http://images.businessweek.com/ss/10/02/0225_angel_investors...
> As an angel investor, he’s famous for cutting a $100,000 check to Google’s founders even before they had chosen their now-famous name. In an e-mail, Bechtolsheim confirmed that the check has netted him more than $1 billion.
> Bechtolsheim also expressed a sober perspective on the emergence of former Google employees as angels and entrepreneurs. "When people are part of a new company that gets very successful very quickly, such as Google (but this effect is by no means limited to Google), they sometimes confuse the root of this success and incorrectly assume that the success was due to their own actions. They then want to translate this experience to other opportunities, either in the same or in related spaces, which in some cases may turn out, but in most cases will fail, just like the majority of all VC investments fail. … The only thing different about the Google mafia compared to other similar periods in history is that more money was made at Google by more people (and more money will be lost here)."
Who you know (or rather, who knows you) matters. We were out of towners at the time.
Yea, if Andy had known you guys well enough to understand that you would kick the other's company's butt and acquire them, he could have just invested in your company directly and got a better return. :)
I'm pretty sure we're ahead on paper, but I've never tried to calculate how far ahead.
I thought pg's PhD was in Computer Science?
No. 1
Chris Dixon, 38 Co-founder, Hunch Chris Dixon’s blog
No. of angel investments: 23 Companies funded (a sampling): Skype, Postini, Milo.com, Knewton, DailyBooth
No. 2
Ron Conway Investor
No. of Angel Investments: 190 Companies funded (a sampling): Google, Facebook, bit.ly, Digg, Mint.com, Twitter
No. 3
Reid Hoffman, 42 Chairman, co-founder, LinkedIn Reid Hoffman’s LinkedIn profile
No. of Angel Investments: 49 Companies funded (a sampling): Digg, Facebook, Flickr, Friendster, Ning, Zynga
No. 4
Esther Dyson, 58 Investor
No. of Angel Investments: 60 Companies funded (a sampling): 23andMe, GridPoint, del.icio.us, Flickr, Meetup
No.5
Peter Thiel, 42 Founder, President, Clarium Capital Management
No. of Angel Investments: 26 Companies funded (a sampling): Facebook, Friendster, LinkedIn, Yelp, Zynga
No. 6
Marc Andreessen, 38 Investor
No. of Angel Investments: 53 Companies funded (a sampling): Business Insider, Digg, LinkedIn, Qik, Scribd, Twitter
No. 7
Jeff Bezos, 46 Chairman, founder, Amazon.com
No. of Angel Investments: 18 Companies funded (a sampling): 37signals, Google, Linden Lab, Social Gaming Network, Twitter
No. 8
Chris Sacca, 34 Managing Director, Lowercase Capital
No. of Angel Investments: 32 Companies funded (a sampling): bit.ly, FanBridge, Gowalla, Posterous, SimpleGeo, Twitter
No. 9
Mike Maples, 42 Investor
No. of Angel Investments: 39 Companies funded (a sampling): Circle of Moms, Digg, Kongregate, Odeo, Twitter, Weebly
No. 10
Andy Bechtolsheim, 54 Founder, Chairman, Chief Development Officer, Astra Networks
No. of Angel Investments: 49 Companies funded (a sampling): Brightmail, Google, Granite Systems, Nvidia, Tapulous
No. 11
Paul Graham, 45 Co-founder, Y Combinator
No. of Angel Investments: 129 Companies funded (a sampling): Bump Technologies, FanChatter, Heyzap, Justin.tv, Scribd
No. 12
Max Levchin, 34 Founder, Chief Executive, Slide
No. of Angel Investments: 7 Companies funded (a sampling): Evernote, MixPanel, Raptr, Slide, Yelp
No. 13
Aydin Senkut, 40 Founder, Felicis Ventures
No. of Angel Investments: 65 Companies funded (a sampling): Foodzie, Mixer Labs, Rapleaf, The Auteurs, TwitVid
No. 14
Bill Joy, 55 Partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
No. of Angel Investments: 24 Companies funded (a sampling): Blazent, NeoPath Networks, Dantz
No. 15
Kevin Rose, 33 Founder, Digg Kevin’s blog
No. of Angel Investments: 12 Companies funded (a sampling): Twitter, 3Crowd Technologies, Foursquare, SimpleGeo
No. 16
Dave Duffield, 69 Founder, Chief Executive, Workday
No. of Angel Investments: 18 Companies funded (a sampling): Acta Technology, Bridgestream, Netcentives
No. 17
Andrea Zurek, 39 Founding partner, XG Ventures
No. of Angel Investments: 26 Companies funded (a sampling): Lotus Vodka, Facebook, Red Mango, and Vaxart
No. 18
Marc Benioff, 44 Founder, Chief Executive, Salesforce.com
No. of Angel Investments: 9 Companies funded (a sampling): Mashery, Qik, Tapulous, Zuora
No. 19
Jeff Clavier, 42 Founder, Managing Partner, SoftTech VC Blog: Jeff Clavier’s blog, Software Only
No. of Angel Investments: 52 Companies funded (a sampling): bit.ly, Circle of Moms, DNAnexus, Mint.com
No. 20
Caterina Fake, 36 Co-founder Hunch Caterina’s blog
No. of Angel Investments: 6 Companies funded (a sampling): Etsy, Maya’s Mom
No. 21
Martin Varsavsky, 49 Founder, Chief Executive, Fon Martin Varsavsky’s blog
No. of Angel Investments: 28 Companies funded (a sampling): 23andMe, Dopplr, Eolia, Joost, Plazes, Tumblr, Wikio
No. 22
Naval Ravikant, 36 Founder, Chairman, Vast.com Blog: Startup Boy
No. of Angel Investments: 21 Companies funded (a sampling): Chatterous, DotSpots, Fluther, Twitter, Vidly
No. 23
Joe Kraus, 38 Partner, Google Ventures
No. of Angel Investments: 5 Companies funded (a sampling): InfraSearch, Linkedin, Napster, Odeo
No. 24
Eric Schmidt, 54 Chairman, Chief Executive, Google
No. of Angel Investments: 9 Companies funded (a sampling): Citizen Effect, CX, iShake, PublishOne, Sendmail
No. 25
Lauren Flanagan, 55 Co-founder, Managing Director, Phenomenelle Angels Fund
No. of Angel Investments: 23 Companies funded (a sampling): Alice.com, Stealth Therapeutics, U.S. Trailmaps
EDIT: link to table: http://bwnt.businessweek.com/interactive_reports/future_of_t...
The number for Ron also seems wrong. He's made a lot more than 190 investments. He's been doing this since the 1980s.
I wish the "top" angels had some outside SV diversity; I know two thirds of that group pretty much directly.
YouNoodle took angel money from Max Levchin, Peter Thiel, and The Founders Fund. [2]
This conflict-of-interest was not disclosed by BusinessWeek.
[1] http://bwnt.businessweek.com/interactive_reports/future_of_t... [2] http://www.crunchbase.com/company/younoodle
I'm assuming it largely comes down to the type of people (smart, hardworking, get 'er done) in the startup and the angel's network.
