Just some scattered notes I took on broad trends identified during the presentations:
1. Old way of raising rounds (lead investor, minimum investment amount, fixed amount for round) is dead and is now being displaced by founder-controlled rounds with rolling closings - only a few companies are doing this as yet but they are among the best companies and thus it likely signifies a trend (pg).
2. Last year's huge unexploited opportunity for angels to fill the gap for fundings in the few hundreds of thousands range has now been capitalized upon, and it is now easy to raise funds in that range, with many angels having rushed in to fill the gap - the number of angels now investing is plentiful and growing (pg).
3. One of the downsides to the new investing ecosystem is that too many entrepreneurs are thinking small and executing small (Mike Arrington, in a quite wittily presented twist of the knife with, I think, tongue at least partly in cheek).
4. Key is to invest in people, as ideas can morph (Ron Conway - the man exudes character).
5. Angels can make money and have fun (the two primary motivators) and will find themselves more easily being able to align their sympathies with the entrepreneurs in the early stages than would be possible under the rules of the VC game (Mitch Kapor - who has been on both sides of that fence).
6. Even top-tier VCs are looking for angels to co-invest with in early-stage companies or from whom they can cooperate in receiving deal-flow (Greg McAdoo of Sequoia Capital).
7. It is critical to individual angels (as opposed to institutionalized super-angels) to apply some strict filtering rules, and to be disciplined in doing so, as a way of screening their potential investments - the field lends itself to a systematic approach (Joshua Schachter - very nice presentation, by the way).
8. Three major factors identified by YC companies in informal survey in deciding which to take among competing angel offers: (a) quality and reputation of the angel; (b) clean terms; and (c) willingness to move quickly and decisively (pricing of the deal as a factor came in nowhere near these three) (Sam Altman, in a subtly spirited presentation that emphasized the entrepreneur's perspective).
9. On the legal side, some 80% of recent early-stage funding deals in the presenting lawyer's recent experience have involved convertible notes (John Battista of Orrick - this surprised me, as such notes have fallen into some disfavor over the past year in my experience).
10. On the darker side, there is a trend of sorts in which entrepreneurs are doing quickie acquisitions involving, e.g., $20M deals coupled with rich option packages for themselves, leaving angels with basically a return of their money with little or no premium (a couple of the speakers referred to this).
And, last but not least, time to write that check (!), as there are an abundance of opportunities out there for angel investors.
Speaking from my own experience, this is undoubtedly true about the opportunities, as the investing ecosystem has shifted significantly toward the angels and away from the VCs in many ways during recent years - it is now almost axiomatic in founder thinking that VC funding is to be at least deferred while a company goes through at least one angel round in order to avoid too heavy a dilutive hit out the gate.
There were a variety of other excellent points made along the way as well, by Aydin Senkut, Andrea Zurek, and Mike Maples, among others, sharing points they have learned through some fairly extensive investing experiences. I would have jotted more detail on these as well but only had a 2 x 3 card to write on and ran out of space!
All in all, a quite stimulating conference. Thanks to pg and YC for making this possible (and for the invite).
grellas, you are too kind. i stumbled hard in the middle. it was a pleasure to meet you.
i forgot to say a bunch of stuff. most of it was targeted at how to actually be an angel.
- stop going for crazy protective terms - if stuff goes pear-shaped, you lose your money. period. and it makes life harder for entrepreneurs as terms given up in the first rounds are never recovered.
- invest in people you would consider working for and with. you will be.
- learn to give a clean, proper no. it's hard, and i do this badly.
joshu, very nice to meet you as well - your investment philosophy and methodology came across nicely in what you presented and the minor glitch in the middle only left one wanting to hear more.
grellas what you relayed at your point 9 surprised me, too. Fyi, it has prompted a mini-colloquy on my blog as to what the Seattle community is / should be doing, in terms of pricing seed rounds or doing notes with caps. http://bit.ly/crkw9X
A fun afternoon and a chance to speak to great people; not just speakers but also the fine audience. Sound in the room was a bit rough at times..
Format needs tweaking IMHO. Geoff tried to get some more audience interaction going but would be nice to have a more workshop type feel. Afterwards was good but a bit longer break in the middle may have been useful.
Shame Arrington ran for the door after his dipshit company comment..
For sure - a relief from the cheerleading or timeshare selling feel it otherwise had at times. I would have enjoyed some more to & fro on that. My startup was acquired in more than a talent acquisition deal but far less than a big swing for the fences (55MM but entirely founder funded).
Thinking of the powershift to founders.. and future bigger attempt, I'm not convinced yet to even consider outside money.
