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The Power of Small Checks

5/21/2024

·

The Easy Way to Make Your Investor Meetings 10X Better

Some angels rip $50k, $250k or more into a startup. I never do that. Here’s why…

I want to build a big portfolio of investments. Three years in, I have 29 companies and I’m headed to 100.

I also want to put aside half the cash I have earmarked for angel investments. That money is what’s called “reserves,” and I put it into the very best companies.

A smaller check might not be what a founder hoped for. But the help those angels provide can be worth a lot more than the money.

How It Works

What does that look like in practice?

I invested in a fantastic startup in the fall of 2022. I put $5,000 into their seed round, which is my typical first check.

A year later, they were growing revenue 4x year over year and had reached annual revenue well into the millions.

Yum yum! Time to break out that checkbook.

I put $25,000 into their Series A. And when I see the founder for coffee on Friday, I’ll have a chance to thank him personally for saving me space in the round!

Learning From a Top Angel

Writing small checks is a great way to get started as an angel. Take it from Tom Hulme, whose angel portfolio went 24x and is now a Managing Partner at Google Ventures. He broke it down on a wonderful recent episode of 20VC:

“If your goal is to get into angel investing, one of the things that no one ever says is the amount you invest is almost irrelevant.
If your job is to learn and demonstrate you add value, then just write small $5k checks. I see so many people that never start angel investing because they think they have to invest $200k at a time. It’s crazy.
If you believe you’ve got to learn, you want to start early with small checks and prove you’re valuable and then actually see if you’re any good at it.”

What’s In It for Founders?

Okay Francis, I get why writing a $5k check is good for you. But why should a founder even bother with that?

Time for some real talk: $5k, $25k, or even $50k is not going to move the needle at a company. If you want big bucks, go to the institutions.

If you want helpful and supportive people around you, find some great angels!

I was just chatting with a founder yesterday, and she told me that her angel investors have done way more for her than any of the VC’s on her cap table.

Why is that?

Some VC’s are incredible. But others are like employees at any other big company — they’re bored, checking Instagram, and waiting for 5 o’clock.

Angels pick the founders we love. We invest our own cash, and since we love the company, we enjoy supporting it!

How Angels Can Help

Here’s a concrete example of how an angel can help you.

I invested in the pre-seed of a great SaaS company last year. The founder is doing great, and she’s heading out to raise her seed round.

I sat down with her and went through the pitch and deck A to Z before any outside investors ever saw it. We worked on the deck and her delivery.

When we were finished, that pitch was a heck of a lot better than when it started. She sounded more confident and the deck was clear and specific.

A pitch like that raises more money. Maybe I only gave her $5k, but a better pitch might raise $500k or more.

Wrap-Up

Angels can be tempted to invest too much too fast. We fall in love with a founder and want to give them $250k and take this thing to the moon!

But success in investing requires discipline. That’s why I stick with small checks.

Once the wire is sent, I watch those investor updates closely and try to help with any of the asks I see.

It’s fun — it’s like solving a puzzle!

And in a decade or so, we’ll find out if I’m any good at this whole angel investing thing. 🙂

What do you think of small checks? Leave a comment and let us know!

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Angel / Angel Investing / Entrepreneurs / Finance / Founders / Investing / Money / Startups / Tech / VC / Venture Capital

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Ohalo: Taking Food Costs to 0

5/20/2024

·

Over a billion people live on less than 1,500 calories a day. But David Friedberg’s new startup, Ohalo, could change that forever.

Friedberg announced Ohalo’s breakthrough in plant breeding on the latest episode of The All-In Podcast. Ohalo could massively increase crop yields, lower food prices, and help the poor.

Ohalo’s Breakthrough

Like humans, plants have a mother and a father. The child has a random assortment of genes from both parents, just like humans do. (That’s why human siblings don’t all look the same.)

Let’s say the father plant is heat tolerant and the mother is disease resistant. The child might be heat tolerant but not resistant to disease.

