John Raymonds, Angel Investor

Not long after graduating from MIT, I switched gears away from my major into the family rigid plastic packaging business. After a long learning curve in a turnaround business, I partnered with First Atlantic Capital in 2004 to grow it from the then $90M US turnover to over $300M US in just four short years. In 2008 I diversified my domestic holdings while maintaining a packaging business in Europe. The diversification allowed me to sit on the other side of the PE table and this new path has taken many forms where the common theme has been both promoting a better world through technology and a return to my first passions where now the hardware has melded into the darkroom to form the digital arts of today. I am as passionate about continuing education for myself as I am for others. In addition to a constant feed of books on various subjects I have found my time with TEC (now Vistage), the Anthony Robbins Mastery University, TIGER 21, and now the peer group at the X Prize Foundation to be the key factors in shaping my mind today whereas Deepak Chopra, Andrew Cohen, and others have been key factors in the evolution of my soul. As a Spirit of Innovation member at the XPrize Foundation, I have seeded the development of an XPrize in the education sector that in 2013 announced plans for $10 million Global Literacy X PRIZE where MIT Professor Nicholas Negroponte (the founder of One Laptop per Child, a nonprofit foundation dedicated to providing each child in the world with the means to learn and teach) will serve as the competition’s Chairman. I rarely trade public securities anymore as there are people far better at it than I could ever be. Investing in startups and other private businesses is where I spend most of my personal time and AngelList is a place where I have found a place in the portfolio in between direct investing and traditional VC Fund structures.