Angel Insights | Angel Investing | Crowdfunding

Sara is a seed-stage investor in consumer startups at Maven, where she works with 20+ companies in the Maven portfolio and manages the Maven mentor network. Prior to joining Maven, Sara ran early-stage startup programming at The Idea Village, an entrepreneurship engine in New Orleans. While at The Idea Village, she built and managed a team of over 40 employees, contractors, and mentors to deliver direct services to over 1,200 companies. An enthusiastic supporter of entrepreneurs, Sara launched her own business in 2014 to help founders and investors launch and build networks that help startups thrive. She shares some of these experiences in her TEDx talk (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uR4-aEk5lQ). In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Sara made her way into the world of tech and investing? 2.) What does Sara believe is the most important value add to startups and portfolio companies? How can investors differentiate themselves from fellow angels? 3.) What does Sara make of the importance of startups f

Max Kelly is Managing Director of Techstars London for those of you that are not so familiar with Techstars, Techstars is the leading global ecosystem for entrepreneurs to bring new technologies to market helping to create the next generation of amazing startups and prior to joining Techstars, Max had a long background running innovation and entrepreneurship at Virgin. While there, he was responsible for the strategy of the group and for starting several companies which eventually exited for over $500M. Alongside his Virgin commitments, Max also co-founded lastsecondtickets.com which had a successful exit in 2014. In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.)How did Max make his way into tech and investing? How was his time at Virgin? 2.) What is Techstars and what is the fundamental differentiator to the plethora of other accelerators that exist? 3.) What does Max think of Sam Altman’s recent article on the damning nature of incubator hopping? Does he agree? In what situations is it acceptable? 4.) With many c

Sean was on the Founding team at Trulia (acq Zillow for $2.5bn), Sean was also the founder and CEO at Sequoia funded, Crunched (acquired by ClearSlide). On the investing side he is an investor at Correlation Ventures and a prominent angel investor in several marketplace companies including SeatGeek, NerdWallet, Zeel, Paintzen, Peach and the home improvement app Smith. In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Sean made his start angel investing in startups? 2.)How startups can deal with the mass of advice on offer to them today? What makes a great mentor? What should they look for and what should they be wary of? 3.) What are Sean's views on accelerator alumni? How can investors get early access to accelerator companies pre demo day? 4.)What does Sean make of companies attending multiple accelerators? What are the good reasons and what are the bad? 5.) As an angel investor now, how does Tom determine the 'eye of the tiger' within the entrepreneur? Having worked with many at Techstars, what are the commonali

Edward Lando is an active angel investor and the founder of Horizons, the coding bootcamp that teaches you to code real products before you graduate. Edward must be considered one of the youngest angels being only 23 years old giving him a unique insight and perspective into the current market. In today’s episode we discuss the pros and cons of having an operator background as an investor, what metrics early stage investors should be honing in on and the commonalities of successful consumer products and for the accompanying article of todays show head on over to synducateroom.com where you can find our investor academy. In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Edward made his way into the world of investing and tech? 2.) As a 23 year old investor, what are the benefits of being so young and investng? How does it differentiates Edward? Does it pose any challenges in terms of commanding respect from higher tier VCs or Founders? 3.) What does Edward look for in potential investments? What metrics does Edwar

Chris is an active angel and tech entrepreneur as the founder of Voodoo Ventures, a platform that invests in companies and builds out their own products he has invested in several companies across a range of sectors at the very early stage. Furthering this, in 2009 Chris co-founded Launch Pad, a community that provides workspace, mentor network, and educational events to develop the talent in the New Orleans ecosystem. Prior to LaunchPad, Chris also co-founded Flatstack, a software development company with offices in Kazan, Russia and New Orleans that builds applications for clients worldwide. Before we dive into the show do not forget to check out the accompanying article to the show today discussing the 2 different types of angels and what works best for what type of company. It is a fascinating read and you can find that on syndicateroom.com. However, enough from me so it is now time to welcome the man himself, Chris Shultz, Founder @ LaunchPad. In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Chris made his

David Ford has been an active investor in the public markets. However, in the past 12 months David has been gaining experience angel investing in a variety of startups from the £2m-£10m valuation range. Prior to becoming a full time angel investor, David worked for a leading global leveraged finance investor, backing a variety of LBOs and investing across a range of asset classes, including Senior Debt, High Yield bonds, and PIK securities. He was latterly Head of Credit Research for Europe, as well as sitting on the European, AsiaPacific, and US Investment Committees. David also got an early taste for the tech ecosystem, in the early 2000s David was on secondment to the San Francisco office and experienced first hand the boom and bust of Silicon Valley! In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How David made your entry into the investing world? What was it that attracted you to the world of investments? 2.) What was David’s primary method of deal sourcing as a hobbyist angel and how has that transitioned now

