No. 9

No. 9

Mike Maples, 42
Investor

No. of Angel Investments: 39
Companies funded (a sampling): Circle of Moms, Digg, Kongregate, Odeo, Twitter, Weebly

How much is Mike Maples’ early investment in Twitter worth today? That information, he said in an e-mail exchange, he would like to keep "a little bit private." He would only go so far as to note that in the latest funding round, "my investment was worth 24 times my initial investment." Excluding his portfolio, one company at the angel stage that he said has "moon shot" potential is Jack Dorsey's new company, Square, "a very bold idea." [Square is a mobile payment system that aims to displace credit cards with a cheaper payment system that works through smartphones.] And if he did have access to that cartoon WayBack Machine? "If I could have been an angel investor in one company, I would say Microsoft, because of the broad impact they have had on the entire industry since the growth of the microprocessor." And while time-traveling, Maples would like to reconsider one deal he passed on: "The one I most regret saying no to was Zynga."