Early Exits Workshop Videos, Part 1 of 4
Sponsored by the Angel Capital Education Foundation and the Angel Capital Association
…presented at the Angel Capital Association National Summit, San Francisco May 5, 2010
Part 1 PowerPoint PDF here
Part 1-1 Highlights:
- Outline of the Early Exits Workshop and how I got started on Early Exits
- Successful investing requires two things – investing right and exiting well
- Angels and entrepreneurs would have more fun and make more money if we focused more on our exits
- Angel investing is still new – about where traditional Venture Capital investing was in the mid-1980s
- The economy has changed and traditional Venture Capital isn’t working for today’s tech companies
Part 1-2 Highlights:
- What happens to angels and entrepreneurs when traditional VCs invest in our companies?
- When VCs invest, on average it adds about a decade to the exit timeline – the math explains why.
- The best strategy is to have angel investors or traditional VCs – but not both – university research shows
- When do traditional Venture Capital investors make sense for technology companies? A simple test for each company.
Part 1-3 Highlights:
- Most M&A exits are under $20 million – because that’s what works for the acquirers in today’s economy
- The media does us a disservice by writing stories about the really big exits – which aren’t happening as often anymore
- Examples of these exits and why they are happening now – under $20 million is easy
- Big companies have lots of cash and are starting to consider traditional VC funds as their competitors
- Google wants even earlier exits – their sweet spot is under $20 million and they prefer pre-revenue companies
- There are many other types of buyers today including medium-sized companies and even boomer entrepreneurs
Part 2 is online here.
Many of these lessons are described in my book on exit strategies for entrepreneurs and angel investors – www.Early-Exits.com.
If you enjoyed this video, you might also like Selling a Business Guide, Don’t Blow the Biggest Deal of Your Life, Early Exits – Your Golden Opportunity or Start at the End – Your Exit Strategy.
