Angel Insights | Angel Investing | Crowdfunding

Paul Dowling is the Founder and CEO at Dreamstake, which is a major funding platform for tech startups their vision is to democratise the whole tech startup process by harnessing the web to link entrepreneurs with the support and funding they need. Dreamstake provides startup education through the free Dreamstake Academy and funding through syndication on the platform. They are advocates of The Lean Startup methodology and believe in supporting startups as they go through the various stages. We support funding up to approx. $2M. If that wasn’t enough, Paul is also the Co-Founder at Hoxtech Angels an investment club for techstartups that we discuss in much greater length in today’s interview. So without further ado it gives me great pleasure to welcome Paul Dowling, Founder and CEO at Dreamstake. In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Paul made his entry into the tech world? What was origin story for DreamStake? 2.) When Paul first meets a founder, what is his line of questioning? What does Paul look for

James Routledge is most definitely a founder at heart having founded MatchChat and Seedcamp incubated NowNative. However, he has made the move into the investing world and is now Partner at one of the UK’s largest AngelList Syndicate’s, the famous Doug Scott’s potential syndicate, who invest in extremely early stage companies. In the episode we discuss their investing thesis, their DD process, why startups now need 2 seed rounds and much more. In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How James made his entry into the investing world? What was it that attracted him to investing? 2.) What is the background of the Potential Syndicate? How does it run? What is the average investment? Are there any preferred sectors or locations? 3.) As a syndicate what does Potential’s deal sourcing look like? At such an early stage how do Potential find and hunt the best deals and entrepreneurs? 4.) What are the KPIs that Potential deep dive on? What metrics get them excited? 5.) What does James think makes a great investment

Heather Cabot is Co-Founder of GeekGirl Rising, which aims to unleash the power of women in tech, she is also an active angel investor and a former ABC News correspondent and anchor with more than twenty years of experience as an on-air reporter. Since 2007, she has served as a digital trends expert for Yahoo!, appearing regularly on TV including, "Today", CNN, MSNBC. If that was not enough Heather is also a Professor at Columbia Journalism School and you can find her writing at www.heathercabot.com and you can learn more about geek girl rising at www.geekgirlrising.com. In Today’s Episode You Will Learn; 1.) How did Heather get into the investing world? 2.) Where does Heather see the future of media and journalism? What does Heather make of the emerging revenue models in media with the ever disappearing ad dollar. 3.) With the likes of Buzzfeed we are seeing a lot of disruption. What does Heather make of this movement? Are we heading to a shorter form of media consumption? 4.) What prompted the creation o

Peter Cowley is an entrepreneur and very active angel investor with a degree in Engineering/Computing from Cambridge University, Peter has founded and run technology and construction businesses for 35+ years and, since then, has angel invested in over 45 start-ups in Cambridge and London. He is a non-executive director of five of those. Peter is also a board member of the Cambridge Angels, and has mentored countless entrepreneurs. He setup and now runs the Martlet start-up investment fund of Marshall of Cambridge and is a Fellow in Entrepreneurship of the Cambridge Judge Business School. In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Peter made his entry into the investing world and what it was that attracted him to investing? 2.) What are Peter's most effective methods of deal sourcing? How does he find the great companies in his portfolio? 3.) Does Peter have a criteria for investment? What does his DD look like prior to investing in a company? 4.) Once invested does Peter believe angels have a moral obliga

Ron Petersen is the Co-Founder and Investment Partner @ Longbow Capital where he provides management assistance to portfolio companies, while reviewing new business opportunities and investment portfolios. With more than 4 decades of industrial management experience and 20 years managing global businesses, one would be hard pushed to find someone with more knowledge or experience than Ron. In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Ron made his way into the investing world? 2.) How can angel investors provide genuine management experience to portfolio companies? 3.) How does Ron believe the crowdfunding industry needs to be regulated? 4.) What does Ron believe it will take for the universe of crowdfunding and it’s investors to continue to grow? Is there a chance it might not, if so, what might happen? 5.) Is there a pressing need for exits from the crowdfunding industry to prove the effectiveness of the model or does Ron think the progression to follow on rounds is enough? 6.) How does Ron personally feel

