Put most succinctly, my early stage investing activity is a hybrid of angel investing and venture capital. Maybe that makes me a Venture Angel, or an Angel Capitalist. In the final analysis, the label is not important. There are easier ways to engineer financial returns in the capital markets - for me, angel investing is equal parts passion and business. We see ourselves as a true partner to entrepreneurs. We actively help to build an entrepreneur’s business by leveraging our knowledge, experience, and network to create a successful company.

This is his list of differences (excuse the caps, I was too lazy to change them):

FLEXIBLE INVESTMENT PARAMETERS

A GUT FEELING

FIRST ROUND FOCUS

SIGNIFICANT BOOTSTRAPPING EXPERTISE

AN ENTREPRENEURIAL PERSPECTIVE

COLLABORATIVE FUNDRAISING

WE ARE NOT VC TASKMASTERS

A PARTNER YOU CAN COUNT ON

SELFISH PERSONAL INTEREST

THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS

You really need to read the rest of the details. It’s a fundamentally different approach to investing in a startup. I would love to have him working and investing in one of my ideas like Jumble Lunch. Did you hear that Jesse?

Regardless, I think they are both great ideas that could be very successful. However, I don’t personally know which idea I should work on. Here’s a few of my personal thoughts on the subject.

Spoil My Spouse

I think this ideas has a great potential and I think that it fits the Cambrian House crowdsourcing model perfectly. In fact, to make Spoil My Spouse successful, I think there absolutely has to be a crowd sourced component to create and rank a list of very unique ideas. I also love Spoil My Spouse because it’s a website that I would love to have. It matches my interests and skills quite well. If I had to, I could code the entire website myself. I would need some help from a graphic designer, but the website is absolutely within my limited coding skill set. Marketing spoil my spouse is something I would personally find quite interesting. I wish that Cambrian House would start setting up my marketing mob idea. That would be a great asset to Spoil My Spouse. Spoil My Spouse has garnered quite an interest in the Cambrian House forums. I think it’s a simple idea that people can understand and use.

Jumble Lunch

Jumble Lunch is an idea that is absolutely needed and has a great corporate application. Something that scares me about working on Jumble Lunch is that it absolutely requires a base of professionals for the website to work. Building this type of database isn’t part of my skill set. Unless Jumble Lunch hits a critical mass of professionals, it is doomed for failure. I think this is a pretty major barrier to entry that will have to be overcome. I don’t think I’m the person that has the skills to bridge the divide. The good part is that Cambrian House already is a crowd of business professionals that could immediately populate the database. If this population can be leveraged to add themselves and their own network of business contact, then Jumble Lunch could be well on its way to being a complementary product to LinkedIn.

Of course, you all know that I’m a little ADHD when it comes to cambrian house. I’m currently fairly involved in the wish granting website, Robin Hood Fund. I also have a sincere interest in helping make Prezzle - Send Online Gifts into what it should have become. I could possibly work some on Prezzle and Spoil My Spouse. They could really complement each other. However, if I decide to be the project manager of Spoil My Spouse or Jumble Lunch, then I would have to have almost tunnel vision on those projects. It would only be fair to the other people working on those projects.

I don’t have to make that decision now, but I thought I’d throw my ideas out there. It also helps me to put a few of my thoughts on paper. What would you do if you were in my position?

If you hearken to any venture capitalist or angel investor I’m sure that they would tell you that the management team associated with a business is more valuable then the actual idea. If an investor believes in the management team and specifically the leader of that team, then investors will start opening up their wallets.

Crowdsourcing is no different. In fact, it might even be more important. Managing a crowdsourced project is about motivating people who are either interested in working for free or some future hope of wealth. This is definitely simplifying the situation, but the point is that a project manager of a crowd sourced project has a variety of ways to build a business. The methods they choose to employ could alienate the entire community if they aren’t careful.

I’ll address more on this subject later, but I think it will be absolutely critical for Cambrian House to determine how they are going to handle the various project managers in their new crowdsourcing model. There are a ton of questions to be answered. For example…

Who will be the project manager of an idea?
How much influence will the idea submitter get in determining a project manager?
Can a person working a full time job be a project manager in their “free time?”
What share of the project does the project manager receive in the idea?
What’s the process for replacing a defunct project manager?
What share of the idea will a project manager keep if they no longer have time to work on the project? (severance package?)
Will Cambrian House be able to get enough project managers involved in the community?

My own personal questions involve my two ideas: Jumble Lunch and Spoil My Spouse. I can’t be the “leader” of both projects. Which one should I do and which one should I give to someone else? Is there someone else interested in working on these projects? I currently am leaning towards working on Spoil My Spouse since it matches my skills and interests more than Jumble Lunch. However, there is tremendous momentum behind Jumble Lunch. Decisions Decisions!!