Hello
Quintessential1, I share your fustration. When you see someone can make 6-7-8 digit return while you were left out. That was my state of mind 10-15 years ago. Allow me to share my journey of change.
Before I do that I would like to say that without Fantome's opinion, I most probably stuck with a company which I lost 5 digits (which was a very very large portion of my asset) when I cut the lost. If I did not do that I might lost 90% of this "blue chip" investment during last year's bear market.
10-15 years ago, when I read the story that someone invested some start-up and when it went public, they made millions. After learning a bit more on start-up funding, I stop envy it.
My knowledge is not necessary correct. I stand to be corrected. Start up funding has rounds. Each round you have to add more. If you do not, your portion is diluted. The seed is always small relatively and each round will be a multiple of the previous one. I guess for someone that gets 6-7-8 digit return, you will invest at least 5 digit amount. If you have that "spare change", I congratulate you. Why I say "spare change"? Because the "qualified person" requirement ensure you don't suffer from a financial blow if the start-up does not work out.
I don't have 5 digit "spare change". That is why I stop envy the start-up investment opportunities. Other risk dealing with start-up before goes public is the liquidity problem. It is difficult to cash out at a good price for a public trading company when it collapses (say Nortel), forget about private company.
Is there any wonderful 10 bagger in the market? May I suggest you buy Shopify at C$33 in 2015? 5000+% return.
Disclaimer: I am a lousy investor. I may know how to lost money but I don't know how to pick winner. My New Year Resolution is to know all what not to do for investment and avoid doing them to become a safe investor.