General Motors just acquired a tiny start-up for $1 billion.
In the blink of an eye, the start-up’s investors made more than 10 times their money.
Some of these investors were ordinary folks just like you.
Actually… were you one of them?
Cruisin’ to the Bank
The name of this tiny start-up is Cruise Automation.
Cruise is based in San Francisco. It builds technology for self-driving cars.
Prior to starting Cruise, its founder Kyle Vogt already had a strong track record of making money for his investors:
Vogt’s first start-up, Socialcam, was acquired by AutoDesk for $60 million.
His next start-up, a video game company called Twitch, was acquired by Amazon for $970 million. Early investors earned an estimated 573 times their money.
In September of last year—just six months ago—Vogt raised money to help Cruise expand. It total, he raised $12.5 million.
Most of the capital came from name-brand venture capitalists like Spark Capital...
But some of that money came from individual investors like you.
In fact, if you’ve been a longtime reader of Crowdability, you might be one of them.
We Hope You’ve Been Reading
As a Crowdability subscriber, you receive our “Deals Digest” every Monday morning.
The Digest contains a round-up of the latest high-quality investment opportunities in equity crowdfunding.
We aggregate these deals from more than ten leading funding platforms. (“Funding platforms” are specialized websites: they help connect start-ups seeking capital with folks like you who are looking for investments with big upside potential.)
When Vogt set out to raise money from individuals, he leveraged one of these funding platforms—a site called AngelList.
That name might sound familiar. We’ve written about it many times over the past year or two.
You see, not only does AngelList have deals that we like to make you aware of, but it offers a powerful feature that we’ve encouraged you to take advantage of…
A “Profit Syndicate”
The feature I’m talking about is called “Syndicates.”
Syndicates allow individual investors to co-invest in deals right alongside professional angel and venture investors.
One such syndicate is led by a prominent angel (and a Kellogg Business School classmate of mine) named Gil Penchina.
We’ve written about Gil and his AngelList syndicate many times before… including here and here »
Did You Join Gil’s Syndicate?
If you followed our advice and joined Gil’s syndicate, you’re pretty happy right now:
Gil’s syndicate invested in Cruise—and just six months later, all the investors involved made about 10 times their money.
You see, when Gil’s syndicate invested, Cruise was valued at about $90 million.
Last month, when Cruise was acquired by GM, it was valued at $1 billion.
That’s more than a 1,000% increase in value… enough to turn every $10,000 invested into more than $100,000.
And it all happened in just six months.
Your Turn—Just 4 Weeks Away
This transaction was the first $1 billion “exit” for a crowdfunded start-up…
But it won’t be the last.
So if you missed the chance to invest with Gil—either because you’re a new reader, or because you weren’t a wealthy “accredited” investor when we wrote about it— there’s no need to worry…
You’ll get your chance soon enough:
In less than 4 weeks—on May 16th, to be exact—all U.S. citizens, regardless of their net worth or income, can start investing in crowdfunded start-ups.
To stay ahead of the game, make sure to read our weekly emails. That’s where we explore various deals, syndicates, and platforms.
And don’t forget: you can always keep an eye on all the latest deals right here »
Please note: Crowdability has no relationship with AngelList, Gil, or with any of the platforms or companies we write about. Crowdability is an independent provider of education, information and research on start-ups and alternative investments.
Best Regards,
Founder
Crowdability.com
