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WHAT
THE HECK IS AN ANGEL FUND? |
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It
seems everybody wants to become a dot com millionaire. And every
dot com millionaire wants to become an angel investor. Not that
we’re hugely different.<grin>
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In
our past lives, we’ve worked across a range of businesses
from amazon.com and Yahoo! on one end to a retired IIT professor
in Bombay with an intriguing idea on the other. And we believe
we’ve learned a few things.
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Primarily,
that the difference between success and failure isn’t usually
the lack of funds. It’s more often the lack of experience and
advice: on everything from the business plan and marketing strategy
to the choice of alliances, partners – or even the domain name.
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Indeed,
we've noticed that the best-funded sites are the ones that make
the biggest mistakes. Having a lot of money seems to give companies
the belief that simply blowing it all away will give them a
market. |
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That's
where we're not 'just another' fund. We believe we're different
- and can make a difference. By investing a little bit of money
- and a whole lot of time, effort and commitment. |
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The
new economy in the US is being funded primarily by angels and
VCs who have worked in operational roles in the high technology
industry. Unfortunately, there are almost no such VCs in India,
or even Asia-Pacific. |
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At
Passionfund, we're not VCs, and neither are we a substitute
for them. We don't come from a banking background. We've actually
worked in this business, in the US and Asia. We can't invest
at the levels VCs do, but we can help companies at a raw stage
take off and find - what's that word - 'traction', till they
become companies VCs can look at with confidence. |
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