After speaking with dozens of professional early-stage investors and poring over their track records, I think I finally uncovered the secret behind their success.

And while I’ve known about this secret for some time now, I’ve been reluctant to share it.

Frankly, I was doubting myself. Although it was a…

Last week, Facebook acquired a mobile messaging start-up called WhatsApp.

The price tag? An eye-popping $19 billion.

Not only is that Facebook’s biggest acquisition to date, it’s bigger than any acquisition ever made in the history of Apple, Microsoft or Google.

Some folks say it was a smart move –…

Union Square Ventures is killing it.

With investments in such winners as Twitter and Tumblr, Union Square (“USV”) is one of the top-performing venture capital funds in the world.

Across their funds, they’ve earned average annual returns of 61.12%.

To put that in perspective, a…

Pop Quiz:

Someone offers you a 99% probability of earning 8% to 12% per year…

You:

a.  Ask them if they’re related to Bernie Madoff, then quickly back away.
b.  Shut your eyes and give them your last cent to invest.
c.  Pause… then tell them…

“This was the hottest deal in Silicon Valley…”

This quote, courtesy of CNN Money, is from Lars Dalgaard. Lars is a partner of Andreessen Horowitz, a top-tier venture capital firm.

He was glowing about their latest deal – a $15 million round for an online company called…

I was “carded” recently outside a swanky club in downtown NYC.

It was a 30-second inconvenience. And, frankly, at my age, having to prove that I’m 21 just makes me smile.

But I got “carded” in a different way a few days later – and this time it was a…

Turn $50,000 into $50 million.

The headline above isn’t just meant to get your attention.

It’s meant to illustrate, with real figures, how the average historical returns from angel investing can turn a small nest egg into a vast sum.

Despite the seemingly unbelievable prospect of turning $50,000 into $50…

$1 trillion is a ridiculous number.

With 12 zeroes, it takes a couple of inches just to write it: $1,000,000,000,000.

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, here’s a little piece of trivia for you:

For the first time ever, U.S. student loan debt now exceeds $1 trillion.

Get ready for action…

Over the next several weeks, we’re going to break out our “crystal ball”!

Wondering who’s going to win the Super Bowl, or the men’s downhill in the Winter Olympics?

Umm, if so, you might be reading the wrong email…

But if you’re looking for predictions about…

We’ll make this short and sweet…

Happy New Year from Matt & Wayne and the rest of the Crowdability team!

We wish you and your families nothing but the best in 2014.

But one quick order of business before we let you go back to celebrating (or nursing a hangover).…