An investor shares how he turned $25,000 into $1.875 million by backing Trojan, a London, Ontario water purification company using ultraviolet technology to kill giardia. He helped raise $500k for the company in 1981 when it was seeking $3M total.
And I read an article in the Wall street journal that 6,000 people were dying every day because they were drinking water that was impure. Now I'm drinking from a garden hose in my backyard. We were all drinking from garden hoses, okay? And maybe some of us still are. And I'm saying, well, this is ridiculous. I have to do something about this. And it took me several months, and I found a company, a water purification company, believe it or not, in London, Ontario. And I approached them. I learned about their business very quickly and said, do you need any capital? And they said, as a matter of fact, we're raising $3 million. The company had revenue, okay? So I wouldn't call it seed, Okay? I would probably call it maybe a Series A, the company revenue losses. And what they had was this ultraviolet technology and patents. And they were building small units for cottage country. And cottages in Ontario would have well waters or lake water, and they would use this ultraviolet technology to sterilize, purify the water. And ultraviolet is the only way. And not through filtering, not through reverse osmosis. It's the only way you can deal with some issues, like giardia, for example, which is drinking impure lake water. And six months later, you got a terrible stomachache and a whole bunch of other issues. And so Trojan said to me that, well, we're raising 3 million. We've raised 2 million from a. From a venture capital firm which was part of Investment Counselor called Butel Goodman. The venture department was called bg, Acorn was the fund. And I said, can I help you raise the other million? They said, sure. And I called a bunch of friends, and I raised about half a million dollars for them. And I'm 29 years old, and I put in $25,000. So first rule in venture capital, do not invest more than you're prepared to lose. It cannot affect your lifestyle, cannot affect your three square meals or your roof over your head. So I invested $25,000 and approached some friends who put in $25,000. And I approached some very wealthy families that may have been worth a hundred million. And they said, they're putting in $50,000. And I said, wait a minute, wait a minute. You're worth a thousand times, you know, 10,000 times what I'm worth. Why are you only putting 50? He says, because we're not going to worry about this investment because you're going to watch it for me. Anyways, bottom line is, and this is like 1981, bottom line is, Trojan went on to become the best investment that I've ever made. It was like a 75 bagger, which means 75 times.
