Five years ago I had an itch to become an investor in entrepreneurs. More specifically, in what I call Blisspreneurs. This is a story about how I went about it.
First, I looked at Venture Capital statistics. I learned the following rather bleak information. Three-quarters of venture-backed firms in the U.S. don't return investors' capital. And that is with the best of the best in the arena making the investments. Basically, they fish for 1000 pound marlin hoping to hit a grand slam once or twice within each fund. Think Unicorms like Google, Amazon, Facebook, Uber, AirBnB, etc.
Second, I researched to see if professional Angel investors fair any better? I learned that 50%-70% of individual angel investments result in a loss of some capital. Ouch!
Third, I mentored up and talked to a real estate partner of mine that I went to college with, correctly assuming that he must have done some investing in entrepreneurs. He confirmed that he had dabbled in the space and then his eyes went wide with irritation backed by obvious real life pain. He looked me straight in the eyes and said with emphasis, “I don’t do that anymore!”
Ok, not exactly the encouragement I was looking for. The number one question in my mind was how can I reverse the massive failure rate in my favor? Otherwise, knowing I was just a beginner in the space, the math told me that roughly 90% of my investments would fail to return any capital. This was unacceptable. I needed a winning strategy.
I chose to be a different type of investor. I would be an investor in Blisspreneurs. I would not measure the success of my investments by the usual measurements of money & numbers. Instead I would measure it in moments. Particularly, moments that speak to my soul and give me goosebumps.
In order to identify the individuals I would invest in, I needed a strategy. Here is what I decided on:
One, I would only select entrepreneurs who attended one of my Bliss Champion retreats. Reason being is I deduced that I really had to get to know a person beyond some fancy pitch deck (what most investors use to evaluate deals) before investing in them.
I figured that the best way to do this was to live under the same roof with them for a week. That would accelerate my understanding of an individual. I could observe how they acted, how they managed relationships, wether they were good students and whether they inspired me and others at the retreat. Also, whether I would love having them in my life.
This would also allow me to observe other important attributes. But which attributes should I look for?
So my business partner Patrick Combs and I built a list of ten must have attributes based on our own real life experiences as Blissprebeurs. If we could not put a check mark in every box, we would not invest. Here is that list:
10 Attributes of a Potential BlissPreneur
1) Desire – This is their Bliss! They have a deep persistent desire or idea that won’t leave them alone.
2) Action Orientated - The person has already taken massive action on their Bliss.
3) Creator – They have a unique twist on their product or service that they created.
4) Decisive – They are decisive. They confidently make, and own, decisions that lead to action.
5) Optimistic – They truly believe they will succeed and they believe that the Universe will support them if they work hard enough and fully believe! (aka Believer in Magic Doorways)
6) Positive – They are not prevented from succeeding due to Limiting Beliefs in key areas they need to perform.
7) Strong Work Ethic – They have the work ethic required to become an expert at their craft or business.
8)Heart – They must have the ability to follow their heart while leading from it as well.
9) Grit – They will rise to the occasion when failure threatens rather than wilt like an un-watered flower?
10) Bliss Hero – They have a Bliss Hero they look up to or model. We are wary of people who cannot find a hero to learn from in this world.
In 2017 I officially became what I call an Attribute Investor putting $1,000,000 in a fund I named Bliss Investments LLC. Every penny has now been invested.
How are my returns? Well, if I base my answer on the aforementioned industry statistics and the their typical success measurements of money and numbers, I’ll admit that I would fall somewhere between the results of an Angel Investor and a Venture Capitalist. It’s still early, but using baseball terms, I have one home run, a triple, two doubles. A couple singles and five total losses of my capital.
But, since I actually committed to measuring my success based on moments. I am happy to report that my cup runneth over and that my fund is massively successful. I feel like Ricky Henderson in his prime stealing basis. Only instead of stealing bases I’m racking up wins through goosebump moments.
And, you know what the biggest learning has been? It’s not about the money. When I make an investment it signals to the individual that somebody else believes in them. That creates goosebump moment #1. My first return on my investment. It then goes from there. Some investments keep providing returns of this kind (as well as money) while others fizzle out. But, note this, all my investments provide a lot least one big return return using my way of measuring success. This is the winning strategy I created to be become a ‘successful’ Attribute Investor.
This is a recent photo with the investee who has provided the most goosebump moments so far. His name is Dave Muntner and his stage name is Davey Harris. He is a magical moment producing machine. Huge R.O.I. pretty much every time we speak.
I’m an Attribute Investor in Blisspreneurs.
