If you could have anyone, VC or angel, invest in your startup who would it be (YC excluded)?
For me I think it'd probably be either Ron Conway or Ram Shriram - they seem to be the closest thing there is to a bridge between traditional angel money and VC.
No one. I would prefer to be able to grow a business that is profitable, not one desperate for an exit strategy before funds run out. I've seen what happens when a company tries to gamble on getting bigger and fails (investment bankers are not nice).
With VCs you trade time (to find them) and control in exchange for money and contacts. That is often a good and necessary trade but one I personally would not like to need to make.
You're going confusing two things here. Raising investment for your company is not the same as having a business model dependent upon acquisition/exit strategy.
Remember ever investor dreams of getting stock in the next Google - the one piece of their portfolio that will make up for all the other losses combined. A big hit of nature will come either from a massive acquisition (like YouTube - but just how many acquisitions have there been on that scale? The media hypes these up a lot but that distorts the actual perception of the regularity with which they occur) or from running a sustainable business e.g. Facebook that can grow by itself.
You're going confusing two things here. Raising investment for your company is not the same as having a business model dependent upon acquisition/exit strategy.
You are correct, the two need not come together. I was thinking of the traditional idea of a technology startup.
You're going confusing two things here. Raising investment for your company is not the same as having a business model dependent upon acquisition/exit strategy.
Remember ever investor dreams of getting stock in the next Google - the one piece of their portfolio that will make up for all the other losses combined. A big hit of nature will come either from a massive acquisition (like YouTube - but just how many acquisitions have there been on that scale? The media hypes these up a lot but that distorts the actual perception of the regularity with which they occur) or from running a sustainable business e.g. Facebook that can grow by itself.
Hmm interesting question. I suppose there is no need to restrict but I would say that as great as Woz is - would he really add more to your startup than an angel investing veteran like Ron Conway? Investing is as much about bringing a list of contacts to the table as it is about anything else.
It's more about street cred than anything else. I want an investor who will make people think "if he's putting his money into this company, it's worth checking out". A knowledgable VC can bring me to other investors/acquirers. Someone like Woz could bring other investors to me.
I'm not exceedingly familiar with too many VC names at this point, but I'd second Ram Shriram. Dave Cheriton would also be a great person on your side, but he's more of an advisor. For VC, John Doerr from KCP&B comes to mind.
After reading about his investment style and bootstrapping background (and huge sales), Jesse Rasch. Also, I don't think there are other Angels like him in Canada, unless I missed some - you guys in the US have lots.
Sequoia in a second, if they actually offered at that stage.
If a startup was super good, so good that what a top VC offered was rounding error compared to what the startup could do for itself, they might be better off with angel money, because they could name their terms, and they'd probably get a better valuation. Google did that for their early rounds. But few startups are that hot.
Guy writes amazing books, no offence, but whats guy's investment trackrecord? Reid Hoffman or Peter Thiel would be great guys to get investment from. Reid has an incredible trackrecord - last.fm, digg, facebook, friendster etc
I don't look solely on trackrecords. Business is hard work but to some extent also luck. Hits in the past are no guaranty for future hits.
Guy believes that entrepreneurs can change the world and make it a better place. Sounds quite naive but to me a vision is much more motivating than money and trackrecords.
For me I think it'd probably be either Ron Conway or Ram Shriram - they seem to be the closest thing there is to a bridge between traditional angel money and VC.