How to hook this angel: Aydin Senkut

Investor in Mint, Aardvark, Disqus is still looking to place bets


Investor interview by Bambi Francisco
October 16, 2009 | Comments (4)
Short URL: http://vator.tv/n/b39

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Aydin Senkut, an early-Google employee-turned angel investor, is becoming known as one of the more prolific seed-to-early-stage investors in Silicon Valley, having invested in 40 companies since 2006. His portfolio consists of some well-known consumer Internet companies, such as Mint, which was recently sold to Intuit for $170 million, Aardvark, Disqus, Dogster, BrightRoll and Rapleaf.

Aydin, who's taken a hiatus from investing since he's become a new father to son Henry, plans to continue investing this year. So far he's invested in 10 companies, including Practice Fusion, Crowdflower, Weatherbill, Outright, Foodzie and Bump Technologies. He plans on investing in a couple more startups before the year is up.

So, what is he looking for and at what valuation?

He's looking for small, scrappy, cash-efficient teams with great IP, and typically in the consumer Internet space. He'll commonly invest between $25,000 and $100,000.

In this interview, Aydin talks about what he's looking for; how to get his attention as an investor; and, what should early-stage companies expect their valuation to be when raising an early-stage round?

Surprisingly, the range is fairly steady from 2006/2007, when a company could expect a $2 million to $4 million early-stage seed/A round investment. According to Aydin, early-stage companies could probably price themselves between $2 million and $6 million, pre-money.

"There's still a lot of cash in the industry," Adyin explained.

Of course, if no one else cares about your company, Aydin suggested, even $2 million is too high a price.

Watch for more insight about valuation and how to get funded by Aydin.


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4 comments

Jeremy Campbell
Jeremy Campbell, 108 days ago
Valuation is such an important topic, and I feel there is a lack of information out there on the subject. I would really like to see a chart that loosely defines what a Web company is worth so entrepreneurs can feel confident going into an angel or VC investment meeting that their stated valuation has some credibility.

Login to reply Jeremy


Bambi Francisco
Bambi Francisco, 105 days ago
Hey, Jeremy I figured people would want to know more about valuation. I'll try to ask more questions about it in the future. Thanks for pointing this out.

Login to reply Bambi


Jeremy Campbell
Jeremy Campbell, 105 days ago
Great to hear Bambi, look forward to it since important information in this area is certainly lacking.

Login to reply Jeremy


Ozlem Bishop
Ozlem Bishop, 82 days ago
Great to hear updates from Aydin. Thanks to you both!

Login to reply Ozlem


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