Paul Townsend is currently Managing director at Vitesse PSP and a Non Executive Director with Saxo Bank, following over 20 years’ experience in mainstream banking with Warburgs and Bank of New York, plus 15 years in electronic payments with Earthport plc, Neteller, Envoy and Worldpay. Before co-founding Vitesse, Paul was Founder and COO of Envoy Services Ltd. He is also a prolific angel investor with investments in the likes of Kwanji, veridu, proxama and many more. In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How did Paul make his entry into the world of angel investing? 2.) With such strong experience in banking, how does Paul view the seed stage Fintech environment? 3.) What are Paul’s thoughts on bitcoin and why are banks so skeptical to it’s mass adoption? 4.) With extensive experience in the mobile payments space, where does Paul see room for innovation in mobile payments? Is it a monopoly market with the likes of Square and Izettle? 5.) Paul is also an LP to MMC Ventures, so why are institutional investors

Clifford Dennett was the Founder & CEO at SoshiGames, where he secured commercial deals with the band Queen, Universal Music and Sony, led a team to create online and mobile experiences with over 1.3m users, raised £1.3m in funding, tripled revenues per paying user and built a strong pipeline of future business. Despite these many successes, with the ever increasing competition in the gaming market and significant changes to Facebook and social media algorithms, Soshi Games went into liquidation earlier this year. In today’s interview with Cliff we discuss the changing landscape of tech and gaming, the failure of startups in general and with Soshi and then how to handle investors when dealing with the liquidation of a company. In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) Clifford explains the origins of Soshi Games and his a-ha moment for getting the company started? 2.) What were the fundamental determinants that caused the demise of Soshi? 3.) How prominent were the likes of Facebook algorithms to the su

Josh Maher is the president of Seattle Angel, with 20 years of experience investing, building and growing technology startups. Recently, Josh has released his new book, Startup Wealth: How The Best Angels Make Money In Startups (http://www.amazon.com/Startup-Wealth-Angel-Investors-Startups-ebook/dp/B0149G02NA), where Josh interviews 23 of the world's best investors including the likes of Brad Feld and Mark Suster, in order to find out their tactics, tips and investing strategies. More of Josh’s profiles of great investors can be found online at startupwealth.com. You can find his writings on building companies and investing at joshmaher.net and you can always find him on Twitter @joshmaher. In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) Josh welcome to Angel Insights, I would love to start off by hearing how did you get into investing? 2.) I want to dive straight into your new book, Startup Wealth: How The Best Angels Make Money In Startups, for the book you met with some incredible investors in Brad Feld, Mark Sust

Modwenna Rees Mogg is an experienced corporate financier turned entrepreneur, as the founder of www.angelnews.co.uk, the leading private investor news service with the goal of improving transparency and accountability in the early stage investment market to enable it to grow and create win:win situations for all concerned. Modwenna has also recently Co-Founded CrowdRating, the ratings agency for equity crowdfunding. In today’ episode we delve into why now is the best time to be an angel investor, what separates a great angel from a good angel and how to utilize your investing network for maximum dealflow. For your chance to win a signed copy of the legendary Venture Deals by Brad Feld all you have to do is click the click to tweet: http://ctt.ec/e0zkG In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How did Modwenna get into the investing world? 2.) Why is now the best time to be an angel investor and what has changed over the last few years that has made this happen? 3.) What does Modwenna think separates the incre

For a chance to win a signed copy of Brad Feld incredible best-selling book Venture Deals all you have to do is click the link below and tweet, for your chance to be entered into the competition. http://ctt.ec/KtRDd Ben Luntz (https://angel.co/ben-luntz) has really experienced it all on both sides of the table having been an incredibly successful entrepreneur with the acquisition of his company Apex Exposure, Ben started making angel investments and born was his passion in investing and working alongside startups to today where Ben is now managing Co-Founder and Managing Partner @ Indicator Ventures, an early stage digital venture fund in NYC. In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How did Ben get into investing in startups? 2.) Having been a successful entrepreneur prior to his investing career, how did Ben’s entrepreneurial origins impact his investing strategy? 3.) At the very seed stage of the funding environment with very few metrics, what metrics does Ben look for and secondly if they are not avail

