Archive: Pre-IPO Profits

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Angel Insider: VCs Are Missing Out on Female Founders

By Early Investing on March 29, 2022

Historically speaking, funding for female founders has been pretty paltry in the venture capital (VC) world. From 2011 to 2020, the amount of VC money going to female-only-founded startups never went above $4 billion. In 2020 — despite U.S. startups raising a record $143 billion — funding to…
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Startup Deals for Accredited Investors Only

By Vin Narayanan on March 15, 2022

Early Investing co-founder Andy Gordon and I recently met with several founders in Los Angeles and San Francisco. We’re looking for startups that you might be interested in investing in. The startups we looked at included cutting-edge robotics companies, medtech disruptors and moonshots that could change…
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Keeping an Eye Out for Startups That Automate Work

By Vin Narayanan on March 8, 2022

The labor market is tight. The American economy added 678,000 non-farming jobs in February as the unemployment rate fell to 3.8%. New jobless claims are at their lowest levels since the start of the…
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Angel Insider: Should You Invest in the Metaverse?

By Early Investing on March 1, 2022

Venture capitalists invested more than $10 billion into the metaverse last year. And the trend shows no signs of slowing. But what exactly is the metaverse? And is it worth investing in? The short answer is that it’s a digital…
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Investing in Alternative Social Media Platforms

By Adam Sharp on February 22, 2022

There’s a war going on in social media. Government is applying pressure to platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to censor “misinformation.”  There are many examples, but conversations around COVID are especially prone to being censored. For example, for much of 2020 and 2021, talking…
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The Biggest Problem Remote Working Startups Need to Solve

By Vin Narayanan on February 15, 2022

Remote work isn’t going away. Workers want it — even if the companies that employ them don’t. And because companies are competing hard for top talent, they have to offer some flexible working options.  That doesn’t change the fact that it’s HARD to collaborate remotely. It’s…
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Take Advantage of the Golden Age of Medtech Investing

By Vin Narayanan on February 8, 2022

A basic market inefficiency has created a massive opportunity for startup investors interested in medical technology and drug development startups. And angel investors savvy enough to understand what’s going on have a rare opportunity to invest in medtech startups with massive upside that have been significantly…
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Lower Startup Valuations Are on the Horizon

By Vin Narayanan on February 1, 2022

Last week I wrote about how some of the country’s biggest asset managers are investing in startups because they simply can’t find a better alternative (and they really want one!). As a result, they’re all trying to identify and invest in the best…
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The Real Reason VCs Are Investing So Much In Startups

By Vin Narayanan on January 25, 2022

Last month, I flew out to Seattle for an event to meet up with angel investors, venture capitalists and some of the largest players in wealth management and private equity. The people in the room represented firms that had more than $10 trillion in assets under management combined.
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I had hoped that the dramatic startup valuation increases in seed and Series A rounds would start slowing late last year. Unfortunately I haven’t seen much evidence of that so far. I’d guess that seed stage startup valuations are still up around 2.5x since I started…
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Crypto Startups Keep Attracting Massive Investments

By Adam Sharp on December 21, 2021

NYDIG is a startup that specializes in solutions for institutional bitcoin investors. And it recently raised a whopping $1 billion at a $7 billion valuation.  Here’s an excerpt from CoinDesk’s reporting: NYDIG said Tuesday it raised…
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A Space Investment Worth Consideration

By Adam Sharp on November 23, 2021

Last week I found a space SPAC (special purpose acquisition company) that I think has big potential. The SPAC is dMY Technology Group (NYSE: DMYQ), and it will soon merge with Planet Labs. Planet Labs owns and operates a fleet of…
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Five Ways to Balance Your Microbiome

By Adam Sharp on November 9, 2021

I’ve been spending a lot of time lately researching the importance of the microbiome — the trillions of microbes (including bacteria, viruses and fungi) that live in and on our bodies.  What’s mind-blowing is that a healthy microbiome plays a key role in preventing so many…
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Strong Follow-On Deals Have These Features

By Adam Sharp on October 26, 2021

When I first got into startup investing, I was mostly investing in early-stage deals. Valuations usually fell between $3 million-to-$10 million (with a few exceptions of around $40 million). I was focused on trying to find the potential big winners as early as I could. And I definitely…
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Watch Out for This Serious Startup Investing Red Flag

By Adam Sharp on October 19, 2021

Oftentimes in seed rounds, companies explain that they need to raise money before really getting the business started. This can be a serious red flag, depending on the situation. If the company was founded months (or years) ago but has made little to no progress, that’s…