Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Basil Peters, CEO and Fund Manager, Fundamental Technologies II (Part 14)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Irina: And now what could angels do to increase their chances of success?

Basil: I think for angels . . . number one is education. Angel investing is also changing right now, faster than ever before. There have been angels since we lived in caves. >>>

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. >>>