Jake Gibson is a prolific angel investor in SF whose investments include the likes of Datafox, Meadow, the new on demand delivery service for marijuana and TripleByte, the amazing recruitment platform for engineers co-founded by YC’s own Harj Taggar. Prior to his transition into investing Jake co-founded NerdWallet, a startup focused on offering price-comparison tools for financial products where he is to this day an advisor and if that was not enough he is also a mentor with our good friends, 500 startups. In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Jake made his way into entrepreneurship and made the transition into the world of investing? 2 2.) Why did Jake decide not to take external money when growing Nerd Wallet? What does Jake think are the pros and cons of bootstrapping? 3.) What was it that attracted Jake to the world of investing? In the opening days, how did Jake operate as an angel? What was Jake’s deal sourcing like? 4.) Why has Jake decided to have a sector diverse approach when it comes to in

Ben Wiener is the Managing Partner @ Jumpspeed Ventures, self proclaimed to have raised one of the smallest first funds ever with a first fund of $251,000. Due to the immense success of Ben’s first fund he has gone on to raise a further fund 10X the size of the 1st fund. Today is a super interesting interview with Ben in revealing the benefits of having a very tailored and niche approach to investing and choosing one particular segment of the market and nailing it and Ben has clearly done that with Jumpspeed. Do not forget to head over to the site at www.syndicateroom.com to read the accompanying article from our episode with Ben. In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Ben made his entry into the investing world? 2.) Why did Ben decide to be so location focused? Does he fear missing out on deals outside of Jerusalem? How is the current tech market in Jerusalem? 3.) When investing at such an early stage, what does Ben look for in prospective investments with very little KPI’s to go on? 4.) Why did Ben c

Keith Wallace is a Partner @ The Investors Club, Keith is a Scotsman with a passion for Europe. After graduation he started his first consulting company and ended up in the heyday the DotCom. When the Internet bubble burst , he moved to New York with a new mission: to help fellow-entrepreneurs avoid the “burn-rate” trap he himself had fallen victim to. Together with friends, Keith started investing and soon became a part of one of the Netherlands largest networks of informal investors, leading him to found De Investeerdersclub – “Hollands most informal investors club”, together with Martijn Blom and Gert van Veldhuisen. Keith has extensive experience is setting up companies, bootstrapping, coaching, and pre-seed capital and financing. In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) Now I would love to kick off today’s show by hearing how you made your way into the world of investing to become as you call an informal investor? How did the bubble burst really affect you and your mindset on the market? Now can you expl

I am delighted to welcome Alexandre Covello to the show today. Alexandre is an active tech investor and startup mentor. He is the Founder and CEO of AngelsCube, an innovative investment platform dedicated to institutional investors focused on technology investments. He is a Member of the Board of the Harvard Business School Angels Club of London where he co-chairs the screening committee. Prior to founding AngelsCube, and for the past 15 years, Alexandre advised institutional investors on their global private equity allocations. In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Alexandre made his entry into the tech world? What was it that attracted Alexandre to the world of investments? 2.) As an angel you are at the very beginning stages of a companies life cycle so what is your deal sourcing looking like these days? Does this differ to how you source deals for the AngelsCube platform? 3.) What are the key activities that Angelscube engage in to ensure their companies are ready for the VC funding stage? What are

Julian Ranger has been an Angel Investor since 2007 and an entrepreneur since he formed his first business, STASYS in 1986. Which he sold to Lockheed Martin in 2005. Julian was responsible for the growth of STASYS to a £17M+ business with 230 staff, with subsidiaries in USA, Germany, Australia and Malaysia prior to sale to Lockheed Martin. Julian Left Lockheed Martin in June 2007, and has been an angel investor in many businesses, mainly technical in focus, including such successful businesses such as Astrobotic, Hailo and Datasift. If that wasn’t enough Julian also founded an Innovation Hub, iBundle, which has been responsible for a number of new businesses, and is the current Founder and Chairman @ Digime. In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Julian made his entry into the tech world? What was it that attracted him to the world of investments? 2.) Having spent years in the operations business, how has this affected Julian’s investing style? 3.) What does Julian think about part time angel investo

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