I made six angel investments from 2013-2016, all in founders I knew before investing:
- Portfolio:
- Paystack (2016 Seed) – Acquired by Stripe for $200M+ in 2020.
- Beek (2016 Seed) – Unrealized gains.
- Sano (2015 Seed) – Raised 2018 Series A from Fitbit. Acquired by One Drop in 2020.
- MatterFab (2014 Seed) – Raised 2015 Series A from GE Ventures and AutoDesk. Shut down.
- Experiment (2013 Seed) – 2021 grant by Robert Downey Jr. via Experiment Foundation.
- 10 Storks (2013 Seed) – A subscription box I bootstrapped with my wife. Shut down.
- Returns:
- I invested $45K total and have returned $200K (4.4X, 32% IRR) so far.
- My anti-portfolio of founders who I knew and/or advised over the years and then never asked to get an allocation in their seed round would easily increase my IRR over 100%.
- I invested $45K total and have returned $200K (4.4X, 32% IRR) so far.
I invested exclusively in cryptocurrencies from 2017-2021:
- Portfolio:
- 2017-2018: Built a market cap-weighed portfolio of the top-10 cryptocurrencies.
- 2019-2021: Consolidated into a market cap-weighed portfolio of BTC and ETH.
- Strategy:
- Buy, hold, and accumulate top cryptocurrencies with a 10-year outlook.
- My two kids were born in 2017 and 2019, so liquidity is now a key factor in my investing strategy.
- Buy, hold, and accumulate top cryptocurrencies with a 10-year outlook.
I’m now investing exclusively through Utopic, my personal capital holding company:
- Utopic Studio is my indie startup studio.
- Pro Benches is our first product.
- On January 1, 2022, I acquired Electra-tec, a product line of technical workbenches.
- I’m relaunching it as Pro Benches, with a new brand and website I made myself.
- I’m embracing the #buildinpublic movement to share my story of solo entrepreneurship!
- Pro Benches is our first product.
- Utopic Ventures will be my fund to invest in other founders.