Luis Villalobos, founder of the Tech Coast Angels, is a great example of a great investor who has succeeded in failure. His bio on ALVP says that he has been a "direct investor in 57 early-stage ventures – 12 successful exits (4 IPOs and 8 mergers), and 26 ventures remaining active. "
That means that of the 31 investments that have either exited or died, 61% have died -- and Luis is one of the best in the game! Most good angel investors have a much lower batting average.
Note: Luis invested in one of his companies for .75/share and later enjoyed a $75/share IPO. That's gotta soften the blow a bit. :) You can learn more about Luis' successes and failures on the Frank Peters Show podcast. (I can't find the link right now, but I'll post it later -- or you can just search for it on iTunes.)
Any entrepreneur or angel investor accepts gracefully the reality that success is built of stepping stones aggregated from the lessons and wisdom gained through failures. Those interim failures on the pathway to success also filter out those lacking commitment to the vision and enterprise and serve to prepare and temper those who perservere for the next level of challenges as the enterprise grows. As Mark Cuban shared recently, and I paraphrase since I was not taking written notes, "in business you can fail many times, but one only needs to succeed once to be set for life."
Posted by: danl | June 24, 2006 1:31 PM | Permalink to Comment