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David: How do you see angel investing industry as a whole changing over the next five, and 10, and even 20Â years?
Igor Feerer: Yeah. So, I guess in the next five years youâre not going to see that much of a change. Thereâs just a whole bunch of angel networks out there that people want to participate in. I think thatâs going to keep growing as a lot more deals are being done outside of the Valley. So, weâre definitely seeing an ecosystem and this ecosystem is outgrowing us here in Silicon Valley.
I see a lot more of these investor angel networks popping up throughout the world and really helping spur innovation in their region.
Over the next 10 years, just my opinion, but I definitely like where the ICO businesses is going.
Once a lot of the challenges, once they get sorted away, I think people are going to be moving more of their money into crypto and using that money to invest in equity.
So, the whole conversation around tokenized equity is now just starting up and I definitely see a lot of potentials with a companies tokenizing their equity and finding money anywhere. They donât have to be in Silicon Valley, they could be anywhere in the world. So, most of these investors in crypto are angels.
Yeah⊠a lot to think about with these Silicon Valley models and applying to anywhere in the world. With your product, I feel like contact management is essential. So, how do you see contract management evolving over into the foreseeable future?
It will eventually get a lot more easier for companies to raise money and definitely having access to a large network is going to play its role, so more than contact management, is nurturing relationships.
So, youâve contacted an investor, then what? Once you have all your stuff on AngelLoop, right now you can contact them have that touch points, but youâre also showing them how youâre performing so that kind of leaves more interest in their head when they move off from that conversation. They come back to you because we ping them, notify them, let them know that thereâs another update from me so they keep coming back.
But overall, as far as lead nurturing is concerned, youâre pretty much replicating that, but youâre doing so with your current stakeholders. So, contact management is definitely evolving. In our case itâs being tailored for our young early stage startup ecosystem.
What does AngelLoop look like three years from now?
This is a good question. Thereâs obviously a lot f different directions, but I see us managing the post funding side onward. I like where itâs at. Thereâs a lot more financial services that we can add to it to help companies even better their approach. So, I would say in the next three years, probably launch lot more financial services and keep adding features to both the investor and the startup sides so that theyâre happy with the tools they have, and really just improve their own bottom line.
That makes a lot of sense. On your homepage, it looks a lot like Silicon valley, the show.
Yeah.
With the cartoon. Could you talk a little bit about that marketing choice and do you have any fear that theyâre going to sue you for using their cartoons?
My wifeâs an attorney. I talked to my attorney, itâs not my wife, but just our corporate attorney. Itâs different enough I guess to where itâs not really a copyright issue, but I love that show. I see that show as being more forthright and honest with its audience because a lot of the topics they discuss are very similar to the stuff that founders have to deal with, stuff that investors have to deal with. So, I like their truthful approach.
As far as the city scape goes, itâs very descriptive of AngelLoop, itâs Silicon Valley in a platform, is my main point on the branding side. I got a lot of people loving it. Maybe do a little more animation around it, but overall, itâs just very indicative of our culture here in Silicon Valley. So, it resonates with the viewers or at least with our visitors.
Yeah, I like the choice a lot. And I did read some about that show and Mike Judge who wrote it (and Beavis & Butt-Head) actually worked for a Silicon Valley Company in the first Internet boom. I think helps the accuracy in it. I remember describing it to friends who werenât living in San Francisco when I was and it was like, âYeah, this is actually a little more real than you want it to be.â
Yeah. Itâs definitely got reference points. So, whenever I talk to somebody about entrepreneurial stuff, I just go, âWatch that show, Silicon Valley, itâll tell you everything Iâm dealing with.â And they watch it, they love it. So, that show probably had a big hand in getting other founders off their ass and then to a startup.
Yeah. Itâs funny how culture and humor can be this mascot and driving force for a lot of people moving industries. Thinking about the Internet as a whole, if thereâs something you could change about the internet or the Internet experience that everyone has, what would it be?
Oh man, probably privacy. I hate that somebody owns my own data. I want more blockchain, more crypto, I want more people owning their own data. It makes that more sense and if they want to monetize it, they could do so however they want. But having the major players or having all our data centralized in a couple of hands, itâs really kind of daunting. So, I like blockchain, I really like what itâs doing to personalize or at least give the options to somebody to have access to their data and not in somebody elseâs hands.
