Featured Videos

Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Basil Peters, CEO and Fund Manager, Fundamental Technologies II (Part 13)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Basil: Finding good mentors it is something that you can do that’ll make a big difference in your success. I would go even further – and I think it’s a natural law. I have for more than ten years been going out looking for successful entrepreneurs who do not have mentors. >>>

Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Basil Peters, CEO and Fund Manager, Fundamental Technologies II (Part 12)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Irina: If you were to get into a situation where you could collect dividends for a long time, would you still think of early exits?

Basil: There are two parts to the question, I think. One part is, is that a good thing to do? Another part is, do I want to do that? I’m kind of an exit guy. I like exits; they get me excited. So, I tend, personally, to prefer companies that will exit. >>>

Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Basil Peters, CEO and Fund Manager, Fundamental Technologies II (Part 11)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Irina: I saw you tweeted that Google wants to buy pre-revenue companies.

Basil: Yes. I was fascinated to hear Charles Rim,  who’s one of the top five guys at Google who buys companies, said that on a webinar, M&A class, offered by a group called Corum. Yes, he said that. >>>

Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Basil Peters, CEO and Fund Manager, Fundamental Technologies II (Part 10)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Irina: Now, we can talk about your favorite subject, which is exits.

Basil: Yes, again, I often go on for a whole day on that subject. >>>

Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Basil Peters, CEO and Fund Manager, Fundamental Technologies II (Part 9)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Irina: Why do you think you’re better suited to being an entrepreneur, as opposed to being an employee?

Basil: A lot of the reasons are the ones that we talked about earlier with the characteristics I would look for in an entrepreneur. For example, I have to be the person who is driving the bus. If it’s my company, I can’t be the number two person; I can only be the number one person. If you made me number two, I would be very stressed, and very quickly I would become dysfunctional and counterproductive. >>>

Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Basil Peters, CEO and Fund Manager, Fundamental Technologies II (Part 8)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Irina: What is your preferred investment type?

Basil: You really ask a hard question there. Five years ago, if you had asked me, I would have said common shares. I have been one of the strongest advocates in America of simple structures and common shares.

But in the past few years, I have had to rethink my own philosophies because the world has changed. Five years ago, I would have invested, most likely, in a common share structure. It made sense five years ago because it was much easier to put together a good board. >>>

Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Basil Peters, CEO and Fund Manager, Fundamental Technologies II (Part 7)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Irina: What do you with those businesses that your fund rejects, if anything?

Basil: I try and help everybody in some way. My personal goal, which I don’t always achieve, but when things are working the way I want them to, I always want to leave every entrepreneur, every company, with something that’s helpful as a result of their contacting me.

Maybe it’s an introduction, maybe it’s a point in the right direction, maybe it’s a little bit of feedback that I hope they can incorporate in their next pitches to investors that are better matches to their kinds of companies. I always try and help. >>>

Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Basil Peters, CEO and Fund Manager, Fundamental Technologies II (Part 6)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Irina: Do teams have to have prior business experience?

Basil: I don’t require that. I don’t think it’s a good filter, because if you look at the track record of entrepreneurs, there’s very little correlation between whether it’s their first venture or their third or fourth or fifth and success. Very often the greatest success is from the entrepreneur’s first company. >>>