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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. >>>

Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Basil Peters, CEO and Fund Manager, Fundamental Technologies II (Part 5)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Irina: When you invest, what is your average dollar amount?

Basil: That varies. It varies a lot. I can invest anything from $10,000 to $500,000 in one deal.

Irina: How many companies do you have in your portfolio right now?

Basil: Seven. >>>

Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Basil Peters, CEO and Fund Manager, Fundamental Technologies II (Part 4)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Irina: If entrepreneurs want to seek funding from you, what would be the proper way for them to do it?

Basil: I probably get asked this question three or four times a week. What I’ve done is I wrote a page on my blog called How to Find an Angel Investor in Vancouver, and I did that just to have the contact information for the local angel groups available so I could just send out a link. >>>

Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Basil Peters, CEO and Fund Manager, Fundamental Technologies II (Part 3)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Irina: What are your current sources of deal flow?

Basil: Most of the things that I find investment worthy, I’m seeing at an angel meeting. What’s best for entrepreneurs, I think, is to present at group meetings. It’s a much more efficient way for entrepreneurs to meet angel investors and for angel investors to meet entrepreneurs. I belong to three angel groups. >>>