What’s the single best way to get rich? History tells us it is to start a successful company.  Eight of the ten wealthiest Americans did it just that way.  What’s the second best way to get rich? You invest early in a successful company before everyone realizes it will be successful. That’s how Warren Buffet did it.

But how does someone without the resources of Berkshire Hathaway find these opportunities?  Until recently, the answer to that questions was you either had to do a lot of work or hire someone to do the work for you.  If you can afford the $500,000 or greater minimum investment for most VC Funds or own a family office to vet investment opportunities, the world of venture investment has been wide open to you for generations.  Lots of very wealthy people got even richer by investing in venture capital.

Unfortunately, most people, even those with million dollar plus net worths, can not afford the cost to invest in venture capital.  Some “regular” millionaires, known as angel investors, will review 100s of deals to find the few that make sense and try to create their own venture capital portfolio.  This is hard work, practically a full-time job.  It is no wonder that only 3% of accredited investors ever invest in new ventures.

 

Today, however, iSelect is working to unlock investment access in early-stage private companies for the other 97% of accredited investors. The reason is simple : early-stage venture investing is part of a well-diversified portfolio.

The first question you may ask is, “but what if I don’t have that kind of money to invest?” And the answer is that you do not have to invest a fortune to make a lot of money. In fact, savvy investors typically allocate about 5% or less of their total investment portfolio to these types of alternative assets. Even with this low of an allocation, the possibility of high returns increases dramatically – all without risking the rest of the portfolio.

A second question you may have is, “but isn’t venture investing risky?” The answer is that it certainly is risky to invest all of your money into one company. Even investing in five companies is risky. But the risk decreases dramatically when your allocation is spread across fifteen to twenty companies over time, and chances are high that the aggregate set of investments will make you a nice return.

You may now be saying to yourself, “but I don’t have the time nor the expertise to devote to picking high-quality early-stage companies.” This is where iSelect comes in. Our experienced team spends hundred of hours selecting only the best companies. We currently have promising companies in our portfolio working on cures for cancer, solving the energy crisis, and developing technologies to make business better. These are companies in which some of the leading venture capital firms in the country are investing, and now you can participate too.