Alicia Syrett is the founder and CEO of Pantegrion Capital (http://www.pantegrion.com), an angel investment firm that focuses on seed and early stage investments. With over 10 years’ experience in the financial industry, Syrett is a member of several angel networks, including Golden Seeds and NY Angels. She presently serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors of HeTexted, and is also on the Advisory Boards of Beauty Booked and I-ELLA. Before starting Pantegrion Capital, Ms. Syrett was the CAO, Managing Director and very first employee of a multi-billion dollar private equity firm. She established numerous operational areas, including payroll, insurance coverage, healthcare and retirement platforms, vendor services and much more. Alicia Syrett is a frequent speaker on panels for various startup organizations in New York City as well as for entrepreneurship programs at NYU and Columbia. In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How did Alicia get into the investing world? 2.) Having been first employee at a m

Bjorn Evers has over 15 years of experience from positions as CEO, board member and investor across multiple online industries such as management consulting, eGaming, online identification, payments, music and dating. Bjorn is the first investor in Jumio and the original inventor of Jumio’s identification product. In addition to this Bjorn built Jumio’s sales team from the start to establish Jumio’s products as the standard for identification online and the billion-dollar business it is today. If that wasn't enough Bjorn is an early investor and board member of many successful innovative internet companies such as Betable, Skiomusic, Ever Adventure (Slotser), 7Heaven, Devcode Payments and GreenZorro. If you love the show, share the love on Twitter by clicking here: http://ctt.ec/04343 In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How did Bjorn get into investing? 2.)How important does Bjorn feel it is for angels to have prior experience in the operator industry? What would Bjorn consider his key value add to be?

Andy Mcloughlin was co-founder of London-based Huddle, a leading enterprise content collaboration company. Under Andy’s leadership, Huddle became one of Europe’s most awarded and well-known technology startups, raising over $80M of venture funding. Andy has been a prolific active angel investor since 2010 and has built a portfolio covering 35+ pre-seed / seed stage investments. His companies include innovative SaaS businesses like Tray.io, Buffer and Pipedrive, as well as retail plays including Postmates, Secret Escapes and Zesty. Andy is now a Venture Partner with SoftTech VC, one of the most active seed stage investors in Internet, SaaS and mobile startups. In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How did Andy get into Angel Investing? 2.) Why does Andy believe Europe has the capacity to create amazing entrepreneurs? 3.) What is your Andy’s approach to deal sourcing? 4.) What is Andy’s approach to accelerators and demo days? 5.) In such a competitive market, how does Andy differentiate between startups?

Dr. Alicia Robb, a Senior Fellow with the Kauffman Foundation. Alicia is also a Visiting Scholar with the University of California and the University of Colorado. She is also a prolific author on the topic of entrepreneurship. In addition to numerous journal articles and book chapters, she is the co-author of Race and Entrepreneurial Success published by MIT Press and A Rising Tide: Financing Strategies for Women-Owned Businesses by Stanford University Press. She serves on the Board of the National Advisory Council for Minority Business Enterprise, the Advisory Board for Global Entrepreneurship Week, and is a guest contributor to outlets such as Huffington Post and Forbes. If you like today's show we would be so grateful if you would share the episode on Twitter by clicking here: http://ctt.ec/5ldX2 In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How did Alicia get into angel investing? 2.) What are the biggest problems Alicia faces in recruiting further female investors? 3.) How does Alicia select her lead angel

Kelsey Lynn Skinner invests in technology startups with thoughtful ambitious people. She works in venture capital at Imperial Innovations in London and has a small (mostly US) angel portfolio in addition to serving on the screening committee of several UK angel groups. Here she discusses some of the similarities and differences in venture and angel investing as well as some of the most important lessons learned from her time in investing. In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Kelsey got into investing? 2.) Is operational experience important for investors to have? 3.) What are the differences between VC investing and angel investing? 4.) What does Kelsey look for in co-investors? What investor motivations concern Kelsey? 5.) How does Kelsey’s strategy alter between making VC compared to angel investments? 6.) What level of engagement does Kelsey expect from her startups? 7.) What does the optimal portfolio look like? 8.) What are Kelsey’s biggest problems with regards to deal flow and how does she over

