Paul Buchheit, the Gmail creator who recently joined startup incubator Y Combinator, just published a blog post summarizing his first three years of angel investing. Ita4ぎa4г important reading for any wannabe angels, because the post gets specific about his returns, rather than just offering generalities.
You may remember that we wrote about Buchheita4ぎa4г winning streak a year ago, shortly after his investments reMail, AppJet, and Mint were acquired. So how much has he actually made as an angel Buchheit said that around half of his 32 investments have either died or been acquired so far, making him a total of $1.34 million. Thata4ぎa4г only a 10 percent return on the $1.21 million he invested, but he said, a4ぎAAt least Ia4ぎa4m not losing too much.a4ぎ
Plus, therea4ぎa4г the other half of his portfolio thata4ぎa4г still alive and independent and could therefore bring him a lot more money.
As for the existing exits, Buchheit divides them into categories based on how big his return was. Cloud hosting provider Heroku and personal finance service Mint returned more than 10 times his investment. AppJet and 280 North were a4ぎAmedium-sizeda4ぎ returns, while Auctomatic, Parakey, and Zenter were smaller exits, returning 2-3x.
Buchheit concludes with two pieces of advice: a4ぎA1) Assume you&'ll lose your money and 2) Plan on investing in a large number of companies.a4ぎ
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Companies: Heroku, Mint.com
People: Paul Buchheit
Companies: Heroku, Mint.com
People: Paul Buchheit
Anthony is a senior editor at VentureBeat, as well as its reporter on media, advertising, and social networks. Before joining the site in 2008, Anthony worked at the Hollister Free Lance, where he won awards from the California Newspaper Publishers Association for breaking news coverage and writing. He attended Stanford University and now lives in San Francisco. Reach him at anthony@venturebeat.com. (All story pitches should also be sent to tips@venturebeat.com) You can also follow Anthony on Twitter.
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