{"id":36790,"date":"2023-10-20T14:46:13","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T14:46:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/the-best-investment-vc-veteran-ashton-kutcher-made-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T14:46:13","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T14:46:13","slug":"the-best-investment-vc-veteran-ashton-kutcher-made-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/the-best-investment-vc-veteran-ashton-kutcher-made-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"The best investment VC veteran Ashton Kutcher made &#8211; StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"td-post-featured-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"444\" height=\"330\" itemprop=\"image\" class=\"entry-thumb\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/l_kutcher445.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"l_kutcher445\"\/><\/div>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Ashton Kutcher, Hollywood actor turned heavyweight startup investor, says his best investment is something money can\u2019t buy.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In an <a href=\"https:\/\/grow.acorns.com\/2016\/01\/ashton-kutcher-on-the-best-investments-you-can-make-in-2016\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">interview with <i>Grow<\/i><\/a>, US startup Acorns\u2019 publication, Kutcher was asked what he considers to be his best investment.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy relationships,\u201d Kutcher answers.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTaking the time to get to know [people], what motivates them, what their challenges are \u2013 these things are overlooked.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cInvestors get so wrapped up in return and numbers that they forget that the true privilege of their position is to share a journey with exceptional people.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Kutcher tells <i>Grow<\/i> he regularly finds simpler ways to do things but doesn\u2019t have the time to launch all of these ideas.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo I found people who were executing on them and invested in their success,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Unlike his lovably dim-witted characters in <i>Dude, Where\u2019s My Car? <\/i>and <i>That \u201870s Show<\/i>, Kutcher is a successful entrepreneur who co-founded <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wearethorn.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Thorn<\/a>, a tech startup combatting child sexual exploitation, and <a href=\"http:\/\/aplus.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">A Plus<\/a>, a digital media company.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He has co-founded venture capital firms A-Grade Investments and Sound Ventures.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cInvest in that which you would like to see become a reality,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Kutcher encourages new investors to avoid sinking too much money in projects that aren\u2019t working by developing a clear plan with benchmarks for success or failure.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOptimism is priceless \u2013 but only when coupled with measurement,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The scariest financial decision Kutcher has ever made was buying his first home.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI took on debt greater than my cash on hand,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t sleep well when I owe people money.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><i> <\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>Follow <\/i>StartupSmart<i> on <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/StartUpSmart\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><i>Facebook<\/i><\/a><i>, <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/startupsmartnow\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><i>Twitter<\/i><\/a><i>, and <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/startupsmart\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><i>LinkedIn<\/i><\/a><i>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0 Ashton Kutcher, Hollywood actor turned heavyweight startup investor, says his best investment is something money can\u2019t buy. \u00a0 In<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62038,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36790"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36790"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36790\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}