Marty Zwilling is the Founder and CEO of Startup Professionals, a company that provides services to startup founders around the world. His background includes a 30-year track record as an executive in general management, computer software development and product management. However, Marty is now in what he calls "give-back mode" as a mentor to startup founders, and an Angel investor. His experience with investors includes roles on the selection committee of two local Angel groups, and working from the other side of the table with several VCs in Silicon Valley. In addition to blogging, Marty has recently released his first book titled “Do You Have What It Takes To Be An Entrepreneur?” If you enjoyed the show, click here! http://ctt.ec/YivR2 What Will You Learn In Today’s Show: 1.) How Marty got into the world of angel investing? 2.) What are the benefits of consulting and mentoring for investors in terms of deal value and value add? 3.) As an investor, what does Marty believe to be more important, the produc

Peter is an author, entrepreneur, investor and speaker, Peter is best known for founding Help A Reporter Out, which is currently the largest free source repository in the world and in June of 2010, less than two years after Peter started HARO in his apartment, it was acquired by Vocus, Inc. Additionally, Peter is also the founder and CEO of The Geek Factory, Inc., a boutique Social Media, Marketing and PR Strategy firm located in New York City, with clients worldwide. If that wasn’t enough Peter is the author of 4 books. Finally, how can we forget what we are all here for. Peter is a phenomenal angel investor with investments in the likes of Namely, DailyWorth, Pixability and Simplist. If you love the show and would like to show your support for Angel Insights and Harry click on this link to tweet: http://bit.ly/petershankmanclicktotweet

Michael Blakey is a director at Avonmore Developments, one of the leading seed and early stage funds with over 21 investments and several successful exits. Michael is primarily responsible for Avonmore’s deal sourcing and marketing. Prior to Avonmore, Michael was heavily involved with the roll-out of “Sainsbury’s To You” internet shopping and managed several projects including IT re-platforming of all Sainsbury’s HR and payroll systems. Whilst working at Sainsbury’s Michael made a number of early-stage investments and this lead him into joining Avonmore full time in 2002. In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Michael made his move into the angel investing world? 2.) How has the angel investing landscape changed since Michael started in 2000? 3.) Why is it important to be an angel full time? 4.) What are the most beneficial ways angels can actively support their investments? 5.) How can angels act like VCs? 6.) What metrics does Michael focus on prior to making an investment? 7.) Does Michael like to in

Philip Wilkinson is a Serial Web Entrepreneur, Angel Investor, and explorer of new, world-changing ideas. Philip’s entrepreneurial career began when he was 21 years old by building the UK's first ever price comparison site, Shopgenie. After securing £150k ShopGenie merged with the French company Kelkoo in 2000. Kelkoo was sold to Yahoo in 2004 for $540m. Since then Philip has co-founded a venture business that invested in and grew businesses such as BroadbandGenie (broadband and mobile comparison site), Crowdstorm (long tail price comparison), and Kopi (coffee subscription club). If that wasn’t enough Phil was also a co-founder and product director of a high end group buying site called Keynoir.com which secured funding from Index Ventures back in 2010. Keynoir eventually sold to Time Out. Phil’s investment portfolio includes the likes of InstaCart, Thread, Uncover and many more which can be found at www.philipwilkinson.co In Today’s Incredible Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Philip got into A

Sonny is a seasoned sales and business development executive with 15 years experience in helping grow technology companies. Sonny is currently Chief Commercial Officer at BitPay, the largest processor of bitcoin in the world. Prior to BitPay, Sonny was VP of Sales at Jumio and is currently an advisor at Lumia Capital. If that wasn’t enough Sonny is also a serial investor himself having invested in TubeMogul at the seed stage up until their IPO in 2014, Narrativ, Jumio, Getaround and many more. In today's amazing interview with Sonny we deep dive into 1.) How Sonny sources potential investments? 2.) What Sonny looks for in co-investors? 3.) How does Sonny deal with the fear of missing an investment? 4.) How has Sonny's investing strategy changed over time? 5.) What is Sonny's favourite investing resource? As always, you can learn more about SyndicateRoom here: www.syndicateroom.com