Hi All,
So I just read an article on David Choe (mural artist) who painted The Facebook's offices back in 2005 and was paid a few thousand $ in Facebook stocks which are worth $200 mil today.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/02/technology/for-founders-to-decorators-facebook-riches.htmlI also talked to one of my friends, who had a startup and I am sure he made good money once it was sold about two years ago. My friend also told me of a friend of his (call him Doe) who quit a $300k a year corporate job to create his own startup. Although Doe told my friend that he shouldn't invest $ in his startup (for friendship reasons), my friend did it anyways.
Investing in startups has been simmering in my head for a while, and I have about $10k I might be willing to invest. So I did a quick search on startup investing and basically ended up at 1000angels.com
http://www.1000angels.com/ and eventually saw the words "Accredited Investor"
https://www.investor.gov/news-alerts/investor-bulletins/investor-bulletin-accredited-investorsSo I have to be an "Accredited Investor", and that means:
An accredited investor, in the context of a natural person, includes anyone who:
-earned income that exceeded $200,000 (or $300,000 together with a spouse) in each of the prior two years, and reasonably expects the same for the current year, OR
-has a net worth over $1 million, either alone or together with a spouse (excluding the value of the person’s primary residence).
Soooo.... I definitely do not fall in that category with $125k in Investments (Retirement, etc) and $170k home loan.
I can understand the "Accredited Investors" rules that prevent someone loosing a large portion of their funds, but I also see it a barrier to the 99%. I feel this is a really stacked rule to exclude a large portion of potential investors, or some archaic Great Depression legislature.
Does anyone have any experience?
Is $10k too little for a startup, or they look for larger investments?
Are their any "angel"/startup investment vehicles for regular income people like me?