Hacker News Reader

Understood. Is it possible to create a mutual fund that invests in start ups? May be something like a VC backed by many small investors? Small investors can be an important resource. Loyal customers, promoters, extra help, etc.

View on HN

There are some hedge funds that invest in startups, along with the investment arm of other companies (Microsoft bought 1.6% of Facebook pre-IPO), but I don't know if it'll work for mutual funds. Hedge funds and companies can sit on a startup for years before getting any return, but mutual funds have to be much more liquid. It could work as a closed-end fund, but those are much less common than open-ended funds and you lose the ability to reinvest in the startups.

http://lxventures.com is a Vancouver based public company that does something very similar to what you just described. It is a very new concept, and hotly debated.

"LX Ventures is a publicly-traded startup technology incubator that launches, acquires and integrates silicon valley style early-stage, high-growth technology companies. "

Reply on news.ycombinator.com