Get in early, and get personal
Mike Volker, 61
Occupation: Director of Simon Fraser University's industry liaison office.
Portfolio: GreenAngel Energy (co-founder), Azure Dynamics, PNI Digital Media. Plutonic Power (co-founder), Electrovaya, Microsoft, Teekay Shipping, National Bank of Canada, PowerShares QQQ ETF.
The Investor:
Mike Volker's day job is finding ways to turn inventions and technological developments at Simon Fraser University into commercial success stories. He's also involved with setting up angel investor groups to help incubate and nurture companies.
His Approach
In essence, Mr. Volker does angel investing, either on his own or, more often these days, as part of a group of investors he's put together to invest in a basket of new ventures. He typically becomes directly involved by taking a place on the board of directors.
The Challenge:
The big problem with early-stage investing, he says, is liquidity. "It's easy to get into these investments, but at some point you'd like to get out, and for the last few years we haven't seen too much of that. But that's turning around now."
Who he backs
For Mr. Volker, it comes down to a feeling. "It's something you get from the way they talk, the way they conduct themselves." By way of illustration, in the late eighties he put money into a wee enterprise called Research In Motion on the basis of a half-hour meeting with founder Mike Lazaridis. "I thought no matter what they'd be successful." He notes that back then, RIM was making shop floor automation and display indicators for assembly lines. "Often they end up being successful with something different than what they start with."
Best moves
After attending a presentation in Vancouver, he bought some shares of Calgary-based Resverlogix Corp. at $1.32 last fall. The biotech company is involved in creating novel therapeutic treatments for a number of serious diseases. The stock shot up much faster than Mr. Volker had anticipated, and he sold his shares for $6 in April.
Worst move
In 2007, Mr. Volker purchased some shares at 60 cents in a private placement for Vancouver-based Metrobridge Networks, which was providing wireless networks in municipal areas. While the company was soon able to raise a lot of money through public offerings, he says, "It wasn't well managed." He stake is now worth about 10 per cent of what he put in.
Advice
"If you're going to do this kind of investing, meet the people." He argues that the three key qualities to look for are integrity, intensity and immediacy.
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