Investing in start-ups

Not opposed to the idea, but I struggle to see how that could work and add a benefit. Especially on timing, as you typically have to move rather quick within a few days. And I heard from others who participated in investor clubs that got their own pitches, but that just turns out to be the scraps the big ones don’t touch.

Verve.vc is the one platform where I saw interesting deals, and the details of those deals. On other platforms you often have hyped tech investments without much info or tangible IP, and you get very limited details (if any at all) on the offer itself. Fees are high on all platforms, but don’t really matter that much (returns is either zero or a multiple of the investment).

That mentioned IPO ETF is post-IPO and is a normal ETF on traded stocks. Has a market maker and is generally very liquid. Then again, this has nothing to do with start-ups or venture capital investing.

10k is the minimum with verve.vc, others offer even lower. I want to invest at least 100k over five years in at least 5 companies. Another five years later I hopefully have made a profit (which is risky due to the very limited amount of companies invested). Lower ticket sizes don’t make any sense as even if you hit the jackpot, it won’t make much of a difference in your portfolio

Also, you are asking about liquidity and how fast you could get out. Venture capital doesn’t work that way. This is where you throw money at something and forget about it, in the hope that 10 years down the road you suddenly have a nice surprise.

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Well 0. You don’t see your money until they make an exit. There’s no secondary market with verve.vc (something I told them they should implement). So very illiquid. I personally have written off the investments already and don’t list it in my net worth.
Sectors were Customer support and Finance. Both startups raised more money in the meantime so your shares just get dilluted if you don’t throw more money at it.

Their portfolio tool claims there’s an IRR of 1.9% on my invested money. So yeah not worth it imho.

Nothing to add on topic, but you can use multiple quotes in a single post, no need to add 10 individual ones.

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how do you see entering with super small positions(100-250 CHF, Max 500) in many companies ?
I was thinking of selecting a company each month of the year for a max 2000-3000 CHF/ year?

worthy or just too much loss of time for nothing ( just better go with VT)?

average returns for angel investors are 24% per year after fees (carried interest + mgmt fees) BUT this is on a broad portfolio of investments. Therefore unless you have extensive deal flow and time and ability to conduct your own DD, it is better to join a syndicate or fund that does all this for you (for a fee) including investing in a broad group of companies. These syndicates all have their own investment thesis so if you want to focus on a certain area you can (ie tech, climate tech, healthcare, etc).

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Just join a fund where they’ll do this for you. If only 2-3k per year you don’t sound like you really have enough money to be in this game (sorry to say). This is a very high risk play.

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Which one? I also would be happy to see some specific recommendations.

me too. very happy to see comments more detailed in these regards.

which fee magnitude are we normally speaking about?

indeed,I agree with all of you that 2k-3k chf/year are peanuts in this world, yet I wanted to try to be in

I gave the Swiss healthcare recommendation one already. Just google what you’re looking for based on where you live. That is the only Swiss one I am in. I’ve lived in Canada and US before and so had connections there.

Hello,
thanks for all replays.
I have been trying to consolidate the info I could get in the various platforms that have been shared here. I would be very happy if you could revise the table as well as enlarging it. Any mistake done is definitely not in purpose, so feel free to pinting it out.

Name Type of focus Type of investment Actual start-ups available Minimum investment Secondary market availability
Wefunder Generic Equity/Debt 233 100 USD NO
Seedinvest Generic N/A 12 1k USD YES
Startengine Generic Equity 210 100 USD YES
Republic Generic Equity 449 (total) 250 USD NO
Angellist Generic Funds/Syndicates N/A N/A N/A
Equity Zen Generic Equity/Debt/Funds N/A N/A YES
Swiss Health Angels Health Care N/A N/A N/A N/A
Verve.vc Generic Equity 140 10k CHF NO

If what above it is correct, I would then go for wefunder and/or start engine and/or republic.

Anyone having any particular experience (good and/or bad) with any of the above mentioned platforms?

Anyone having experience with Crowdcube?
it is europe-based (mainly UK) start up investing platform with very interesting fee system (1.67% entry cost +5% success fee, if the investment will be successful), super low entry investment amount (10 EUR) and possibility of a built-in secondary market.
In paper it seems just perfect, but I would like to get feedback from people having truly used it

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