What Ohalo has done is use gene editing to make the child inherit all the genes of both parents. So, the child will be both heat tolerant and disease resistant.

A Massive Opportunity

Ohalo’s early results are mindblowing.

The company’s researchers took two potato plants that produced 33g and 9g of potatoes, respectively, and bred them with Ohalo’s technology. The child plant produced a whopping 682g of potatoes!

Keep in mind, these are just the early tests. What if by 2030, that potato plant is yielding 1000g, or 5000?

Potatoes are just Ohalo’s first market. They plan to expand to every crop in the world.

Pin-point control over plant genes could drive food costs toward zero and yields sky high.

Hundreds of millions of people could get the food they need. And farmers could still prosper by selling huge volumes at low prices.

Will Francis Finally Invest in Deep Tech?

I never invest in deep tech. But I’d invest in Ohalo in a second.

This company presents a giant opportunity: solving hunger and dramatically lowering food costs. They’ve made incredible progress toward that goal.

If Ohalo succeeds, it could be worth $100 billion, $1 trillion, who knows?

I love investing in great SaaS companies. But most can’t reach $10 billion, $100 billion, or certainly $1 trillion.

They’re solving important problems, but the problems just aren’t big enough to produce outcomes like that.

If you want the massive returns, you have to solve a massive problem.

What’s more, Friedberg has an incredible track record — he sold his last company to Monsanto for $1 billion.

Deep tech usually isn’t my thing. I don’t know much about science. But I know a huge opportunity, great results and an awesome founder when I see them.

Ohalo will be a tough nut to crack. But if I’m lucky, I might be able to get in through my membership in the All-In Podcast syndicate.

To be continued…

Wrap-Up

When I heard about Ohalo’s breakthrough on All-In last night, I was dumbfounded. The potential of this company is limitless.

I imagine a future where everyone has the food they need. That’s a world I want to live in.

And if I get my beak wet as well, all’s the better!

What do you think of Ohalo? Leave a comment and let us know!

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All-In Podcast / Finance / Friedberg / Investing / Money / Startups / Venture Capital

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The Berkshire Annual Meeting in Five Days: Day 5

5/17/2024

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The Berkshire Annual Meeting in Five Days: Day 4

“It’s interesting how many mistakes you can make if you just keep going.”
Warren Buffett

Warren Buffett is the greatest investor of all time. He must do everything right…right?

Dead wrong. Warren has made a lot of mistakes too. And in this final hour of the recent Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting, he gives priceless advice on how to get past them.

Making Mistakes

“I can think of all sorts of things that could’ve been done differently, but so what. I’m not perfect.”

Warren is quick to mention that he’s made numerous mistakes in life.

He didn’t buy Google, even though Geico was using Google’s ad services all the time. He also lost billions on an investment in Dexter Shoes.

In fact, even his original purchase of Berkshire itself was a mistake.

The old textile mill he bought was going nowhere. That’s why he had to retool it into the conglomerate it is today.

The thing is, only Warren remembers these mistakes. I had to look them up.

His good decisions put him so far ahead that the losers never mattered.

Moving On

You expect successful people to be highly self-critical. But Warren isn’t:

“I don’t believe in lots of self-criticism…”

For an investor, that makes a lot of sense. Some losses are inevitable. Beating yourself up over each one won’t get you anywhere.

This is especially true in venture capital. Losses are the rule — if you’re investing early, probably 80% of your companies will go to zero.

If every mistake makes you hate yourself, you won’t last long! That’s true in investing, and it’s true in the rest of life as well.

“You can’t solve everything in life. You do the best you can with it.”

Being Grateful

Warren has lived an incredible life. At 93, he’s still going strong and doing what he loves: making great investments.

I’d assume he has some superior knowledge or set of habits. But Warren chocks up a lot of his success to luck.

“Anybody who says ‘I did it all myself’…they’re delusional.”

As someone who came from a poor background and has found some degree of success, I’m often tempted to say “I did it all!” But that’s not true.

I went to many wonderful schools full of teachers who cared. My family looked after me and sacrificed for me.

