I have invested in over 10 start up ventures thus far with OBIG over the past 16 years. I absolutely LOVE that I know the owner/founder of these companies, get to choose if their values align with mine before investing in them and their ideas for business, and that I get to collaborate with other like-minded investors in helping an entrepreneur create more value for our world! Anything with lots of risk has the potential for lots of gain and, for a segment of my money, this is exactly what I want…and when I lose 100% of my money which has happened a few times, I actually feel good about what it was invested in…even if it didn’t work out! That said, the returns I’ve received, which have been quarterly checks for over 6 years now have far outweighed my losses and I plan to continue to participate in opportunities in the future with OBIG.
I’ve invested in multiple companies in the OBIG Portfolio and am very happy with the performance – one of which is a company that sits at the top of my personal portfolio in terms of both stability and ROI. There is no way to eliminate risk when investing, but I feel that investing in book alumni is inherently LESS risky because book entrepreneurs have the persistence, integrity, and “horsepower” to push past challenges, as they did selling books door-to door-each summer.
OBIG has given me the opportunity to hear about and invest in start-up companies that I would have never have been able to otherwise. As always, investing is risky and I have had some big winners and some losers, but the wins far out-way the losses. As a past book girl, I love to hear when an opportunity is from a former book person – it seems those investments often bring me the best returns!