Many people in the audience were surprised last Thursday when the Willamette Angel Conference announced CenterSpace Software had won the investment decision. It wasn’t the biggest, the newest or the oldest of the ventures entered. It had the lowest projected growth rate of the five finalists and the lowest projected sales for three to five years from now.
I was one of the 19 people who voted Thursday. And I was one of 25 people whose money was at stake. Although CenterSpace wasn’t my first choice, I’m happy with the outcome.
It isn’t always about the biggest market and the highest sales projection. Sometimes investors are also influenced by comfort levels on intangibles, such as being able to dominate a small market, developing very strong positions in new technology and long-term consistent management.
CenterSpace is a software business focused on add-on math products sold to programmers.
Tim Berry is the founder and chairman of Palo Alto Software and Bplans.com. Follow him on Twitter @Timberry.