Whatever I’ve been able to do, I’m only responsible for a small part of it.

Wrap-Up

I had a wonderful time watching Warren deliver wisdom over the 6 hours of the annual meeting! Of the entire 6 hours, here’s the line that stuck with me most:

“I’ve made mistakes occasionally, but they filtered out over time. We learn.”

I oughta get that tattooed on my forehead. It’s a wonderful thing to remember.

We try, we fail, we try again. Over time, if we make a few good decisions and are fortunate enough to live in a wonderful country like this, we come out way ahead.

I hope you enjoyed this series as much as I did. Have a wonderful weekend!

What have you learned from Warren? Leave a comment and let us know!

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The Berkshire Annual Meeting in Five Days: Day 3

The Berkshire Annual Meeting in Five Days: Day 2

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Berkshire / BRK / Buffett / Finance / Investing / Money / Startups / Stock Market / Stocks / Venture Capital

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The Berkshire Annual Meeting in Five Days: Day 4

5/16/2024

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The Berkshire Annual Meeting in Five Days: Day 3

Warren Buffett has seen a lot of crazes in his 82 years investing. The Nifty Fifty, the dotcom bust, and the 2008 crisis. Through it all, he kept doing the same thing: buying great businesses at reasonable prices.

Today, I dug into the sixth hour of Berkshire’s recent annual meeting. I learned a lot about avoiding fads, having a prepared mind, and moving quickly when opportunity knocks.

Avoiding Manias

Warren sticks to what he knows well: buying great businesses at reasonable prices. Real estate booms and crypto crazes swirl around him, but never move him.

“Getting a decent result should be reasonably easy so long as you don’t get talked out of doing what’s worked in the past, and don’t get carried away with fads, and don’t listen to people that have different interests…”

When I first started angel investing in 2021, I saw crypto startups raising Seed rounds at a $100 million valuation every day. They had nothing but a deck.

“Am I missing something?” I thought to myself. “Maybe. But I’m going to keep doing what I think makes sense.”

Instead of backing the buzzy cryptos, I invested in little startups doing unglamorous things. One was Rilla, an AI tool to help contractors sell more that I invested in during the fall of 2022.

Today, Rilla is at $14 million ARR. Most of those crypto startups are probably gone.

Moving Fast

“There is an aspect of knowing a whole lot, and having a whole lot of experiences, and then seeing something that turns on the light bulb.”

Warren rarely sees a deal that suits him, especially in today’s pricey market. But when he does, he moves fast.

He’s able to do that because he knows what he’s looking for. His perspective is informed by scads of research and thought over generations.

He also knows that great opportunities don’t last long.

I try to take the same approach in startupland. Last year, I invested in a wonderful company with rapid growth and an intensely focused founder. I put in my commitment quickly, concerned the round would fill up.

Turns out it didn’t — the angel allocation only filled 60%. The round closed and that was that.

A lot of other angels who saw that deal probably hemmed and hawed and wound up missing out. But I knew that a giant market, rapid growth, and an intensely committed founder checks my boxes, so I was comfortable making a bet quickly.

That little startup has more than tripled revenue in less than a year and is nearing the $10 million ARR mark. It pays to be decisive.

Wrap-Up

There will always be another investment fad. And there’s nowhere more prone to them than tech, home of the new.

I don’t care if it’s AI, crypto, or anything else, you need paying customers who love your product. When I see that, I move fast.

What have you learned from Warren? Leave a comment and let us know!

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The Berkshire Annual Meeting in Five Days: Day 2

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Finance / Investing / Money

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The Berkshire Annual Meeting in Five Days: Day 3

5/15/2024

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Business

An auditorium full of med students jump to their feet, erupting in cheers. They just found out they’re going to school for free.

This was the scene at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York in February (you can see the video and news story here). The source of the $1 billion donation making it possible: an unassuming professor at the school.

So where did Dr. Ruth Gottesman get all this money? She and her husband, David, were early investors in Berkshire Hathaway.

