Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Basil Peters, CEO and Fund Manager, Fundamental Technologies II (Part 2)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Basil: I appreciated, after doing investing for a while, that the venture capital stage in the process was no longer necessary in well over 99% of tech companies.

I sold my stake in the venture fund that I had cofounded and instead launched what would most commonly be called now an angel fund, even though there are some people who are calling it VC 2.0. I’m not sure that we’ve actually figured out what the names are, but the funds that work today are much smaller than what people think of as venture capital funds of the 1990s and 2000s.

Irina: What do you call it?

Basil: I like the term angel fund, but it can also be called a seed stage fund, a very early-stage venture capital fund, or a VC 2.0 fund. There’s no consensus, yet, on what the terminology will be for the new funds that actually make sense today.

My current fund, Fundamental Technologies II, has been in existence since 2005.

Irina: What is the structure of this fund?

Basil: It has individual investors and I have had corporate investors as well, but not what people would traditionally think of as institutional investors. It’s really a fund for angel investors.

Irina: And you manage this fund?

Basil: Yes. I manage it myself.

Irina: What is the focus of this fund – regional, national, or international?

Basil: It’s an excellent question. I live in Vancouver and my home is about halfway between downtown Vancouver and Bellingham, Washington. I’ve always done business on both sides of the Canada–United States border. I invest regionally but my region is actually international because my regional interest is kind of Washington and British Columbia. Last month, for example, I invested in a company in Washington, and I invested in a company in Vancouver.

Irina: Do you have any specific industry focus for this fund?

Basil: Yes, I do. I’m trained as a classical IT techie and that’s what I’d find most interesting. I’ve been doing that for a number of decades now, and that’s really what I love. It’s also where I think I have an advantage for my investors and my fund. It’s something I know well and I think I’m good at tech.

I don’t really know life science. When I started my venture fund, it was half life science and half tech. And I was amazed at how different the investment dynamics were in life science from those in traditional technology. It gave me a real appreciation for the fact that, like almost everything in life, you need to have a specialty, you need to have a focus.

For me, tech is the most fun. Fundamental Technologies II is a classic angel fund. It’s small, it has a very small overhead, and there are no management fees. It is a very classic 21st-century fund. It’s very different from what we used to think of as venture capital in the 20th century.

This segment is part 2 in the series : Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Basil Peters, CEO and Fund Manager, Fundamental Technologies II
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