...with less than $25k of my own money down in each company and sometimes $0 of my own hard money down. Here's how you can do the same with these two things!
These two things have landed me some massive wins & helped others around me win too.
1. Your circle
2. Sweat Equity
YOUR CIRCLE
This comes in two parts:
1 - Who do you know who is a serious investor looking to invest?
2 - Who do you know who has a great business looking for investment? Make a connection and create a win-win. Here's a scenario this worked for me:
I intro'd my VC friend to a tech company. The minimum in the seed round was a bit steep for me, but because I brought this deal to the table & it closed, I was able to get in. If you can't write $100k cheques yet, provide value to both parties & make it a win-win for everyone.
If it helps the company win, the VC win & you win, that's when you know it's a great connection. This connection I made was big win for the tech company, huge for the VC company & incredible for me.
SWEAT EQUITY
If you have a particular skill or offer a certain service that no one else can or specific expertise that is worth money, do that service at a lower cost for equity or for free for equity, depending on the situation.
THIS IN ACTION...
We recently structured a deal at Dsrupt with a tech company where we offer our service at a much lower rate in exchange for equity.
This is not financial advice. There is always risk involved with investing in startups.
Things I've looked for when investing are:
Does it make sense to me?
Would I use it?
Does it provide a real solution?
Who are the founders? (Sometimes you're betting on the jockey!)
I'm still learning as I go and I'm new to angel investing, but I've found this to really work for me and help others around me too! The times when it's gone to shit are when I listened to the hype & didn't go with my gut feeling, which happened to me on on the first angel I ever did.
If it doesn't feel right, make sense to you, or you aren't super bullish on it yourself, then I don't recommend doing it.
For more tips on DTC, branding, ads and more follow me @wesstaa21
I'm just a normal dude trying to figure this all out.
HMU and let's connect!
