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Prediction: Angel investing in 2009 will be up?

December 1, 2008

The angel investment market hovers around $12 billion each year.  I predict that the turmoil on Wall Street will actually improve the ability of startups to access investments from angels.  The logic is fairly simple, wealthy individual investors no longer trust Wall Street, but they still need to invest their capital.  Interestingly, the last thirty years have been an aberration for Wall Street’s reputation as a safe place to invest capital.  History is less kind to the ’stock broker’ profession; throughout the last two hundred years ’stock brokers’ have had a very shoddy reputation on Main Street.  That negative reputation is coming back.  With the failure of the major brokerage houses investors may start looking locally to invest their capital.  They may seek out ventures in their own backyard where they can exercise some level of control and oversight.

More and more angels I know have been moving more and more funds out of their brokerage accounts and into their bank accounts.  This flight to safety will continue for a time, but soon the spector of inflation (i.e. you can’t print $5 trillion in currency without some inflation) will rise and investors will look to invest their money.  The lack of professional private equity will only increase the opportunities for angels to make great investments and their access to greater percentages of their own capital will mean startups will get more.  What are your thoughts?

Written by Alexander Muse · Filed Under Blog, Startups, [where: 75219] 

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