How much money do angel investors make investing in early-stage companies? Is it a genuine “asset class” with generally predictable returns, or just a potentially expensive hobby?

When Upstate Carolina Angel Network (UCAN) investors in Greenville and South Carolina Angel Network (SCAN) investors across South Carolina invest in a startup company, we have a specific return goal: to make a 50 percent or better annualized internal rate of return (IRR), which translates to 10 times our investment in five years (or four times in three years, etc.).