Archangel

  

Categories: Entrepreneur, Investing

You are the developer of Solar Slinger Sasquatch, a solar-charged product that chases sleeping Sasquatches in the land of The Unknown. Problem is you need forty-grand more to launch it. Your wealthy Aunt Sue, a well-known podiatrist, offers to give you forty grand in exchange for 4% equity in the company. Sue is an angel investor with wings on her back (well, feet). She loves your enthusiasm, isn't a venture capitalist, wants you to succeed, and is willing to offer access to her deep pockets. However, she's not an archangel investor.

An archangel is someone who has done tons of angel investing to the point of fame. For example, Silicon Valley's Ron Conway would be considered a former archangel. In his heyday, he pegged (no, not that kind of pegging) companies like PayPal and Google...and has gained notoriety for his power and influence. Same concept, grander scheme of things.

And another take: In the middle ages, theologians enumerated a complicated hierarchy of angels, from Seraphim and Cherubim at the bottom all the way to Archangels at the top. And above them was Tiger Woods…you know…until The Event. (See Purgatorio for details.) Modern finance has partially transplanted these concepts to the realm of investing, if only in a metaphorical, somewhat stunted form.

There are no "Seraphim investors" at this point, but there are angel investors (people with money who use that cash to fund startups) and above them, there are archangels. This last category includes angel investors who have successfully made money on their startups, giving them a significant reputation in the investing community.

Related or Semi-related Video

Finance: What are Angel Investors and Se...8 Views

00:00

Find it a la shma What are angel investors and

00:05

seed funds Just call me angel Thanks That's All right

00:14

It's early in the morning here and we just do

00:16

that sometimes Yeah All right Well an angel investor is

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typically i'm sorry Won't sing again An angel Investors typically

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someone who was wildly successful in an entrepreneurial venture of

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their own They feel a kind of moral obligation to

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recycle their winnings And in most cases very very early

00:35

stage companies are so extremely risky with failure rates over

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ninety nine percent Well that it takes some kind of

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angel to come in and invest the first few hundred

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grand Get them started building that nose picking device the

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world has always wanted no And since in most cases

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very early start ups have absolutely no idea what they're

00:59

worth So many initial angel investments carry no price meaning

01:05

that there was only one term carried by the money

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invested It will be valued at say a ten percent

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or whatever number discount toe whatever valuation The next round

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if there is one values the company at while the

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first few million bucks into google by a small handful

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Of already successful silicon valley types ended up being converted

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into stock in their initial or a round which was

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done at a whopping almost seventy million dollars It was

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done at the height of the first internet bubble and

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while timing is everything sometimes google's original investment netted it's

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angel investors some ten thousand times their money and spawned

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a whole many industry in angels getting together hoping tio

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you know do more googles When angels pool their money

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they create what is called a seed fund think seeds

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planted in the ground to eventually bear fruit You know

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like that And when seed investors are right yeah sometimes

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they make that ten thousand times their money thing and

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yahoo google facebook and a small handful of others all

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live in this lofty world of ten thousand xers We're

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on ly the loftiest of angels fly q's call me

02:24

change All right i'll stop Hey if you've got google

02:27

money and you can call me whatever you want No

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