How To Turn A $50,000 Investment Into A $250 Million Company

Flickr / leweb3Wildfire CEO Victoria RansomMore than four years ago, 500 Startups partner Dave McClure invested about $50,000 in a newborn company called Wildfire Interactive.

Eventually, Wildfire would build a business around helping other businesses market themselves on Facebook and Twitter.

Then, last summer, Google bought Wildfire for ~$250 million. McClure and 500 Startups profited nicely.

How'd he do it? What was his process?

McClure explains in a new presentation he's put together called "Silicon Valley 2.0: Lots Of Little Bets + Moneyball For Startups."

(You can and should see all his presentations, here.)

Here are some broad points from this deck:

• McClure invests 30% of his capital in making lots of little bets. He invests the other 70% doubling down on startups with traction after six months.
• He bets on "singles" not "home runs" – targeting companies that solve a problem, have a market, and already have a functional prototype.
• He pushes startups in his portfolio to fail as fast as possible (if they are going to fail)