Bob Rice

Bob Rice

Bob is Managing Partner of Tangent Capital, a registered broker-dealer and merchant bank focused on alternative assets and strategies. He is the resident industry expert on early stage and other private investments for Bloomberg TV, appearing daily as Contributing Editor on “Money Moves.” Bob is a Director of asset management companies with over $2 billion in AUM. Bob began his career as a trial attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice and then became a partner at Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy, where his practice centered on financial products. He left the law in 1996 to found a 3D graphics technology startup that eventually became the publicly traded Viewpoint, provider of the web’s first “rich media” advertising platform. He has been an active angel investor and startup mentor since 2004. Along the way, Bob also served as the Commissioner of the Professional Chess Association and authored the business strategy book Three Moves Ahead

Articles by Bob Rice

Industry Experts

Forget Crowdfunding: Why JOBS Matters

Most all the talk about the JOBS bill is about crowdfunding, seeding, and the ability to advertise private placements.  In my mind, other provisions are the really big news for young companies.

Those are the expansion of the size limits for “Reg A” offerings, and the newly created “regulatory on-ramp.”  Together, these have re-opened a door to capital that’s been boarded over and forgotten:  small company public offerings.  In a back-to-the-future way, companies with a proven model and modest revenues will have a new, realistic option for growth capital– one that doesn’t require capitulating to onerous terms from large funds, or begging bankers who prefer to make money by simply rolling over government securities. Read more

Bob Rice , Managing Partner, Tangent Capital
April 6th, 2012 3

Invested Interests

Schooling MBAs (part I)

Yesterday I was a judge at the Northeast Regional Finals of the Venture Capital Investment Competition, featuring teams of MBAs from some pretty fancy schools. The big idea is that the MBAs form imaginary VC firms, look at real startups, and get judged on how they handle due diligence, investment structures, etc.  So it’s the MBA “investors,” not the startups, who are being judged.   Needless to say, we heard lots of great insights and ideas from the teams; but there were also several teachable moments that we’ll examine in this and future posts. Read more

Bob Rice , Managing Partner, Tangent Capital
February 27th, 2012 1

Invested Interests

The #1 Angel Investing Mistake

The list is of angel investing mistakes is an awfully long one, equally as long as the list for liquid investments, plus a bunch more.  On the too-aggressive side: believing the hockey stick, ignoring the management holes, and overestimating product acceptance.  On the too-conservative side: my favorite startup myth, thinking that because competitors exist, opportunity doesn’t. That logic is behind some of the biggest groans of regret ever, including the countless folks who said “no” to Google early on for that reason.

Despite all the competition, there’s a clear number one error in my book: failure to keep dry powder for the inevitable, yet somehow always unexpected, “re-opened” first rounds.  Read more

Bob Rice , Managing Partner, Tangent Capital
February 10th, 2012 0

Invested Interests

Movies, not Snapshots

Stopping by the First Growth Venture Network session today, I saw the usual great collection of startups and industry experts. It’s about the best forum for practical advice, mentoring, and support that an entrepreneur could hope to find.  As usual, there were lots of quotable quotes, but my favorite one today was from Jeff Bussgang, co-founder of Flybridge, who said: Read more

Bob Rice , Managing Partner, Tangent Capital
January 27th, 2012 4

Invested Interests

Angel Investing: The Real Make-or-Break Issue

We’ll get there, but let’s start here: I don’t believe in “angel portfolio theory,” which applies Wall Street’s favorite myth to the early stage world. According to this approach, the “smart” way to do angel investing is massive diversification, with scores of early stage bets.

There are several reasons that this common wisdom is more the former than the latter, but let’s start with an indisputable fact. Even assuming portfolio theory works for public markets (it doesn’t), the idea rests on the premise of an efficient market: liquid, broad and transparent, with distributed information, educated investors, structural consistencies, and reliable reporting. Does that sound like the startup world to you? Read more

Bob Rice , Managing Partner, Tangent Capital
January 23rd, 2012 1

Industry Experts

Best Practices for Wasting Money

It seems that everyone is writing about best practices these days, and I certainly agree they should be followed whenever possible. There has been a disturbing lack of guidance on one of the most common activities of early stage companies: throwing money out the window.  So, I’m here to help. Read more

Bob Rice , Managing Partner, Tangent Capital
January 17th, 2012 1