I was lucky to buy my Facebook stock much cheaper in 2010 on the secondary market  - and I will sell most of it soon after the IPO (on the secondary market again due to the 6 month lock up for my shares).

During the last year I`ve written 3 articles on different strategies how you can profit from investing in Facebook or their IPO:

http://www.gruenderszene.de/finanzen/vor-dem-borsengang-investieren

http://www.gruenderszene.de/news/zynga-facebook-ipo

http://www.socialgamesobserver.com/guest-post-faceboo-ipo-12488

Here`s now a short term “tactic” for the last minute – possible for everybody who owns already a stock depot:

Buy Google stocks now before the IPO – they are relatively undervalued and will rise when people compare Google`s value to Facebook!

Given the strong investors demand (and a 900m user base) it`s likely that the price will jump 20-50% within the first minutes /hours after the IPO.

That means Facebook`s valuation could reach 120-150$ billion dollar.

Even though I believe in Facebook`s longterm potential to be worth much more in short term they are relatively overpriced – at least compared to Google.

Google has today a market cap of $200 billion and a Price/Earning Ratio around 19 while they are still continuously growing.

Moreover they have plenty of cash in the bank – if you calculate that out their P/E ratio is even much cheaper.

Facebook will at a valuation of 120-150$ billion have a Price/Earning Ratio of 120-150.

While Facebook is growing faster than Google they are – at least in the short term – not fair valued when Facebook is worth 60-75% of Google`s valuation.

When Facebook is realizing the 120-150$billion valuation this Friday people will compare Google and Facebook closely.

There should be 2 effects

1. Google`s stock will rise

2. Facebook`s stock might loose relatively a bit (or not become even more expensive)

Part of the effects should happen immediately. Part of the effect could happen during the following days, week`s and months after analysts had some time to compare.

For the last 3-4 years I`ve more or less always split up my  money available for stock investments between Google, Amazon and Apple stocks – sometimes adding some side-investments in smaller Internet stocks.

Before the IPO on Friday I`ve now put for a short time 100% of my stock investment liquidity in Google.

Even though the described effect might only be good for a few percent return – it`s a few percent in a few days or weeks.

Moreover the downside risk is rather low:

Google is “cheap” anyway at the moment even without comparing them to Facebook and the share could easily go up 20-40% during the next 12 months.

If you agree with my opinion, hurry up now. It`s not too late now to benefit from the Facebook IPO – even without owning FB shares.

Disclaimer:

Since I own both Facebook and Google shares I could (in theory) profit from a significantly higher demand.

Also keep in mind that stock investments are always risky and  I could definitely be wrong with my above mentioned opinion!

Within the last 6 months they`ve successfully established VentureVillage.eu - I already love it for the unique, entertaining style to report about our scene!

Recently the Gruenderszene.de team around Mark, Joel, Nora & Marguerite expanded into Start-up Events.

I`m sure they`ll be able to leverage their reach, brand and execution power to be successful.

I very much enjoyed their latest “Spätschicht”-Event.

Now they work on a much bigger event with the upcoming “Heureka-Conference” on May 7th (during Berlin Webweek):

40 prominent national and international speakers are covering hot topics like Incubation, Internationalization & Mobile.

About 500 guests are expected – I`m already looking forward to it and hope to see you there!

Tickets & info:

www.heureka-conference.com

HitFox is very soon offering Deals on Games and Game Equipment.

I`m really proud of the very strong team: 25 people based in Berlin that we handpicked after a heavy screening of more than 250 applicants.

Besides I`m happy to cooperate again closely with Team Europe – the incubator where I have been Venture Partner before and with that I co-founded SponsorPay and Madvertise together.

We recently got pre-launch a medium 7-figure investment from Holtzbrinck Ventures, Hasso Plattner Ventures, Tengelmann Group and Kite Ventures – I`ve been personally co-investing a medium 6-figure amount.

We launch with the first Deal in Germany during Gamescom and will quickly internationalize to other European and american countries afterwards.

Exciting times ahead

Pre-IPO investing in hot “start-ups” like Facebook

I`ve been investing several times in 2010 in Facebook and Linkedin.

Currently I am looking for sellers of Wooga.com and Dropbox.com shares.

Please ping me if you know an investor/employee/founder willing to sell.

1. I left SponsorPay Management after 15 months of rapid growth. (Not really “news” for my close contacts )

- In July 2010 I left SponsorPay to take a sabbatical after I had built up the company for 15 months. My original contract as Interim Managing Director had been designed for 6-12 months. We later extended it to have me building up our USA Operations before I leave the company.

2. SponsorPay continued to grow and got new investors on board.

- SponsorPay continued the growth path under my successor Janis Zech and CEO Andreas Bodczek. (Now about 75 employees and growing further.) Most recently Nokia Growth Partners invested about $5 Mio alongside existing investors. I`ve been selling a part of my SponsorPay shares in that transaction.

3. I made several new pre IPO investments:

- Facebook.com (Bought employee shares in several transactions since june 2010.)

- Linkedin.com (Bought employee shares in one transaction in October 2010.)

- Slightly increased my position in a new financing round for SaaS-for-Lawyers company GoClio.com.

- Invested alongside my Team Europe Ventures partners in online food delivery platform Lieferheld.de. (big news ahead )

I`ve invested medium 5 to medium 6 digits amounts / in all companies. This is also the size I am looking for new investment opportunities.

4. My other major portfolio companies have been growing nicely as well:

- Madvertise.de profited from the strong growing mobile market and serves now 700 Mio Page Impressions per Month after 60 Mio one year before.

- Absolventa.de also developed very well and has now more than 1200 companies using their recruiting service.

5. I`m soon starting an exciting new company together with my partners from Team Europe Ventures…

6. I have an exciting opportunity for one or two very analytical future entrepreneurs !

This a big chance to develop everything that it needs to become an internet entrepreneur (know-how, network, reputation, access to capital and talents) within 1-3 years of very close collaboration with me and Team Europe Ventures. I also look for an entrepreneurial intern.

Please contact me already if you are interested. More TBA soon…

14 months after we founded the company SponsorPay is already the undoubted market leader in Europe and employees 40 entrepreneurial employees.

I`ve moved the last 3 months to San Francisco to build up our US business and will continue to do so for 1 more month.

Afterwards I`ll have much more time to write updates here more frequently…

Madvertise is a quickly-growing Mobile Advertising Start-up that I co-founded as Venture Partner with Team Europe in September 2008.

Since then the strong operational founder team around Carsten Frien has reached good initial traction in the young but very fast growing mobile advertising market in Europe.

Recent US-based Mobile Advertising acquisitions of Admob (750million $ from Google) and Quattro Wireless (300million $ from Apple) give a good direction for the exit

More info:

Techcrunch: http://eu.techcrunch.com/2010/03/30/mobile-ad-network-madvertise-secures-series-a-round/

Handelsblatt: http://blog.handelsblatt.com/webwatcher/2010/03/30/madvertise-sichert-fianzierungsrunde/

Gründerszene: http://www.gruenderszene.de/news/earlybird-und-team-europe-ventures-investieren-siebenstelligen-betrag-in-madvertise/

Thanks to the invitation from non-executive co-founder Lukasz Gadowski I had invested a small amount during the seed round in summer 2007.

Even though no transaction details are public it is no secret that all seed-investors made a fantastic multiple

The private shopping club made already 80m € revenue in 2009 – just 2 years after the company had been founded.

Congratulation and thank you to the founders and management and I wish you all the best for the future and further growth of Brands4Friends!

THX to the whole crew for the fun with you and I look forward to IBIZA 2010