What small startups do you believe enough in, that you would be willing to put some money in (if you had some extra) ?
I'd say the same criteria to invest apply to where you'd want to work. I seriously considered the following three companies, and got to the interview stage with one of them:
I think AirBnB are on the launchpad great idea, great team, making the cash. Dropbox had rabidly happy users and are able to attract top talent (eg, Zed). Dolores Labs are quite successful, though they have a tendency to drop watermelons from great heights.
None of that matters, of course. They don't need my dumb $5K or even $50K. To make an investment that's worthwhile to both ends of the transaction it'd have to be much earlier than where they are now. An investor also needs to be more than just a fanboi with money -- I'd need contacts, expertise, time to advise, etc.
Sure its easy to say "Id invest in this already proven company".
But when you invest as an angel say 50-100K. How would you know ? It seems that even entrepreneurs in the market are finding it hard to asses others.
If I had this money to invest, I'd put it in a 6-month CD while I did research. I'd spend 2+ days a week going to meetups, hanging out at cafes, talking, listening, making friends, making notes. Also I'd try to get time with more experienced investors and ask their advice. After that intense immersion, then I'd feel qualified to invest.
Here's the problem with that plan. The startups I'd been talking with would be very annoyed with me by that time. Here I am, with all this cash, and all I want to do is waste their time asking them questions over coffee!
Other than that, I am really liking Yext, a lot!
After that, the company I used to work for seems like they're positioned to make some money (leadlogsys.com)
To me it sounds like a system in Australian and New Zealand called mobile EFTPOS (I believe Europeans have something similar although it's called something else) that allows merchants to do transactions wherever they can get GPRS coverage — does the US not already have something similar?