When you’re in the business of angel investing, despite your very best due diligence efforts, you’re bound to pick some startups that just don’t make it, despite incredibly hard work by smart entrepreneurs. And on the extreme end of that ‘losing all your money' side of the ROI spectrum, you sometimes invest in real dogs, as in 'what-was-I-thinking-when-I-invested-in-these-guys’ kind of self-flagellation! I can certainly attest to all that, with now at least half of the 34 startups I’ve invested in since 2000 either out of business or essentially on fumes. As you might expect, for me that’s the part of angel investing that is absolutely no fun! I put an exclamation point on that last sentence, but in reality, it is no damn fun. Period. Hard stop.
But every now and then, with one of of the startups you’ve invested in, you get to be part of a very fun ride. And there’s an exit. And the angels get a monument, sort of like a golfer at his club winning an event and getting 'crystal’. You just have to celebrate these events when they happen.
So last night the guy who introduced me to this deal, George Mosher, and I drove to Madison to be part of a celebratory dinner at a new restaurant called Rare Steakhouse right on the square of the Capitol. And we had fun, getting to meet and thank key RevolutionEHR executives and talking to fellow angel investors. And enjoying a nice steak.
(Photo below of CEO Scott Jens telling some incredible backstories about the company leading up to the acquisition by RevOptix. And a photo of the monument!)
