A member reached out to us earlier this month wondering if there was a good way to track all of the startup investments they had made. This particular investor had made several startup investments across multiple investment platforms and had also done some private placement deals. They also wanted to know how to transfer their startup assets to family members if they passed away.
In terms of estate planning and asset transfers, we can’t provide too much help. That’s not our area of expertise. We do know that some investment platforms allow you to designate a beneficiary. So you’ll want to check with the investment platforms you use to see if that option is available.
Estate planning is doubly important for crypto investors. If your loved ones can’t access your crypto wallets after you’ve passed away, the investments are likely lost forever. This happened to a friend of mine. Please don’t let it happen to you. Hire an estate planner. Write a will. Share detailed instructions. Do something. Just don’t leave it to chance.
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Where we can help you is in tracking your investments.
Tracking startup investments has always been a pain for investors. There are dozens of investment platforms. Each one has its own tracking system. And those tracking systems are siloed. There’s no way to share data between platforms. Then there are private placement deals that happen offline. Until recently, the only way to track those investments was manually.
Google Sheets, Microsoft Excel and Airtable are the tools most investors have been using to track their startup investments. But they’re not ideal. Inputting deal terms and data points is time consuming and cumbersome. Generating data driven insights is difficult to do. So is calculating potential returns.
That’s why our friends at KingsCrowd developed the KingsCrowd portfolio tool. The tool is free (though you will have to provide your email address to sign up for an account). And it’s definitely worth checking out.
Early Investing uses it to track the First Stage Investor portfolio (click here to sign up) of more than 100 startups. And I can say with confidence this portfolio tracker is the best we’ve seen.
- It’s easy to use. Just type in the name of a company that you invested in. If KingsCrowd has the company in its database (their coverage of Regulation Crowdfunding and Regulation A companies is incredible – and they’re adding Regulation D deals all the time), it will come up. Then choose which funding round you invested in (KingsCrowd tracks those too), the amount you invested and when you invested, and you’re on your way. If you can’t find the company you invested in, just email the KingsCrowd team and they’ll try to add it to their database.
- You can use custom tags to help manage your portfolio and search through it.
- You can record notes on your investment.
- And that’s just the beginning.
Once your investments are in the portfolio, KingsCrowd gives you the analytics you need to see how your portfolio is doing. Among the things investors can see are:
- How well portfolio companies are performing.
- How much total money has been invested.
- How much has been invested in each sector.
- And much more!
KingsCrowd is adding new features all the time. So the portfolio tool will keep getting better.
If you’re looking for a good way to track your startup investments, the KingsCrowd portfolio tracker is definitely a good place to start.