Warren played the wonderful video of Ruth announcing the donation at Berkshire’s recent annual meeting. You can see his face light up afterward as he says:

“And that’s why Charlie and I have had such fun running Berkshire.”

Warren and Berkshire as a whole never forget their higher purpose: to produce resources to make society better. Many Berkshire shareholders also use their assets to make a better world.

“…they don’t feel they have to create a dynasty or anything. They give it back to society.”

Warren and his shareholders are not misers living in hovels and squirreling away every cent. They live very comfortably, just not ostentatiously. Warren adds:

“They’ve all lived good lives. They haven’t denied themselves anything you know, they have second homes…”

Devotion to a higher purpose is something many great investors have in common.

You’ll see the same at Sequoia, the best venture capital firm in history. Their conference rooms are named after major LP’s, like Harvard and MIT. This makes sure everyone remembers why they’re there: to support research and education that moves humanity forward.

Like anyone else, sometimes I get stressed, tired, bored, you name it. But as I meet with startups, I’m trying to keep in mind Warren’s lessons.

We’re investing to create resources to do awesome things. We have a chance to improve technology, science, education, you name it.

What could be more exciting than that?!

What have you learned from Warren Buffett? Leave a comment and let us know!

Pop in tomorrow for part 4 of the Berkshire annual meeting!

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Berkshire / BRK / Buffett / Finance / Investing / Money / Startups / Stock Market / Stocks / Venture Capital

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The Berkshire Annual Meeting in Five Days: Day 2

5/14/2024

·

Business

“You’re entering the best world that’s ever existed…”
Warren Buffett

Warren sits on stage, flanked by men he respects and loves working with. From that perch, he gives out priceless advice on investing and life.

Today, I dug into the third hour of the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting. Warren tells us his views on investing in India, working with great people, and living a meaningful life.

Let’s dig in!

Sticking to What Works

Warren sticks to what he knows: investing in the US, Canada, and a few other countries.

One shareholder asked him about opportunities in India. While Warren is clear that India has enormous potential, he asks a critical question:

“The question is do we have any advantage…”

The situation for me in venture is exactly the same.

There are fantastic startups in India, Nigeria, China and many other places. But there are excellent investors in those regions who know the market and meet the great founders before I do.

How would I have any advantage?

Working With People You Respect

“I told Charlie in the last few years, ‘I’d never seen anyone who was peaking at 99’.”

Warren’s admiration for Charlie Munger is palpable. But what I found fascinating is that it extends to everyone he works with.

When you see Vice Chairs Greg Abel or Ajit Jain take a question, Warren looks at them with a wonderful expression.

He admires them. Indeed, I think he loves them.

When you spend that much time together with great people, it can happen! In both business and his personal life, Warren works hard to surround himself with good people:

“If you get that in your life, you cherish those people, and you sort of forget about the rest.”

We’re all going to deal with folks that are difficult sometimes. But having those wonderful people around you is all that matters — and we can forget about the rest!

Advice for Life

Charlie’s advice was to “invert, always invert.” Warren applies that to how to live a good life.

“I would try to…figure out how you want to look back on your life and think about yourself and start today to go on the path that leads to that goal. And expect some difficulties along the way, but if you’re thinking that way, you’re more likely to get there.”

At 93, Warren has seen more of life than most. And I find his life enviable.

He does what he wants all day, finds it super interesting, and never wants to stop. And, sure, most of us wouldn’t mind having $136 billion.

I want to have interesting work that creates something great, and nice people around me. So each day, I work toward that.

Speaking of which, I have to get to a meeting with a founder! Better wrap this up…

Wrap-Up

Warren sticks to what he does well and does it with people he admires. I can’t think of a better way to spend your days!

Focusing on the great people around us and letting the rest go — that’s the best way to spend however much time we have.

Pop in tomorrow for Day 3 of the Berkshire Annual Meeting!

What have you learned from Warren? Leave a comment and let us know!