Yeah. We recently published a story by one of The Next Web writers and one of the key quote of it was, The Pirate Bay founder and he said, âWe centralized all of our data to a guy named Mark Zuckerberg.â And itâs just like, âWait a minute, maybe that is what we did.â Itâs amazing how many people are willing to trade convenience for their data.
Well, that data is being used to manipulate the people that are giving it. Iâm reading a book called The Attention Merchants right now and it never really occurred to me that I was the product especially when Iâm looking through all the social media, Iâm just looking through it. I was looking at pictures, talking to people, but really what theyâre doing is the data that you input is going to definitely help them figure out how to keep your attention a little longer and then package that attention over to an advertiser. I donât mean itâs a bad model, itâs not, itâs just Iâm not getting paid for it, you know what IÂ mean?
Like on Youtube at least you have contributors, content creators, like even yourself. Like thereâs definitely like an interest for me to make some money off my own stuff. So, I donât like feeling like Iâm giving you my attention and Iâm getting just a bunch of ads in return.
Yeah. It is amazing⊠like what ifâŠ. a social network were to emerge thatâs got the user volume of Facebook but the business model wasnât advertisements? Like how would it different?
Well, what Zuckerberg is doing right now with changing around the newsfeed. I Kind of like where itâs going. I hope heâll have enough strength to overcome his board and overcome their investors, but ultimately, if you can figure out a way to put this stuff on blockchain and then help original content creators access revenue of their own, I think he would have solved a big problem. But yeah, we definitely need somebody else in the space to diversify it.
Yeah. Nothing breeds innovation like competition, which Facebook has very little of.
I guess getting back to ourselves; what kind of advice do you have for achieving work-life balance as an entrepreneur? I know it can be very daunting and thereâs always more things to do, but youâre better at doing things if you have a clear mind. So, what types of techniques and practices do you use to achieve work-life balance?
Yeah. I got two kids, I got a wife and I can tell you what I see wrong with how a lot of people approach it⊠I mean, the way they look at work life balance, they look at it almost on an immediate basis, like on a day to day kind of basis, but work-life balance isnât necessarily have to be work a couple of hours, have a life a couple of hours.
It can also be work for as long as you need to get your company to a successful point and then do a mini retirement.
But people can burn out, sure, I think being in this global ecosystem, weâre definitely competing with some really hard working people out there.
So, donât take for granted what youâre doing with their startup. I mean, talk about work-life balance when youâve definitely started seeing traction. Take many breaks, but overall, just keep working. Itâs a not a new concept, but just, work produces luck and luck will get you into the right doors.
I like that, work produces luck.
So, who should try AngelLoop today? What should you do? Should an entrepreneur just log in, and get their data there, and try it out?
Yeah, absolutely. We offer a month free trial. For companies that have less than seven investors onboard, itâs free to use. We want to get you early in growth because thereâs definitely potential of helping you scale your venture and I guess reciprocate the love. But overall, for companies that have more than seven investors, itâs 65 bucks a month, you get a one month trial. You get to test it out and look at all the templates we have available, put your data in, look at the end results of how youâre performing.
But otherwise, we have about 750 customers on here already. They definitely look very early stage, but nonetheless, anybody that has raised money from investors and you have information rights or at the very least you want to better your relationships with these investors.
These are the folks that I recommend on the investor side. Your investor Management solutions is just, I want to say God awful, youâre wasting a whole bunch of time chasing after companies. Just bring all your portfolio companies, centralize them on a single platform and be able to communicate with them, and definitely help them. Youâre not investing and then just closing your eyes hoping youâre going to make a return, youâre investing and you have to be actively involved in continuing to invest, and not just money, but your time.
Yes, it really is the most valuable asset, time. And whatâs the best way to reach you Igor?
Yeah. Go to my site, I got a little Intercom Chatbot on the lower right hand corner. Iâm always on, it hits me up on my phone and I just respond right away. But otherwise, get on AngelLoop, youâll see me in your network and we could be friends.
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The Future of Investor Relationship Management was originally published in Hacker Noon on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
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