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Our Investment Criteria
Please be sure you match our criteria before you email us your business plan.
Number One in the World
The only strategy that gets us excited is to be number one in the world. If you are sending us information on your investment, please describe what you will be the best in the world at in the first paragraph of the cover email.
Active Investors
We are active investors. We always work directly with our companies and usually sit on the board. We've found that our returns are much higher when we contribute to the success of our investees.
Invest in BC and Washington State
Because we are active investors, distance is a factor. In our most successful investments we meet with the company CEO, or board, multiple times per month. That's just not practical if there is a plane trip involved. As a result, we invest almost exclusively in British Columbia and Washington State.
Technology Companies
Our technical background is in traditional information technologies (IT). That's where we can make a contribution and generate the best investment returns for our shareholders. Our successes have been in broadband, wireless, infrastructure, Web 2.0 and SAAS.
We do not usually invest in life sciences, energy or cleantech unless there is a significant technology component.
Well Defined Exit Strategy
The investments that produced our highest returns were ones with a well defined exit strategy and plan. Our preference is to be directly involved with the design and execution of the exit transaction. The results of our previous investments have proven to us that a well designed and executed exit can add 50+% to our returns.
We Invest Early and Exit Early
Investing early produces the highest long term returns. We usually invest along with angel investors. On occasion we invest even earlier, at the Friends and Family round. Sometimes we will be the first investor in a new company.
Our objective is to make investments where we can see a clear path to an exit in 2 or 3 years. We have a strong preference for investments where we have been engaged to work with the CEO and board to design and execute the exit transaction.
Valuation
Like most angels we almost always invest in private companies that have pre-money valuations under $3 million. If a company is public, we may invest at higher valuations.
Changing the World
If you sincerely believe your company will 'change the world' in a significant way, please disregard everything else on this page and send us your plan.