Connected Magazine
Eamonn Carey: the good, the bad and the ugly of VC ‘angels’
Give away too much equity, or fall on the wrong side of dishonest actors, and your company’s prospects could die a death before you even get started
Georges Doriot wrote a $70,000 cheque in 1957. In what’s considered one of the earliest US VC deals, Doriot gave Ken Olsen the money to get Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) off the ground. As decisions go, this was a good one. Eleven years later DEC went public. Doriot’s $70,000 was now worth $38 million – a 500x return on investment. When he finally sold his share years later, it was valued at almost $400 million. ...
