deal he followed Thiel into
Altucher was an early investor in Buddy Media alongside Peter Thiel, with Mark Pincus also in the seed round at a $4M valuation. Salesforce later acquired it for roughly $700-800M.
“we all were the seed investors at a $4 million valuation that sold to Salesforce for about $700 or $800 million.”
Altucher's most successful investing rule is to only put money into deals where someone far smarter (like Peter Thiel in Buddy Media) is investing on the same terms, outsourcing all due diligence to them. The corollary: if a founder ever calls him for advice, he marks the investment as zero.
“than me says, hey, I'm investing in this company, I don't even have to do any more work. I just send the check. 'Cause I assume, and I'm always correct when I assume this, he's done or she's done all the due diligence. All the hard work.”
Steal thisCo-invest only when a far-smarter lead is in on the same terms; treat an advice request from the founder as a sell signal.