If you have, I'm curious about your experience and what kind of returns you anticipate. Both are probably long-term plays.

I joined the Ring Ventures 2021 round of investments. They have an initial 20% mgmt fee.

To date, 9 companies have exited / closed of which 2 have had positive gains (Groq & Ghost Robotics).

There are still 20 investments still in play with the best right now being Aggie owned Venus Aerospace along with some residual potential from Groq and a pre-seed fund AVG manages.

So I've gotten back about 75% of mgmt fees. I joined thinking this was a 5-10+ yr investment so the potential is still there to have a win with the remaining companies. With the overall stock market gains over the last 5yrs I'm not sure this investment will beat a S&P 500 ETF fund.

When they call asking to invest in next round my answer has been, yes I will invest when the current investment generates the excess capital to fund.

What was the Aggie tie-in with Groq?

Your last paragraph is why I stay away.

EFR said:

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Your last paragraph is why I stay away.

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Access to deals is the biggest advantage for private funds, and downmarket vehicles like Ring Ventures get scraps in direct investments or killed in layered fees if they go the fund of funds route. The only real guaranteed money in those funds is in the promote.

I've talked with several people about Ring. The management fee is discounted if you invest early. The next fund is about to open and if you pony up before the end of the month, the management fee is discounted to 18%.

If you're in the Aggie Angel Network, the investment hurdle drops to $15K minimum, which also counts towards the AAN minimum.

The idea of investing pre-IPO is appealing. I did that by rolling equity forward when I sold my company to a PE back company. While I couldn't sell stock right away after the IPO, I did get better than $2.70 for every dollar invested over a five year period. That was disappointing, but still positive.

Ring follows the major VC groups, so you're picking up companies that some pretty smart money is taking a risk on. But, you have no voice. It's a long-term play (e.g., 7 - 10 years). If I was in my 50s, it would be very tempting. In my mid-60s, I'm starting to talk myself out of it.

The Aggie Angel Network is another story and I'm very tempted to join it.

Is it 18-20% mgmt fee? Or carry?