707: Government Gives Him Power to Let Non-Accredited Investors Invest

Manny Fernandez. He’s a Stanford University educated Angel investor, serial entrepreneur and best-selling author featured on CNBC’s Make Me a Millionaire Inventor premier episode. He’s been successfully investing his own ideas as well as taking companies from startup to exit. Recently, he was named by INC magazine as one of the 33 entrepreneurs to watch in 2016.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – Think and Grow Rich
• What CEO do you follow? – Steve Jobs
• Favorite online tool? — LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook
• How many hours of sleep do you get?— 6
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? –“Wisdom and experience beats, no matter how [many] great talents you have”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:11 – Nathan introduces Manny to the show
• 01:51 – Manny’s first company was an investment property
  • 02:10 – It was a 6-figure transaction
  • 02:21 – Manny decided that he wanted to go from 1 investment to 10
• 02:39 – One of Manny’s most notable investments is TaskRabbit
• 02:58 – Manny is the founder of SF Angels which has 32 members
  • 03:08 – The deal flow comes from others
• 03:30 – The funds for an Angel round is $250K per year
• 03:46 – As an Angel, you’re looking for the deal flow
• 04:46 – One of the members of SF Angels is an early investor of TaskRabbit and SF Angels was invited
• 05:00 – Angels can invest as an individual or as a group
• 05:32 – Everyone has different preferences
• 06:31 – Some of the investors in SF Angels are successful enough
• 07:01 – The potential of investing in SF Angels is different from real estate
• 07:11 – If you’re investing in something that is really working well, results are astronomical
• 07:47 – Manny suggests to invest only what you can afford to lose
• 07:56 – Everyone has different financial workflow and abilities
• 08:31 – Manny has put in greater than normal in angel investing
  • 08:49 – Normal is around 2-5%
• 09:19 – DreamFunded allows everyday Americans to invest as small as $1 into a company
• 09:35 – DreamFunded is the first platform in Silicon Valley to receive the approval to allow non-accredited investors to invest, so they’re accepting accredited investors and ordinary people
• 10:03 – Manny has been on the screening community of TiE Angels
• 10:11 – Manny is good at doing his due-diligence
• 10:29 – DreamFunded applied as a registered funding portal
• 11:15 – Manny has personally vetted on the deals on DreamFunded
• 12:06 – DreamFunded has a legal disclosure where investors can see the minimum amount they have to close to in order to close the transaction
  • 12:33 – The information is not readily available on the website
  • 13:02 – Investors will get an email telling them the closing dates
• 13:23 – DreamFunded gets 5% upon closing and the 2%the company is offering
• 13:50 – There are over 30 companies that have closed deals in DreamFunded
  • 13:56 – Over $35M total funds raised
• 14:07 – The non-accredited investor is still new
• 14:16 – DreamFunded has not released their total funds raised from non-accredited
• 14:36 – The first approval for non-accredited was received by DreamFunded in July 2016
• 14:54 – DreamFunded was launched fall 2014
• 15:01 – Average team size is 10
• 15:16 – DreamFunded’s model changes overtime
• 16:02 – A company can raise its target and at the same time, receive an investment from a big company
• 17:15 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

1. Invest only on what you afford to lose.
2. Investing in a company that is already working is smart, but venturing into other investment streams requires your due diligence.
3. Listen to your mentors, they are mentors for a reason.

Resources Mentioned:

• The Top Inbox – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences
• Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE
• Hotjar – Nathan uses Hotjar to track what you’re doing on this site. He gets a video of each user visit like where they clicked and scrolled to make the site a better experience
• Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
• Host Gator– The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible
• Audible– Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books

Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives