Who’s cooler, the old-fashioned adventure capitalists, or today’s lot?
In the old days, adventure capitalists were rich investors who funded adventures. King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella were perhaps the greatest adventure capitalists of their time, of all time. They funded Christopher Columbus‘ remarkable adventure of 1492. Supposedly, Columbus was on his way to Asia via a quicker route. Well, we all know how that went. He hit land well before Asia.
Following were more adventurers funded by investors — they went by “conquistadores” back then — like Cortes, Pizarro, Ponce de Leon. Except that last one, who never met his benchmark of finding the fountain of youth, all other investments paid out. Few dividends are worth their weight in silver and gold, literally.
Compare those adventure capitalists of old with today’s lot — capitalists who adore, rather than fund, adventures. On one hand, we have the Richard Branson‘s of the world who might consider themselves adventure capitalists. On the other, we have Bobby Genovese, a wild world-traveling Canadian capitalist who even has his own TV show named “Adventure Capitalist” — all about his globe-trotting ways in Aspen, Nicaragua, New York and the Islands.
The angel investing lot, if you asked me.
Adventure capitalists in the context of angel investing don’t deal with canoe rides down jungle rivers or sailing around the Cape of No Hope. Instead, they’re successful entrepreneurs-turned-angel investors who bless young ventures and promising entrepreneurs with capital, and then some. For clarity’s sake, let’s refer to this group as angel adventure capitalists, or angel AC’s.
Perhaps angel AC’s feel the tingle of nostalgia, harken back to the day when they were bright-eyed and capable of making 1,001 presentations a day; these investors always involve themselves in the project, such as asking for seats on the board once a company gets rolling, or getting their face and name all over the project’s PR campaign to leverage their previous success.
One of the practical benefits for being an angel AC is that you get to check out how well your investment is doing, quite directly and immediately. If things get shaky, you’re there to provide your wisdom and leadership to right the ship. When things go well, who else better than you, who were successful when your own first company went big time, to help the startup sail through the tricky waves in the beautiful yet dangerous ocean?
And as a seasoned capitalist, surely your rolodex isn’t too shabby — or I should say, your iPhone contact list. Just think of all the benefits your network of contacts could provide to the startup you invested in.
So you tell me, ain’t angel AC’s the coolest lot?
Want to become the Pizarro of private equity, the Cortes of capitalism? Perhaps your best way to go from a passive, entrepreneur-turned-angel to a hands-on investor is to learn how to become an effective angel AC.
Maybe you know Branson and have set up a quick meet-and-greet at his next Virgin Music Festival. If not, plenty of other opportunities to learn on angel investing networks like Venture Hype, among others.
* For series, references are published in the last installment of the series.
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