Saying "no"
Being an angel investor is a fantastic job. Every day you meet great new people, cool products, exciting technologies and interesting new business models. Nothing (in business life) is more exciting than seeing a company grow from two-guys-in-a-garage stage to become a relevant or maybe even dominant player in a large industry sector, and as an early-stage investor you have a realistic chance to be part of some of these success stories. Maybe it’s the best job next to being the Pope, to quote former German Vice Chancellor Franz Müntefering (he said that when he became Chairman of the Social Democratic Party in Germany, probably one of the scariest jobs in German politics). There’s one thing that sucks though. You have to say “no” all the time. Whether you’re a private investor who invests his own money or a VC managing a fund, chances are that for every investment you make you’ll have to say “no” at least 20-50 times. If you make a couple of investments per year, that’s a lot of “no”s...