Topic: How To Invest

What is Pat’s commentary for the week of June 13, 2017

Article Excerpt

Dear Inner Circle Member, Venture-capital investing gets a lot of attention these days. This is partly due to the success of a couple of hundred so-called “unicorns”—venture-backed startups that have reached a value of $1 billion or more. These success stories include companies you may have heard of or done business with, such as Uber, AirBnB, Spotify, Dropbox, Pinterest, Houzz, Blue Apron, Jawbone, Human Longevity, 23andMe and Eventbrite. Shark Tank and other venture-capital TV shows also stir up interest in the subject. However, venture-capital successes represent a tiny minority of the many startup businesses in which venture funds have invested. In previous decades, the rule for venture-capital investors was that they only expect to make significant profits on one in 10 of their investments. They could live with and prosper with these odds, since profits on the rare winners overwhelmed losses on the many losers. Today, many venture-capital firms and private-equity investors invest in startups through loans and preferred shares. This cuts…