Angel investors and early-stage venture capitalists on which sectors they are optimistic about
The venture capital model isn’t necessarily broken, just changing. Now a days, companies can be started with less than a million a dollars. Take a look at clear examples- Facebook, Twitter and even Google, which all started with less than $1 million dollar rounds and have become some of the most widely used services on the Web. While traditional venture capital investing is clearly down this year, Angel Investors and early stage VC funds remain optimistic due to the very fact that a great idea and company can be built with relatively small investments.
Ron Conway, an Angel Investor who is currently investing in 150 companies, admitted on a panel at the AlwaysOn Summit at Stanford, that he is planning on making 40-50 more investments in the next year.
With less venture capital out there, it’s harder for early stage companies to find funding, and that’s why the angels are benefitting – the entrepreneurs come to them with built ideas.
Joyce Chung, of Garage Tech Ventures – an early stage venture capital fund, which has invested in companies like Kaboodle and Pandora – see this all the time. Chung explained the companies that come to her fund are a bit further along. They come to her with actual working products as opposed to a written idea.
And it seems this has become pretty much a requirement for entrepreneurs looking for investments from Angels. Rob Hayes of First Round Capital firmly gave advice to entrepreneurs looking for funding, “you shouldn’t be coming to an investor with nothing, come with a working idea.” Hayes wants to see people who’ve either been working nights and weekends on their product, or have quit their jobs to build their ideas – the passionate ones.
So what sectors should we expect to see the angels and early stage VC funds investing in?
Ron Conway is looking into real-time data, in which he believes there is, “an explosion ahead of us.” The real-time data sector involves companies like the rapidly growing Twitter. Twitter was started with less than $1 million dollars and now has an estimated valuation of $589 million, according to a recent report published by Sharepost. Currently, real-time data represents 2% of the Web, Conway believes in the next 3 years it will make up 25% of the Web, which will represent a $5 billion dollar opportunity dominated not by one or two companies, but a wide range of companies similar to Twitter. “The content is created spontaneously and is very relevant to the individual user,” argued Conway.
Rob Hayes is looking for companies, which tap into the “implicit web,” – or the idea that data is locked up in silos on the Web. His fund recently invested in Mint, an online money management startup. Initially, Mint received $375 thousand from First Round Capital. Shortly after, it received $750K worth of angel investments from Conway, Felicis Ventures and First Round Capital once again. The company has gone on to receive $17.8 million in funding from multiple investors.
Joyce Chung says Garage Tech Ventures is sector agnostic. She is looking for people with initial products that don’t require more than $5 million to prove a great market. One example she cited was thermal electronics – basically taking waste heat and converting it into electricity. Garage Tech Ventures was part of $5 million in total investments towards Kaboodle, (also another company which Conway invested in.) Kaboodle was acquired by Hearst Corporation in 2007 for $30 million.
Aydin Senjkut, of Felicis Ventures, another panelist, shared he is interested in the combination of fundamentals and waves. For example, social gaming, which he shared was of interest to him a few years ago. Today, like Conway, he is interested in real-time data but not limiting it to Tweets and blurbs across the Web. His vision, consumer health in real time, genomics data – the notion of realizing the data and making it meaningful and useful in people’s personal lives.
Related Companies, Investors, and Entrepreneurs
Kaboodle
Startup/Business
Joined Vator on
Way back in 2004, Manish and his wife, Asha, grew frustrated during the remodeling of their home. They found the process of sharing and discovering new products and retailers that matched their personal sense of taste and style difficult. As it stood, the online shopping platforms were weak and most sites just compiled product catalogs, leaving people to fend for themselves in a sea of information. Finding and keeping track of one's favorite products online and deciding what to buy was a painful and inefficient experience. So, in 2005, Manish and co-founders Keiron and Chetan, who both shared his vision of a new approach to online shopping, got together to transform the process into a more social and much simpler experience.
Kaboodle is a social shopping community where people discover, recommend and share products. Kaboodle's powerful shopping tools allow people to organize their shopping through lists, discover new things from people with similar style, get discounts on popular products and find best prices. At the heart of Kaboodle is a fun and engaging community of people who love to shop. Community members create and join groups, share advice, feedback and product suggestions and personalize their profiles with polls and other widgets. Kaboodle was launched in 2006 and has 500,000 registered users and over 6 million monthly visitors.
Ron Conway
Joined Vator on