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Berkshire / Buffett / Finance / Investing / Money / Munger / Startups / Stocks / Venture Capital

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The Berkshire Annual Meeting in Five Days: Day 1

5/13/2024

·

“Warren, if people weren’t so often wrong, we wouldn’t be so rich.”
Charlie Munger

I’ve always wanted to watch the whole Berkshire annual meeting. This year, I’m finally doing it, and I’m sharing everything I learned with you guys!

This will be a 5 part series going throughout this week. Let’s get started!

Making Mistakes

Sitting on that stage as the greatest investor of all time, Warren seems like he never makes any mistakes. But as he explains, nothing could be further from the truth:

“Sometimes we’ve done things that were big mistakes and we never get close to fatal mistakes and every now and then we do something that really works.”

The success we see is his good decisions compounding. Any mistakes he’s made, few but Warren himself remember.

“I’ve made mistakes occasionally, but they filtered out over time. We learn.”

In investing in startups and in life in general, I will always make mistakes. Some will be big.

But so long as we don’t risk ruin and we keep doing our best, we can succeed beyond what we ever thought possible.

Keeping At It

Warren has been investing since he was 11. Today he is 93.

When I ask myself “Why is Warren so good?” that’s a big part of the answer. He’s kept at it and learned for over 80 years!

If anyone does anything for 82 years, they’re bound to get pretty good at it. Warren is smarter than most, but even for an average person, that much experience and time is bound to bear fruit.

“…the math of compounding and a long runway have done wonders.”

I’ve been investing in startups for just over 3 years now. I’m no Bill Gurley, but I know a lot more than I did when I started.

Once that clock hits 10 years, 20 or more, imagine how much I’ll know! I just have to keep at it.

Ignoring the Markets

Berkshire owns huge positions in a variety of stocks, including Apple, American Express and Coke.

Those stocks can fluctuate wildly. Warren ignores those fluctuations, saying “…we pay no attention to those at Berkshire.”

Venture capital fluctuates more than just about anything.

In 2021, companies got valued at $1 billion on $10 million a year in revenue. Today, I’ve seen great companies growing fast raise at just 2 or 3 times revenue in some cases.

Are those businesses suddenly garbage? No.

They’re still making customers happy and making money. So I’m more excited about backing them now, not less!

Warren keeps a laser focus on what’s going on in the underlying business. If I do the same, I can succeed.

Customers, product, team…nothing else matters.

Wrap-Up

I’m so grateful for Warren and Charlie! I’ve learned so much from them.

They never had to share their wisdom. They’re worth billions and they could’ve just holed up in their offices and kept making more, ignoring the public.

But I’m so happy they share what they’ve learned with us. Their lessons on persevering through mistakes and focusing on what matters help me every day.

I hope they help you too!

Come back tomorrow for part two!

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Berkshire / Charlie Munger / Finance / Investing / Money / Startups / Stocks / Venture Capital / Warren Buffett

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The Easy Way to Make Your Investor Meetings 10X Better

5/10/2024

·

Founders might have to do 50 meetings to get a check. But you can make those meetings 10X better and up your odds of raising money by changing how you answer investor questions.

Picture Francis sitting on Zoom. I have a list of 8 questions I want to ask the founder in my trusty composition book.

But we’re 18 minutes into a 30 minute call, and I haven’t had a chance to ask any of them yet!

The founder has been excitedly telling me about his company. And I’m starting to get excited about it too!

But the downside of that excitement is the presentation can lose focus.

Structure Your Meeting Like This

Here’s a great way to structure meetings: the 1/3 and 2/3 rule.

Present for the first 1/3 of the meeting. Leave the remaining 2/3rds for Q&A.

If the investor says they’ve already reviewed the deck and would just like to do Q&A, it’s fine to skip to that too!

How to Answer Questions

If you do these 2 things, you will answer questions 10X better than most founders:

1) Be as specific as possible.
2) Take about as long to answer a question as the investor took to ask it.

Let me give you a concrete example of a founder who does this really well.

Peter from Props was on a recent episode of This Week in Startups, and he presents and answers questions beautifully. Even Jason commented on it.

Do you see how crisp his answers are? Aim for that.

What to Avoid

When you answer questions, you want to avoid nonspecific or meandering responses. Here’s a (fictional) example of what you don’t want to do:

“Me: How many paying customers do you have?

Founder: Well, we started out with some pilots and we’re working closely with Bigcorp right now. We have a letter of intent from them and our internal champion, Melissa, is super stoked on the product! She’s telling everyone internally about it, and the deal could come any day. We’re also heading to a conference in Vegas next week which should be really helpful. My COO can’t make it but I’ll be there, we even got a booth.”

You see what happened there? We took up a bunch of time, and I never got an answer to my question.

I can only assume they have no paying customers. And I also have less time to find out more about the company.

Wrap-Up

Crisp, focused presentation. Crisp Q&A with specific answers.

That’s what you want to aim for.

Even if the facts aren’t as impressive as you’d like, investors will respect your candor! And hey, just because you don’t have any revenue right now doesn’t mean you won’t next month!

By showing that you know how to sell and you’re candid, your stock goes up in the investor’s mind. Use this approach, and those checks will start rolling in.

What have your investor meetings been like? Leave a comment and let us know!

Have a great weekend, everybody! Let’s relax, have some fun, and recharge our batteries to do awesome work next week.

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Chaos Monkeys

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Entrepreneur / Finance / Investing / Money / Small Business / Startups / Tech / VC / Venture Capital

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Why We Should Invest in Offensive Military Technology

5/9/2024

·

Business, Politics, Technology

Marine special forces are testing robot dogs armed with rifles. A human still makes the decision to fire — for now.

The robot that Marine Forces Special Operations Command (MARSOC) is using comes from a company called Ghost Robotics, according to The War Zone. The robots are armed with rifles from Onyx Industries.

You can see the new robot in action here.

Metalhead

I’m not gonna lie — this is pretty creepy. Anyone who’s seen Black Mirror will instantly recognize Metalhead, the killer robots from an episode in 2017.

It’s amazing how quickly science fiction has become an accomplished fact.

But I have to admit this could save our soldiers’ lives. Every loss is a family that will never be the same.

Surely, preventing such losses is something worth pursuing.

What’s more, we’ve been using UAV’s with missiles for years. If we’re okay with that as a society, this isn’t much different.

Defending the Nation That’s Done So Much For Us

Many technology investors refuse to invest in offensive weapons. I think that’s absurd.

Those of us who invest in startups have benefited from America more than almost anyone. And most, like me, never served in the military.

So how can we refuse to help even in this peripheral way? If we don’t invest in offensive military tech, we’re just expecting a free ride.

“Can you go over there and risk your life to protect us? We’d love to help but we’re a little busy making money. Thanks so much!”

My Approach to Military Tech

I wouldn’t invest in something like the Ghost Robotics dog simply because I don’t do robotics or hardware in general.

It’s a tough industry and I don’t know much about it. It wouldn’t matter if the robot were a vacuum cleaner or a weapon.

But if I saw a great piece of software, I’d be happy to make a bet. And that’s true even if the product is used in an offensive way — the OS for the Ghost Robotics dog, for example.

Lowering the Bar to War

I’m all for arming our military, but I do have one concern. Making it easier to attack from far away could make the US more likely to go to war.

Losing our men and women in uniform is a huge disincentive to military action. But if we can strike easily from an air conditioned office in Nevada, we may strike a lot more often.

I think these endless wars weaken our country. They cost a fortune, often kill many innocent people, and turn other countries against us.

So while protecting our soldiers is a wonderful thing, let’s have peace as our goal.

Wrap-Up

If these killer robots save the lives of our soldiers, I say they’re worth building.

Even if we don’t, our rivals will. In fact, China and Russia already have them.

I’d love to see a future where we don’t need weapons and people live peacefully. But let’s be honest — it’s not likely.

Until then, we have to create and invest in weapons to protect ourselves.

What do you think of the Marines’ new robot dog? Leave a comment and let us know!

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