Venture Capital Is the Wild West of Investing

On this week's Stansberry Investor Hour, Dan and Corey welcome Joe Milam to the show. Joe is the founder and CEO of AngelSpan, which provides investor relations for early-stage startups. He's also the founder of The Legacy Funds and managing member of the Texas Legacy Fund. Joe kicks things off by recounting his background in finance and the "Forrest Gump-like experiences" that got him to where he is today. He critiques the venture-capital ("VC") world, as it requires no training or certification to enter. Joe explains that his mission is to bring professional standards and practices to early-stage VC. And he shares a few anecdotes of unprofessionalism in the VC world that you'll never hear reported by the media, including investing for access to a private jet. (0:47) Next, Joe discusses the massive opportunity in bringing professional processes to VC, especially because entrepreneurship is growing, yet the financial infrastructure has not been modernized to accommodate for this growth. He also talks about lack of diversification being a problem, the history of angel investing since the Revolutionary War, the role hype plays in VC, why he believes we're at the top of the "hype cycle" for AI, and the unintended consequences of technological innovation. (19:19) Finally, Joe points out that an understanding of financial history is directly linked to proper risk assessment and management. He notes that many folks will ignore risk even if they're warned about it, due to a lack of discipline and their fear of missing out on the next hottest thing. As Joe explains, there's an expanding pool of innovation and places to put money, so both VC and individual investors need to manage risk. (45:48)