Tag: private placements

9 Reasons We Passed on This Deal

Ideas…like grains of sand on the beach. I’ve mentioned this before in my post “8 Reasons Not to Sign an NDA” and it bears repeating. Unless you have a proprietary product involving intellectual property, a scientific process or something which is entirely unique and therefore valuable, you are immediately devaluing

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One Night Stand or Long Term Plan?

Far from the maddening crowds, Mark and I sit here on the edge of a primitive rainforest, overlooking a coral reef thousands of miles from the nearest industrialized continent. Not a bad spot to ponder life, our investments, and of course our personal projects, one of which is the reason

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Beware These Unseen “Friction” Costs!!

Brokers, placement agents, middle men, promoters, consultants, financial intermediaries…call them whatever you wish. They have existed in the financial space since man invented a way to exchange one thing of value for another. Some do a fine job, provide a valuable service and deserve every penny they earn. In my

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Capitalizing on Exponential Growth

“There’s no way that company exists in a year.” – Tom Siebel, founder of software firm Siebel Systems. This was Tom Siebel talking about Salesforce.com, easily one of the hottest companies in the cloud computing space, and the reason behind founder Marc Benioff’s billionaire status. Siebel Systems, on the other

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Mongolia – It’s a Wrap!

Well, that was exciting! Mark and I just spent an amazing month on the ground, networking and digging in with some of Mongolia’s best and brightest. A few days ago we concluded our first Frontier Markets Meet Up in Ulanbaataar, the capital city. To say that it was a success

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To Entrepreneur – Or Not..?

I haven’t kept very close track, but Mark and I have now been running this website for nearly 2 years. For readers who’ve been with us for any length of time it should be clear what we do with our spare time. OK, scrap that, it should be clear what

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Key Steps to A Business’ Healthy Cycle

We’ve invested in many early stage businesses at the angel level, and many more private placements – both brokered and non-brokered. It’s easily the most high octane, lucrative area we’ve ever been involved in. We’ve made, lost and made money over the years, and have learned and relearned some lessons.

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Front-Running Liquidity – A Terrific Investment Strategy

Front-running liquidity has been a terrific investment strategy for Mark and I over the years (and NO, it has nothing to do with getting drunk before everybody else). It allowed me, before reaching the ripe old age of 30, to wake up one morning realizing that, “Hey I don’t have to

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