The Crazy Chicken does, however, possess one of those nationalities.
Yesterday there was a meeting which we both attended and we talked to a couple of angels/PE investors whilst we were there.
Some takeaways:
- During the talk on cyber security a tale was related of a German venture which was turned down by a PE investor as being too expensive. Then the venture was badly hacked resulting in the price dropping significantly. Imagine their surprise when the PE came back with a lower offer - which they accepted. But one of the founders had engaged a cyber forensic review which eventually discovered that the attack had come from Israel and seemed - it was alleged - to have been commissioned by the PE investor. Very naughty.
- Whilst quite a few people have been saying, recently, that it is easy, even beneficial, to get financing from Munich rather than the USA, one guy, with venture experience, to whom we spoke felt that the contrary was true. This was partly down to the tax situation in Germany for shareholders (losses can't be transferred into subsequent years) and the general approach to investment risk in the US.
- This guy also said he takes about a 3% to 13% cut in the companies which he is supporting (as an angel) with around 7% being the usual case.
- Also, he never invests when there are just two founders. One is ok, three is great but not two. And he strongly recommended dealing with this - either get someone else on board or find an arbitrator before there are problems - something we agree with. Incidentally another startup investor said, a few weeks ago, that he never, ever invests in a single-founder startup.
- Another angel investor told us that normally seeding happens after the app has at least been prototyped. Wireframes are not enough.
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