Wow I didn’t realize I’d taken a whole month off from blogging. We’ve been busy with the holidays (and spending time with the four of our five kids who are home from college). But also – more to your interest – trying to put together an angel investment deal. Looks like the deal is dead (but there is some slight hope so I don’t want to name names at this point).

I’m finding a huge disconnect between investors and entrepreneurs. And not just their needs – their entire outlook on the process. It seems like they both believe they’re doing the other a favor by offering them an opportunity to be in the deal. That may sound like a win-win but it’s really a situation where each won’t accept the other’s point of view. So it makes coming to an agreement difficult.

The other problem I’m seeing is that angel investors seem to believe they are just mini VCs. So they are looking for companies they can cash out in 5-7 years for 20-plus times their investments. The chances of that happening are not strong, so VCs hedge their bets by being in a lot of deals, and trying to cut their losses when things go south. But that’s not usually what the entrepreneurs want. Especially the large numbers of entrepreneurs who have viable companies that aren’t venture companies, yet need some investment. As Paul Graham has said VCs prefer a 20% shot at making 100 million over an 80% shot at making 10 million over 100% shot at making 1 million. Entrepreneurs prefer the opposite. [I can't find the exact quote, this is a paraphrase.] I found the quote: “The founders, who have nothing, would prefer a 100% chance of $1 million to a 20% chance of $10 million, while the VCs can afford to be “rational” and prefer the latter.” It’s from The Venture Capital Squeeze

Takeaway:

• I’m looking for a model where I can invest in a company (20K, 50K maybe 100K) and contribute my experience and advice in helping the owner grow the company. Then get a healthy return. Sure I’ll take a percentage if the company gets sold to Google for a billion and a half. But if it’s merely “profitable” and not saleable, I’d like a decent income stream from the profits. Some way to insure it doesn’t get wasted on fancy company cars, extravagant off-sites etc. If you know of such a model drop me a line.

[tags]Angel Investing, Finance, Raising Money, Capital,  Small Business, Entrepreneur[/tags]