Shared investment platforms
I'm very excited to see this beta version of the stackexchange platform!
I just had a question I'm sure you guys can answer :
I'd like to invest a percentage of my money every month in startup projects.
I thought I could do this through a platform where several investors could do the same thing, and thus bring decent money to the company.
I'm pretty sure this exists, do you guys know about something like that ?
Thanks and good luck !
4 Answers
As a ball park figure are you looking to invest each month?
Check out Angel List, in Australia there is The Australian Small Scale Offerings Board, asking your accountant can also be a good way of sourcing potential deals, or finding your local Angel group.
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I was looking to invest something below US$1000 each month. – Julien 14 years ago
Julien, might want to invest in a VC firm. That is how most VC's get their money. Also angels sometimes group up. It would be nice if there were an online platform to buy in to startups. I have not seen anything like that yet.
Lastly, you could buddy up with a few of your friends who are like minded and start a fund. In my experience dealing with a small amount of startups and taking a hands on approach is more rewarding, the drawback is the geographics of it.
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I am looking for a platform like you described. Maybe I should create it... I all ready heard people talking about that, so I thought it all ready existed. – Julien 14 years ago
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Julien it would be great, the closest thing i can think of is the GOBigNetwork, or Prosper micro loans from investors. Maybe you can look at both products for some guidance. It would be neat to be able to play the startup market rather than the Stock market. I am sure you have some legal and logistical challenges, but with the right planning it could be a neat app. – Frank 14 years ago
Secondmarket, Sharespost, and Kickstarter are pretty close to (though they're not exactly) what you're looking for.
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I'll have a look at this, seems interesting, especially Kickstarter I think. – Julien 14 years ago
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I think, despite all the interesting answers, your's answers best my question. Thanks. – Julien 14 years ago
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Actually Kickstarter is not as interesting for investment, I just figured out. Nice idea though. – Julien 14 years ago
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I'm developing an international platform for this field, welcome to onstartups, thanks for the question and comments and do stay in touch :) – Henry The Hengineer 14 years ago
The problem with most of the approaches normally thought of in connection with this is that you need to be an accredited investor to qualify for investing in startups (I think it is $200k in income for each of the last 3 years or $1m in assets not including home, retirement, etc.). Instead, if you really want exposure to startups, albeit at a slightly later stage, I'd suggest investing your money into one of the handful of public VC funds like MVC Capital (ticker is MVC). The problem with investing into a private VC fund is that you need to be willing to commit multi-millions of dollars at the outset and usually the VC doesn't want your investment in them to be more than a small percentage of your assets (usually 10% or less). This is because if things go wrong (as they can and often do with VCs), people who have big exposure to the fund start getting all nervous and may not fulfill their duties when the VC fund does a capital call.
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Interesting, thanks. – Julien 14 years ago
