Good morning everyone.
Yesterday was one of those long days of New York running around to meetings. It was fantastic.
For dinner, Rachel, Ellen and I got to hang with our good friends Mike and Kass Lazerow and we had a great Italian meal at Babbo Ristorante.
Today I have Stocktwits board meeting and a fun dinner with friends.
Onwards…
During the day it was announced that AngelList closed on a new financing from Tiger Global of $100 million at a $4.1 billion valuation (full disclosure – my partner Tom and I are AngelList seed investors back in 2011 and will be investing again in this round). Tech Crunch has some coverage.
If you want to read a deep dive on AngelList, Mario does a great job..
Way way back in 2011 on my blog I write about why I was so bullish and what I thought lied ahead for them. I got it right, but it is also important to know that AngelList is just getting started. From the post:
There is MONEY in verticals and no shame in them. If you catch big enough trends, a vertical investment could even become horizontal. In fact, the vertical may be the new horizontal. We have one dominant social network, a dizzying amount of social graphs to be sliced and diced, and a silly trust in the web. You need silliness to cross a chasm. Their was silliness in telecom in 1999. Without that silliness we would not have the cheap bandwith we have today.
Which brings me to AngelList, a subject of great debate this past weekend in the blogosphere.
I have been a big fan of AngelList from the moment I discovered it. I forget how to be honest, but it has quickly gathered momentum.
It is not because of any one person, though Naval and Nivi are insanely talented (here is a great interview with Naval). The general idea of AngelList is not new, but the TIME and technology is right. If the market crashed, this idea could indeed go back into hibernation. My bet is, we are finally at a ‘tipping point’ for this idea.
AngelList has the makings of a big vertical idea that could in fact get horizontal. It is already the best way I know to eavesdrop into the early stage market. I doubt it will be contained to just one segment of the market.
Over the years I have spent a lot of time brainstorming and strategizing with Naval and the CEO Avlok about how AngelList can disrupt capital markets and the world of investing and it feels great to be a part of this incredible company.
Congrats to Naval, Nivi, Avlok and team AngelList.