Rapper will.i.am and Ron Conway | Image: Maria J. Avila Lopez, Mercury News
Ron Conway is the Robert Pattinson of angel investors.
Hell, if Conway had a gig on Twilight he’d turn all the bad vampires into good ones!
So how did the angel investor who endowed Google and PayPal become so very successful?
Conway is often referred to as the messiah of angel investors worldwide, and according to an article by Chris O’Brien, Conway walked the hard road with poise to take the title as Silicon Valley’s most influential startup investor.
O’Brien states that, while most VCs are best known for the money they’ve made, Conway is best known for the people he knows and the way he treats them – which is well.
O’Brien’s article delves into an interview he had with 59-year-old Conway in early April at a Twitter developers conference in San Francisco and refers to the invariable “nice guy” Conway as “the Internet” due to his uncanny ability to connect people and re-connect people for their own benefit.
Apparently even Black Eyed Peas rapper “will.i.am” has Conway’s digits saved in his cell phone as “The Coolest.”
According to O’Brien, despite the hectic schedule Conway keeps, the ridiculous amount of people he meets at conferences, and the hefty number of successful startups he has to his name, the guy is clever and polite enough to remember not just everybody’s name, “but also their conversations, what they’re working on, and whom he’d like them to meet”!
It’s no doubt he has a constant buzz around him as fans and fanatics join the crush to worship his every step.
But it wasn’t always beer and skittles for Conway, and in 2001 it even seemed as if he’d entirely fallen off the wagon.
Moving into the realm of startup investing on the cusp of the dot-com boom, Conway started out as an angel by betting on a varied range of startups in the hope that they’d turn over big dividends via his 2 funds – Angel-I and Angel-II.
But O’Brien’s article takes us back to a dark period in 2001; when it appeared that Conway had backed one dog after another and his 2 funds lay in ruin.
Conway recalled the time as “painful” but thankfully his early investments in funds-transfer giant PayPal and search engine stalwart Google went public in 2002 and 2004, respectively, which turned the whole thing around.
Thanks to his staying power and ability to “keep the faith,” Conway was back in the money.
Many angels might not have stuck around to see it through, but it was Conway’s commitment to the craft and belief in people like Ev Williams, founder of Odeo, that sets Conway apart from many angel investor hopefuls.
Conway’s faith in Williams became unwavering, especially after Williams re-paid investors swiftly when Odeo failed – an extremely unusual gesture from any entrepreneur.
“I decided to set that money aside and invest in whatever Ev did next” – Conway told O’Brien.
And the thing Williams did next was none other than (the almighty) Twitter!
Ron Conway is an angel who’s driven by his heart, and his faith and his belief in other people.
As an up-and-coming angel investor, what have you learned from Conway?
From what we see, nice guys don’t always finish last. Drop your conceit and believe in mutual respect. Be helpful to entrepreneurs — they’re the ones who’ll make you money. Don’t you agree?
* For series, references are published in the last installment of the series.
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