<story><title>As Angel Investors Pull Back, Valuations Take a Hit</title><url>http://www.wsj.com/articles/as-angel-investors-pull-back-valuations-take-a-hit-1453337982</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>gmarx</author><text>Whenever I see articles about how easily the investment money flows or had flowed all I can think of, from a purely self-centered point of view, is &amp;quot;what kind of loser am I that I have never been able to raise a single round?&amp;quot; Seriously, my ideas aren&amp;#x27;t objectively stupider than the ones I see funded. Even in this article, I mean, home eye exams? Did I read that right? How about a startup that will come to your house and groom your dog? These can be good businesses but are they on topic when we&amp;#x27;re talking about the angel investment environment? Apparently so. Not that I&amp;#x27;m bitter (stop being bitter, dammit!)</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>staunch</author><text>It took me a long time to figure this out, because no one tells you, but it&amp;#x27;s actually very simple. There are two ways people raise money in Silicon Valley:&lt;p&gt;1. Traction (rapid week-over-week growth, significant press)&lt;p&gt;2. Reputation (elite background, connections)&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s very easy to get some &lt;i&gt;initial&lt;/i&gt; traction for these local services businesses, so investors fall for them easily. They lose money on every transaction but will make it up in volume ala Kozmo.com, Pink Dot, etc.&lt;p&gt;Despite the fairytales, no one actually invests in technology startups based on their products in Silicon Valley. Really, no one.&lt;p&gt;Oculus VR is a great example of the kind of business that investors had no interest in. They reluctantly jumped on the bandwagon very late, and only after it had lots of traction. Very few investors were interested in SpaceX or Tesla. That&amp;#x27;s how bad Silicon valley investors are at what they do. It&amp;#x27;s an industry ripe for disruption (see: YC).</text></comment>
<story><title>As Angel Investors Pull Back, Valuations Take a Hit</title><url>http://www.wsj.com/articles/as-angel-investors-pull-back-valuations-take-a-hit-1453337982</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>gmarx</author><text>Whenever I see articles about how easily the investment money flows or had flowed all I can think of, from a purely self-centered point of view, is &amp;quot;what kind of loser am I that I have never been able to raise a single round?&amp;quot; Seriously, my ideas aren&amp;#x27;t objectively stupider than the ones I see funded. Even in this article, I mean, home eye exams? Did I read that right? How about a startup that will come to your house and groom your dog? These can be good businesses but are they on topic when we&amp;#x27;re talking about the angel investment environment? Apparently so. Not that I&amp;#x27;m bitter (stop being bitter, dammit!)</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>subdane</author><text>As a founder who has raised both angel and institutional $$, these articles can have the same effect on me. For nearly everyone, raising money is hard, especially in the beginning. Uber had trouble closing its first money. There&amp;#x27;s a lot of luck, hard work and network involved in getting $$ in. The first money is less about idea and more about reputation and hustle.</text></comment>