From collector to capitalist: How Sean Bassik turns rare assets into startup gold

Photo courtesy of Sean Bassik.

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Sean Bassik didn’t always intend to become an angel investor. Before he founded Bassik Consulting, a firm focused on angel investing, business consulting, and tangible asset investing, he was a young man who enjoyed collecting baseball cards.

Bassik quickly turned his hobby into a lucrative business. “The childhood hobby of collecting baseball cards and other memorabilia became the inspiration for my first company, Invest In Baseball, which specializes in the acquisition and transfer of sports collectibles,” he says.

Many first businesses take years to get off the ground, but Bassik’s company was on a fast track to success. “Invest In Baseball makes $425,000 in revenue in year one, $1.2 million in year two, and $4 million in year three,” he explains.

Today, Sean Bassik helps clients acquire collectible assets (including watches, antiques, coins, stamps, and sports cards) as investments. However, he’s also parlayed his skills as a collector into a surprising arena: angel investing.

When identifying early-stage startups to support, Bassik looks for strong leadership, solid investment potential, and a management team eager to collaborate. At first glance, this endeavor might seem to have nothing in common with investing in rare collectibles. However, these two types of investments have more in common than meets the eye.

Bassik identifies promising startups in the same way he identifies high-value collectibles — he sees potential where another investor might see only risk. It takes a breadth of knowledge and experience to identify valuable sports memorabilia at an estate sale, and the same holds true for picking strong startups out of a sea of competitors.

In his years of experience valuing tangible assets, Sean Bassik has developed a powerfully accurate intuition. So when he identifies a startup as an investment opportunity, he can move confidently forward.

When Bassik invests in a young company, he doesn’t just provide a cash infusion and wait for a return. Instead, he sees his work as an angel investor as an opportunity for collaborative leadership and mutual success.

“When you partner with us, you’re not just benefiting from an injection of business capital; you also gain access to our extensive network of professionals (general counsel, advisors, and board members) who can lend their expertise when necessary,” he says. “I’ve found that this kind of expert knowledge can be a big factor in propelling a business forward.”

Bassik also notes that right before their companies start gaining major traction, many entrepreneurs find themselves in a “pressure bubble.”

Spending too long in a high-pressure state can be counterproductive, and Bassik believes that mentorship and financial support can help entrepreneurs avoid costly mistakes. 

“Operating in a sustained pressure bubble is not good for anyone. Sliding deeper and deeper into debt causes the kind of stress that can lead to a negative headspace and an inability to make good decisions,” says Bassik. “Which, of course, is the last thing an entrepreneur needs to be successful. When we partner together, we work hard to help you ease the stress and step out of the pressure bubble.”

In an investment landscape that heavily emphasizes the digital, Sean Bassik’s story is a welcome departure. He’s found success as an innovator in an uncommon niche: the intersection of physical and digital assets. It’s an unconventional approach, but much like his other ventures, it appears to be paying off.