startups do you believe enough in, that you would be willing to put some money in (if you had some extra) ?
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aristus
First, I'd wonder if it would be possible to have an "index fund" of sorts,
say 0.001 of 1,000 startups. :D

I'd say the same criteria to invest apply to where you'd want to work. I
seriously considered the following three companies, and got to the interview
stage with one of them:

I think AirBnB are on the launchpad great idea, great team, making the cash.
Dropbox had rabidly happy users and are able to attract top talent (eg, Zed).
Dolores Labs are quite successful, though they have a tendency to drop
watermelons from great heights.

None of that matters, of course. They don't need my dumb $5K or even $50K. To
make an investment that's worthwhile to both ends of the transaction it'd have
to be much earlier than where they are now. An investor also needs to be more
than just a fanboi with money -- I'd need contacts, expertise, time to advise,
etc.

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Murkin
I was wondering about this about reading lots of material on fund raising.

Sure its easy to say "Id invest in this already proven company".

But when you invest as an angel say 50-100K. How would you know ? It seems
that even entrepreneurs in the market are finding it hard to asses others.

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aristus
You don't know; that's why it an investment. :D

If I had this money to invest, I'd put it in a 6-month CD while I did
research. I'd spend 2+ days a week going to meetups, hanging out at cafes,
talking, listening, making friends, making notes. Also I'd try to get time
with more experienced investors and ask their advice. After that intense
immersion, then I'd feel qualified to invest.

Here's the problem with that plan. The startups I'd been talking with would be
_very_ annoyed with me by that time. Here I am, with all this cash, and all I
want to do is waste their time asking them questions over coffee!

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auston
I agree with mahmud - Twilio has a great offering (& from I know, it's only
going to get better!)

Other than that, I am really liking Yext, a lot!

After that, the company I used to work for seems like they're positioned to
make some money (leadlogsys.com)

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andrewtj
My geo/social situation means I'm not likely to hear about a startup before
it's beyond my investment capability; which leaves my own startup, which
doesn't really count.

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iamelgringo
For me, it's not a questing of what startups I'd invest in. I run across a lot
of people at the hackers and founders meetups that I host, and it's fairly
often that I come across someone that I'd love to bet on. The question of what
particular company they are working on at present is rather immaterial.

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mahmud
I am waiting for Twilio to go public. I even contacted them to see if I can
get in, but no luck :-)

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malte
Any startup that is working on an easy mobile payment solution. I'm excited
for Jack Dorsey's new project and would definitely put some money in if I
could.

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andrewtj
Can you be more specific about what an easy mobile payment solution is and why
you're enthusiastic about it?

To me it sounds like a system in Australian and New Zealand called mobile
EFTPOS (I believe Europeans have something similar although it's called
something else) that allows merchants to do transactions wherever they can get
GPRS coverage — does the US not already have something similar?

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Banzai10
Dropbox, awesome product! Probably a nice future!

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prakash
The ones I use on a daily basis and love using since it solves a
problem/need/pain for me.

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FreeRadical
Such as...

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MaysonL
<http://www.fluidinfo.com/>

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BvS
Dropbox (if they still count as small).

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jacquesm
layar.

