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b'In Episode 123, we welcome entrepreneur and renowned angel investor, Fabrice Grinda. The guys begin by discussing their mutual love for skiing, talking about heli-skiing in Canada, powder skiing in Japan, and the steeps of Chamonix in France.\\xa0\\nMeb asks Fabrice to recap his background. What follows is a fascinating look at the professional path of a wildly-successful entrepreneur and angel investor. Fabrice\\u2019s history involves consulting with McKinsey, building the equivalent of eBay in Europe and South America, starting another company that brought ringtones, mobile games, and wallpaper to the US (and eventually did $200M in revenues), and then consulting for fellow CEOs. Ultimately, Fabrice and his partner launched FJ Investments, which is where he\\u2019s currently focused.\\nMeb asks about Fabrice\\u2019s investment approach and the frameworks he uses. Fabrice tells us he invests in about 75 new startups each year, mostly seed and pre-seed. He writes smaller checks (about $500K), as compared to the bigger VC firms. He provides us insights into his selection criteria \\u2013 one of the most important of which is unit economics. The degree to which a founder understands his/her economics is an indicator as to how well he/she understand the business. Fabrice has deployed about $140M to date, mostly personal money. He\\u2019s had 150 realized exits on 400 investments, with a realized IRR that\\u2019s pretty staggering. You\\u2019ll have to listen to get that detail.\\xa0\\nThe guys hit on a handful of topics next: Fabrice\\u2019s experience with Beepi, which ends with Fabrice\\u2019s advice to \\u201cnail it before you scale it\\u201d\\u2026. Why investing in the U.S. is often a wiser choice than looking internationally\\u2026 Fabrice\\u2019s preference for investing in marketplace-oriented businesses\\u2026 And how \\u201cwe\\u2019re still at the very beginning of the tech revolution\\u2026 we are day one.\\u201d\\nNext, the guys talk about the specifics of creating an angel portfolio, with Meb bringing up the phrase \\u201cspray and pray\\u201d. Fabrice tells us that\\u2019s not his methodology. He\\u2019s more selective. That said, in private markets, returns tend to follow power law, meaning the top few deals account for most of the returns so it\\u2019s important to have some of those deals in your portfolio. Given this, for most people, there\\u2019s real value in diversification.\\nMeb asks what lessons Fabrice has learned throughout his experiences so far. Fabrice tells us that if you\\u2019re going to invest in this asset class, you need to be diversified. He mentions that if you have less than a certain amount of investments, you\\u2019re going to lose money.\\nAnother lesson is that investors needs to stick to their guns. For instance, Fabrice has found that his thesis, the company team, the business, and the valuation (deal terms) must all be within his desired parameters in order to move forward. There was a time when he would fall in love with a founder, and would use that as an excuse to slide on some of his other criteria. But doing so sometimes lost him money.\\nOther lessons involve honesty and transparency, as well as the importance of knowing your true value-add.\\nThere\\u2019s way more in this angel-themed episode: The current angel market, including opportunities and valuations\\u2026 How Fabrice sees the broader economy and recession risk\\u2026 How a crypto-hacker got into Fabrice\\u2019s crypto wallet\\u2026 and Fabrice\\u2019s most memorable trade. Any entrepreneurs will likely be able to relate to this one.\\nAll these details and more in Episode 123.\\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices'