Save as much as you can. Like shoe sizes. But after you do invest initially, you should keep on investing afterward. There's the Warburg Pincus Long Short fund, and a lot of the market neutral funds also short. However, the market neutral funds have so far proven to be return neutral, as well.
Small caps can be very volatile for a beginning investor.
If not, offer a bigger bargain. Nice try, though. Not only is this gross, but it hasn't worked yet. Nor am I, maybe it would make a good story. Definitely when you get to the double digits, things start getting complicated.