If you were an angel investor, which startup would you invest in, and why?

June 5, 2011 By

I started quite a thread over on Quora. I asked which early-stage startup should I show Ashton Kutcher, moviestar and tech startup investor, when I have lunch with him on June 17th.

But now I have a tough job. I have to pick, say, three startups to talk with him about out of the hundreds listed. It gives you an insight into how hard it is to be, say, Ron Conway, Jeff Clavier, Dave McClure, or Ashton. You can’t pick them all, you’ve gotta pick just a handful that you can help grow into big companies.

I’ll come back with my answers closer to the 17th, but I’m interested in your answer. If you had $200,000 to invest in one startup, which one would you pick and why?

Oh, and if you are interested in seeing what else I’m doing on vacation, I wrote a little note on Facebook.

Filed Under: Web
  • http://twitter.com/martinweigert Martin Weigert

    turntable.fm. Have been spending about 50 hours on the site during the past 7 days. Highly addictive, and potentially game-changing for the music industry. They also need a lot of money to make sure the music industry can’t kill them too easily.

  • http://franciscocosta.com franciscocosta

    tymr.com

  • http://twitter.com/_markmca Mark McAndrew

    More than any other investor, Ashton Kutcher could put a rocket under Charity Engine.

    Have emailed you.

  • Tim

    not a start-up per se but maybe some of that money to convince DeLorme to develop its inReach—two-way satellite communication, for the iPhone because right, its only for Android. Then, again, seems like the iPhone caters to a different, more mall-type demographics.

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  • http://www.thewayoftheweb.net Dan Thornton

    I’d go with GymFu (www.GymFu.com) - great idea, great team and it already works as a business.

  • http://www.victusspiritus.com/ Mark Essel

    No doubt I’d do everything in my power to own a piece of KnowAbout.it or Instapaper (don’t think Marco is fundraising though). I use Instapaper more but get a lot of mileage out of the suggestion filters at KnowAbout.it and personally know the tech founder (Kevin Marshall). I hear good things about My6sense as well for filtering, but I haven’t trained it enough to find it magical for my feeds.

    Enjoy your time off with fam :)

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  • Anonymous

    If I had $200,000 to invest in one startup, I would pick 1 that is DIFFERENT from others, has something unique and most importantly, can actually solve A (or more) problem for a LOT of users. I would look into startups of other markets outside the States as well (even the Pirates franchise knows it). I will add the actual name(s) later.

  • Anonymous

    If I had $200,000 to invest in one startup, I would pick 1 that is DIFFERENT from others, has something unique and most importantly, can actually solve A (or more) problem for a LOT of users. I would look into startups of other markets outside the States as well (even the Pirates franchise knows it). I will add the actual name(s) later.

  • Anonymous

    If I had $200,000 to invest in one startup, I would pick 1 that is DIFFERENT from others, has something unique and most importantly, can actually solve A (or more) problem for a LOT of users. I would look into startups of other markets outside the States as well (even the Pirates franchise knows it). I will add the actual name(s) later.

  • http://www.about.me/mattauckland Matt Auckland

    I would say mine, but it isn’t ready just yet for a show and tell. It is in the music industry, and feedback I’ve had so far is very very positive.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_BCRPWEK3YJRO5EB2QB4JZOSQZM Phil

    “Enrich Gamma just joint microsoft leaving IBM” Just joint? Really? Perhaps a start up that would invent a spell/grammar check that would float on any web page. I would invest in that one.

  • http://www.facebook.com/haroldfudge Harold Fudge
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  • http://twitter.com/hackmer Michael Hackmer

    I would invest in timeRAZOR (http://timerazor.com/s37jv). As some people pointed out you need to find those companies that are either doing something vastly different or building a better mousetrap with the customers / end-users in mind.

  • http://twitter.com/CColelewis Carol Cole-Lewis

    Thrive! Lake County - a non-profit initiative that would be a B-corporation that will totally transform the economic condition of rural and destitute Lake County, CA http://thrivelakecounty.org

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    Interesting and good question! You can inwest in most big companies like IBM but if you hadnt inaf money i think you should invest in IFRT company! Goodluck!

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  • http://joey1058.wordpress.com Joey1058

    Not having read the Quora link, I don’t know what’s posted there. But almost everything here is software/app related. Personally, I’d recommend Vuzix. I think it’s well beyond time that an affordable pair of HMDs was available.

  • http://twitter.com/LordKaT LordKaT

    Apps, apps, apps. bah. why not invest in a close-knight, active, and growing community instead? :(

  • http://secondthoughts.typepad.com/ Prokofy

    Billguard

  • http://twitter.com/Cogiva Ben Drury

    How about http://www.twistan.com - a single place to contact any organisation <- possibly change the way we communicate with organisations! (#acheekyplug).