Buddy Media Salesforce Exit

James Altucher shares a story about his successful investment strategy, illustrated through his investment in Buddy Media.

"I was an early investor in Buddy Media, which Peter Thiel invested in. Mike Lazarow was the CEO, Mark Pincus who started Zynga was an investor in it. We all were the seed investors at a $4 million valuation, and it sold to Salesforce for about 700-800 million.

I didn't have to do any work once I invested because Peter Thiel was my co-investor. It's not like they're going to call me for advice - they're going to call the people smarter than me. Presumably the first investor in Facebook would know what he was doing when investing in a Facebook marketing agency, which is what Buddy Media was.

This illustrates my key investment strategy: if someone a lot smarter than me says 'hey I'm investing in this company,' I don't even have to do any more work. I just send the check because I assume they've done all the due diligence, all the hard work. They've got PhDs working for them that are a lot smarter than me. Worst comes to worst, they can make phone calls and get this company acquired, which is what happens."