It simply does not take a long time to build a portfolio of angel investments. When we published the first article, there were 13 investment opportunities available to our members, so you could create a pretty well-diversified portfolio immediately in theory.
This wasn’t an unusual position. Currently (mid-March) we have 12 open rounds available, of which five are new since the first article – a combination of new investment opportunities that have successfully navigated our diligence process and follow-on rounds in existing portfolio companies.
VentureSouth members invested in 15 companies last year (8 new ones and 7 follow-on rounds). Our Palmetto Angel Fund fully invested its capital in 2½ years, and the successor VentureSouth Angel Fund II has already called and fully invested 25% of its capital, only six months into its investment period.
Of course, investing individually or as part of a single angel group limits your deal flow and extends the time it takes to create a portfolio. But larger groups can tackle the workload of diligencing and monitoring a diverse portfolio. We aren’t quite as prolific as Tech Coast Angels (the #1 angel group in the US), who have invested in an average of 20 deals per year since 1997, but for the last few years we have not been far behind.
---