

A "small-time investor" - nachopg
http://diegobasch.com/im-a-small-time-investor

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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.

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jjmata
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 many of the same reasons he so eloquently described I've avoided using the
"angel" term like the plague, even if some people need the quick epithet to
summarize where you fit in this crazy world of ours.

The so-called democratization(/crowding?) of funding is going to bring more,
not less, of these types of dumb-money checkbook swinging people out into
play. It will end in tears for many, but as long as we are all adults about
it, and we don't place those bets with large pools of money that should be
directed to a different asset class like fixed income for pension funds
distributions, we'll survive yet another period of frothiness and call it a
day while we wait for the next one to materialize.

There is no central bank that plays with the valuations of things (ie. price
controls) in the startup ecosystem, and that's a great thing, mind you. Yet as
long as IPOs like $FB today return not 1 but 3 VC funds in one large swing for
the fences, we are all going to be playing this game here for a while.

Pick a side, enjoy the game and don't hate the player but the game (while you
try to change it if you can!) We can all thank PG for some of the most recent
changes, and blame him for the unintended consequences of his particular
version of the reality distortion field.

~~~
diego
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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jkahn
The "angel" in angel investor is how you're seen by the company you're giving
money to. It fits in a tight funding market, although it may not seem to fit
now that the market is so liquid.

~~~
diego
When I've raised funding I didn't see angel investors as "angels." I wasn't
asking for favors. My company wasn't a charity. I wanted investors who
believed in what we were doing, not some uncle with money who might think he
was being magnanimous.

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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'?

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WiseWeasel
Maybe an "initial" investor, or an early-stage investor. "Small-time" seems
derogatory.

~~~
diego
It's intentional. I need to keep my ego in check, and remember that I'm only
supporting cast. The entrepreneurs are the protagonists.

~~~
WiseWeasel
I just don't know if I could muster the cojones to refer to you as a small-
time investor in your presence (I'd have the decency to check that you're not
around first).

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

~~~
diego
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.

~~~
ashray
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.

~~~
shashashasha
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>

~~~
diego
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...](http://www.quora.com/Investing/What-are-unaccredited-investors)

