At 33, Anthony Bourbon is one of France's most influential Business Angels, representing a new generation of entrepreneurs. He was selected in 2021 to be an investor and judge on the M6 TV show “Qui veut être mon associé?” ("Who wants to be my partner?"), making him a well-known investor.
In order to select the Startups in which he invests and therefore the projects that will be proposed to Blast.club members, we analyze several key criteria and operate in four phases: the selection phase, the audit phase, the investment phase and the support phase.
1/ Selection phase
From the 300 pitch decks we receive every month, we select Startups according to 6 key criteria and, to do so, we meet with the founders of the most promising ones on several occasions.
The Founders
This is the most important thing at the start of an adventure.
We focus on various points: learning curve, subject expertise, global view, determination, empathy, autonomy, ambition... We are looking for founders who can convey emotion with a strong promise and a powerful drive.
The basic idea will evolve over time, the business will probably pivot but the founders will remain, so they need to be able to question themselves, to accept advice graciously and to perform.
Investing is not just about writing a check, it is about supporting a human story. It is also vital to get on well with the founders, as our teams will be spending a lot of time with them.
The drive
Consumers do not just want to buy a product, they want to join an adventure, to take part in something that is bigger than themselves and triggers an emotion. To achieve this feat, you need to have a very clear drive, and succeed in making it shine through. We are looking for founders with a drive that resonates with consumers. This is a very important criterion for Consumer Startups, less so for SAAS or Fintech, for instance.
Market size
It's all about surfing the underlying trends that will see strong growth in the years to come. There are always exceptions, but for example, we always favor a vegan brand over a project that offers meat...
The vertical market must be huge (at least 1 billion euros in Europe). We are not talking about the targeted turnover here, but about the global market.
We can thus hope, even with a small market share, to reach 50/100 million in turnover.
Attractiveness of the sector for investment funds
Let's not forget that we are investors, which means we invest in order to get a return on our investment. Resales and IPOs are rare, so we prioritize business sectors that are attractive to investment funds, so that we can resell our stakes to them during subsequent fund-raising rounds. The Fintech or SAAS (Software As A Service) sectors have very attractive business models and often benefit from multiple fundraising rounds, giving us several successive opportunities to realize a capital gain.
The potential multiple
We always invest at the very beginning of an adventure, what we call pre-seed/seed. This is the type of ivestment round that yields the best multiples. The valuation has to be attractive and enable us to achieve at least x15 for “DNVB/Brand/B2C” projects, x50 for tech projects, x100 for blockchain projects.
Flair and experience
Investing is not just a question of criteria with variable coefficients. Flair, which sharpens with experience, is a feeling we scrupulously follow. With more than 50 startup investments to is credit, Anthony has accumulated a wealth of experience that today enables him to listen to his instincts with confidence: “where there is doubt, there is no doubt”.
After selecting the projects that best meet our decision-making criteria, we meet with the founders several times to select the 2 or 3 Startups we deem the most promising of the month.
2/ Audit phase
Once the projects have been selected, our multi-disciplinary teams of experts carry out a complete audit of the startups. This due diligence phase enables us to check that everything is in order: figures, promises, patents, teams, legal aspect... This audit is carried out so that Anthony can make his personal investment decision but does not exempt you in any way from doing your own research.
3/ Investment phase
Once the audits have been finalized, we negotiate the investment terms and offer Club members the opportunity to invest on the same terms as Anthony.
4/ Support phase
Once the investment has been made by the Blast.Club on behalf of all its investors, Anthony represents the Club in the startup's capital and supports entrepreneurs over the long term, until a significant liquidity event occurs that can benefit all co-investors.
.svg)
.svg)
.svg)