No angel

Milo Yiannopoulos warns against dishing out board seats to those whose qualifications don’t stack up, and advises start-ups to think carefully before welcoming newcomers into funding rounds.

Rock up at one of the more established accelerator programmes in Europe or Silicon Valley and you’ll likely be handed a bulging, spiral-bound copy of the mentor list. Accelerators like to compile these lists because it demonstrates that the investment and entrepreneurial communities are buying into their model, while mentors like the warm glow of recognition and mutual appreciation that comes with having your name in lights and the access they get to high-quality start-ups still in gestation.

But, for some, it can also be a way of shoring up dodgy credentials and elbowing your way into deals and onto company boards. For a cautionary tale, look no further than Michael A Jackson, whose name has started to drop off those mentor lists as questions are raised about his investment credentials. [Editor's Note: not to be confused with Michael Jackson of Mangrove Capital Partners.]

Neither Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ) in Silicon Valley nor Advent Venture Partners in London has any record of Jackson being employed as an associate or serving as a partner, despite his claims that he worked at both firms as a venture capitalist.

A spokesman for Advent said this morning that Jackson was a summer intern for “a couple of months” in early 2010, but he was not offered a permanent position afterwards. At the time of writing, Jackson’s LinkedIn profile claims that he was employed there as a “VC” for over a year, and when The Kernel called him this afternoon, he repeated that he was in situ “from 2009 to 2011.”

DFJ, meanwhile, has no record of him working at their Menlo Park headquarters at any time in the the last 11 years. References to time spent at DFJ were, we understand, excised from Jackson’s online profiles some time ago, although he continues to refer to his “time at DFJ” via email to new contacts, as seen by The Kernel. DFJ’s official spokesperson had not responded to our requests for comment by the time we went to press, but our source inside the firm said: “It is hard to explain his claim. It seems misleading at best.”

The Kernel has also spoken to a company for whom Jackson has in the past claimed to have served as a board member or board advisor. The company denies he has ever had any formal connection with it.

Jackson enjoys mentorship at several prominent European start-up incubators, giving him privileged access to start-ups at crucial stages in their development. Yet, as far as we can discern, he is not retained by any major VC fund, nor has he ever been as a long-term employee. The only record we can find of employment is a few short months of internship at Advent. Which begs the question: what is he advising the start-ups he has access to, and on what basis? And are the start-ups he is currently offering angel money to in Europe getting more – or, rather, less – than they bargained for?

In the frothy, make-believe world of the European internet scene, it’s easy to get over-excited. But start-up chief executives should be cautious about throwing due diligence out of the window. It only takes one investor to destroy a funding round by suddenly not taking calls or failing to deliver promised cheques – and that can take out your entire company. Tread with care.