Читать книгу How To Become A Business Angel - Richard Hargreaves - Страница 77

Deal flow is a term used in the VC industry to describe the number of investment opportunities which a fund sees and is often quoted for a particular period.

The more opportunities you see, the more likely it is you can chose the ones you really like. As I stressed in Chapter 2, a portfolio of at least ten investments is needed to increase your chances of the occasional big winner. Only then can you expect angel investing to become financially rewarding.

The UK Business Angels Association (UKBAA) suggests on their website that “a typical business angel makes one or two investments in a three-year period”. If that is so the typical angel is not making enough investments to optimise his chances of an attractive overall return. By way of comparison, a professionally-run venture capital fund may take five years to invest its pool of capital in 20 deals. That is four a year and all VCs will tell you they screen hundreds of opportunities – though they would say that to justify their fees to investors.

The commonest complaint angels make when surveyed is that it is hard to find a broad range of opportunities – they can obviously only invest in what they see. Investing in the occasional opportunity that passes your way (which is what the “typical business angel” cited by the UKBAA appears to do) is fundamentally more risky than sifting through a steady flow of ideas looking for the gems and making ten or more investments.

So you should do everything you can to increase your deal flow.