| By Jeff Brown, Editor, Early Stage Trader So you want to be an angel investor? I don’t blame you. Investing in private companies – before they reach the public markets – is one of the most lucrative investment strategies in the world. I say this from personal experience. I’m an active angel investor myself. I’ve invested in over 130 private deals. And so far, I’m in the money on 93% of them. I’ve invested in four unicorns (private companies valued at $1 billion each). I’ve also invested in two decacorns (private companies valued at $10 billion each). By my own estimations, I’m sitting on returns of 936%, 14,000%, and even 25,000%. And then there are famous examples of private investors and venture capital (VC) firms making a fortune with early stage companies. Private investors in Uber, for instance, turned $30,000 into $149 million… $50,000 into $248 million… or even $510,000 into $2.5 billion. So yes, investing in private deals can be very lucrative. But it’s a dark art. It involves high-risk decisions every time I make an investment. And angel investors are always dealing with imperfect and incomplete information. There are no Securities and Exchange Commission filings. Oftentimes, the product doesn’t even exist yet. And sometimes, I don’t even have proof that the market exists for the product or service. Not only can I not be risk-averse, I actually have to be risk-prone… Not everyone is comfortable with this kind of investing. In fact, very few are. But I’ve learned a few things during my many years as an angel investor. So if you’re interested, I can offer a few tips… | Recommended Link | | This Strange Federal Document Predicts Extraordinary 1-Day Stock Gains On Wednesday night, Jeff Brown, a man who some call America’s #1 angel investor, shocked the world. Live, on air, in front of 11,914 people, he revealed a strange government document… One you can use to predict the exact moment – down to the second – a stock will skyrocket 1,000% or more… With a historical 100% accuracy. | | | -- | Rule One: Understand the Fundamentals The first rule seems obvious. But you would be surprised how many angels get stuck right away because they can’t assess the value of the technology or the market opportunity. Does the technology make sense? Is there a clear, narrow market where the tech can flourish? Is the company doing something entirely new and unique? Or is it just moderately better than what exists in the market today? For instance, I’m a private investor in Ripple Labs, a blockchain-based payment services company. Without getting into the specifics, this company has radically transformed how central banks, private banks, and multinational corporations make cross-border transactions. It’s a brand-new technology, not a small upgrade on an existing system. Understanding the core technology and the market opportunity is essential before making any investment as an angel investor. Investors who can’t answer the questions I mentioned earlier correctly end up making bad investment decisions over and over. They lose money. They are gambling rather than making informed investment decisions. | Recommended Link | | Only have a few thousand for retirement? No problem… this $20 book can help. Celebrity trader Tim Sykes went from about $12,000 to $4.8 million before turning 37 by using this strategy… And he wants you to join his thousands of students that are learning how to also. So he is offering NOT ONLY this book, but a YEAR of instant access to his wisdom… FOR ONLY $20. If you only have a little money saved-up, this could be your best way to build a retirement fast. But only if you’re open-minded… and act before this deal disappears. | | | -- | Rule Two: Practice Patience Investing in private companies is very different from investing in public markets. Investors can purchase shares in public companies one day and then turn around and sell immediately if they want. With private investments, that’s not an option… Private investments, for the most part, are completely illiquid. Private investors must wait for what’s known as an “exit” to take money off the table. Typically, an exit means the private company is either acquired or goes public, allowing private investors to sell shares to the public markets. An angel investor might be sitting on gains as high as 250,000%. But if the company never exits, guess what? All those gains are just on paper. If you want to be an angel investor, you’re going to have to be patient for these exits. Very patient. Your first major exit will likely happen within seven to eight years. But private investors may sit on a deal for 10, 15, or even 20 years waiting for an exit. The longest period that I had to wait for an exit was 15 years. The company finally went public. I made a profit on the investment, but it wasn’t large enough to justify the 15-year wait. Some early stage investments are like that. Do you have the emotional fortitude to wait that long for a return? If you want to be an angel investor, you’ll have to cultivate patience. And you’ll have to be completely comfortable with the chance that you could lose all the money you put into some investments. | Recommended Link | | All this Hype about 5G is Pointless. Here’s Why By now you’ve heard big promises about 5G. 5G will make you rich… 5G will change your life… 5G will usher in the new Industrial Revolution. You’ve seen the Super Bowl commercials. And every one touting the next big 5G stock. But here’s the hard truth the pundits will never say… All the hype about 5G is useless. Without the technology of this one tiny company, there will be no 5G rollout across America. That’s why Facebook, Lockheed Martin, L3, Sprint, T-Mobile, China Satcom, and dozens of networks are banging on this company’s door. And for the first time, this tiny $8 company is about to roll out this long-awaited technology. To be one of the first to get in on this big stock market opportunity… | | | -- | Rule Three: Let the Numbers Work for You Rule three is something I encourage for all investors, even when investing in public companies. You need to build a basket of early stage companies that all have great investment return potential. In other words, you need to let the numbers work for you. It may surprise you to know that as many as 75% of VC-backed companies never return money to early investors. What that implies is that most investments venture capitalists make actually fail. An important rule to being successful as a private investor is to cultivate a large basket of private deals and let the statistics work for you. Many of the investments will fail completely. Some might return your money with modest profits. And a small percentage can go on to deliver life-changing returns. It’s these “jackpot” investments that make up for all your losses and then some. That’s why the basket is so important. While I may have opinions about which companies are going to deliver extraordinary returns, there is really no sure way to tell which ones will. As I said, I estimate I’m sitting on a return as high as 250x. When this company has an exit, my return will more than make up for the small number of losses I’ve had in the past. As a starting point, a portfolio should have a minimum of 30 companies. A more robust portfolio would aim to have 100. This strategy may not be for everyone. But the more quality private investments you make, the better your chances. And investing over an extended period will always work to an investor’s advantage. For example, it is not prudent to make all your early stage investments in just one year and then wait for them to mature over the 5-10 years that follow. Technology is advancing so quickly, it is important to get exposure to new companies that are working with the most advanced technology every year. We can think of our investments in “cohorts” made each year over a span of years. Venture-Capital-Like Returns for Everyday Investors Now, here’s the bad news… Unless you are well-connected and have a very large amount of capital to deploy, breaking into the private investing space is difficult… perhaps impossible for some. This has been one of the most unfair dynamics in the investment world over the past decade. Bleeding-edge technology companies with the potential to be “the next Amazon” have been mostly locked away from everyday investors. They are intentionally kept private for extended periods of time. This allows well-connected venture capitalists and private equity firms to capture the majority of the upside for themselves. Once a company finally goes public, there is very little upside left for everyone else. That’s not fair. So I decided to do something about it. For the past five years, I’ve been quietly crafting a proprietary system that can deliver VC-like returns to everyday investors. And I finally cracked it. What I uncovered was a small group of technology stocks that – thanks to a government mandate – have a preset “timer” attached to their share prices. Once this “timer” hits zero, each stock can climb hundreds of percent in days… or even hours. I call them “timed stocks.” And some of my readers recently locked in gains of 432% in just 41 days by investing in just one “timed stock.” So yes, VC-like returns are very possible for everyday investors. And the best part? All these investments are publicly traded companies. You can buy them with a few clicks on your brokerage account. If that all sounds too good to be true, I encourage you to catch the replay of my Timed Stocks Summit. In this training event, I revealed what “timed stocks” are, why they accelerate so quickly, and how you can add them to your portfolio today. Go right here to watch. Regards, Jeff Brown
Editor, Early Stage Trader | 
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