Angel Insights | Your guide to angel investing

Gale Bowman is the founding director of IrishAngels, has grown the group to 150 investors and managed 15 investments totaling over $5.5 million in seed and Series A capital. Her previous work experience includes market research consulting at Nielsen and corporate strategy at Orbitz. She has consulted many startups on customer research, marketing, and funding strategy. Bowman sits on the Board of the C200 Scholars Network and is a member of the Irish Entrepreneurs Network.

In Today’s Show We Discuss:

How did Gale make her way into the angel ecosystem?

What are the fundamental differences between an institutionalised angel fund and a more casual network of angel investors?

What are the most common and biggest mistakes Gale sees when it comes to founders approaching the fundraising process?

What advice does Gale give most often to new angels to the ecosystem?

How do Gale’s return expectations differ from the likes of larger more instituional funds?

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Jonathan Hakakian is the Managing Director and Co-Founder of the SoundBoard Angel Fund with Richard Magid. Jonathan raised capital for the fund, directed the diligence process into a growing portfolio of 20 companies, and coached many of the portfolio's entrepreneurs on their journeys. His professional background also includes tech, sales, construction, and management. Most recently he graduated from the Kauffman Fellows Program (Class 19) where he focused his studies on being an innovative venture investor. Locally, Jonathan is a board member of New Jersey Entrepreneurial Network, an Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR) at Stevens Institute of Technology Venture Center, and an advisory board member of MCW (a non-profit focused on empowering current and future leaders to better their local communities).

In Today’s Show We Discuss:

How did Jonathan make his way into the angel ecosystem?

What is Jonathan’s approach to valuation and ownership at such an

early stage? What level of ownership is required to generate the desired Alpha?

What is Jonathan’s return expectations? How does this differ from sector to sector? How does this differ from the $Bn return expectations of large VCs?

How does Jonathan approach team formation? What does he look for in early stage founders and their team?

What Jonathan looks for in his co-investors? What gives him confidence? What makes him nervous?

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Deb Kemper is the Managing Director of the Boston chapter of Golden Seeds. Her involvement includes deal flow, membership, education, and operations. She is an active early-stage investor, mentor to entrepreneurs, and board member. Prior to Golden Seeds, Deb spent many years in management consulting at McKinsey & Company where she served clients in the healthcare, energy, and electronics sectors.

In Today’s Show We Discuss:

How did Deb make her way into the angel ecosystem?

What has caused the huge rise of Boston’s startup ecosystem? What are the required components for successful ecosystems to thrive?

How important is intellectual property for Deb when considering a prospective investment?

What advice does Deb give most often to new angels to the ecosystem?

Does Deb agree that all angels have a duty to follow on in investment rounds if they have backed early rounds?

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Nick Lyth is a founder at the Green Angels Syndicate, the only angel investment syndicate specialising in investments to benefit the green economy. As for Nick, prior to Green Angels, Nick has spent over ten years building up a new applied research institute in the eco and environmental arena, with the international status to attract innovation to its door. He has also contributed to forums advising Scottish Government the Northern Irish Government and the European Parliament in Brussels.

In Today’s Show We Discuss:

How did Nick make his way into the angel ecosystem?

Why have we seen such a lack of investment in the energy space from the perspective of angels and VCs? What are the inherent investment barriers that need to be overcome?

How has the onboarding process been for Nick in entering the angel environment? What was the biggest shock to Nick in the investment world?

How does Nick ensure that his voice is heard as an angel? What makes a good board member and non-exec director?

What advice would Nick give to other angels starting out in the ecosystem? What should they look to learn and what should they try and avoid?

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Thatcher Bell is a venture partner @ Gotham Ventures and Thatcher has spent more than a dozen years in the startup community as a venture capitalist and operator. Prior to joining Gotham Ventures, Thatcher was a Senior Analyst at North Hill Ventures, the venture capital affiliate of Capital One Financial. Before joining North Hill, Thatcher held business and corporate development roles at OpenPages (acquired by IBM) and SharkTank. If you love the show with Thatcher today and want to hear more, head over to syndicateroom.com where you can find more articles, podcasts and resources.

In Today’s Show We Discuss:

How did Thatcher make his way into the angel ecosystem?

What were Thatcher’s biggest takeaways from his operational experience? How does that lend to his investment role?

Do all investors need to have operational experience? What is required to make the transition from operator to angel?

How does Thatcher look to split his time between portfolio companies? Where does he spend the majority of his time?

When an investment is not working, how does Thatcher convey that to the entrepreneur? What does the feedback process look like?

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John Alexander is the founder of CBORD group, the world’s leading provider of campus and cashless card systems, food and nutrition service management software, nationwide student discount and off-campus commerce programs, housing and judicial process management software, and integrated security solutions. John founded CBORD in 1975 and led it right through to it’s sale in 2008 which is when he made the move into angel investing. However, John did have venture experience having got involved with Cayuga venture fund as early as 1994. Ernst and Young selected Mr. Alexander as the Upstate New York Technology Entrepreneur of the in 2002. Cornell selected Alexander as its 2012 Entrepreneur of the Year. For more information on John’s incredible career see here (http://www.rbangels.com/team/john-alexander/)

In Today’s Show We Discuss:

How did John make his way into the angel ecosystem?

What does John look for in his co-investors? What gives him confidence when he looks at the cap table?

At what stage does John tend to invest? What does John make of the desire to label every round with specific naming tags? Do they have any meaning?

What level of return would John consider to be reasonable and then what would be a big success? How does John approach exit time horizons?

Do angels have a commitment to follow on? At what stage does this commitmment stop?

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Meghan Cross is the Managing Director @ Red Bear Angels which she joined with nearly a decade of operating experience launching and growing media & software companies in New York and Silicon Valley. As an early Director at StyleCaster Inc., Meghan led the digital media conglomerate’s marketing team through the business’ exit to She Knows Media. Before that, Meghan was in PR, helping to build Skype and Foursquare into household names. She also draws venture experience from working with Bowery Capital, Foundation Capital, Metamorphic Ventures, and StarVest Partners. Megan is also the founder of Cross Venture Services LLC, a launch advisor to such commerce platforms as Sailo (TechStars ’15), Shareswell, and Thursday Boot Co. Learning process

In Today’s Show We Discuss:

What angels really look for in VC partners?

How Megan approached the learning process of becoming an angel investor?

What were Meghan’s biggest takeaways in working with Foursquare and Skype as they entered hypergrowth mode?

How does Meghan view investor value add? Is all money green?

What would Meghan like to see more of in the early stage angel ecosystem in NYC?

Learn more about SyndicateRoom: www.syndicateroom.com

Elizabeth Galbut is a Founding Partner @ Sogal Ventures, the first female led cross border venture capital firm and Prior to finishing business school, she founded A-Level Capital, the first student-led venture capital firm powered by Johns Hopkins students. Before graduate school, Elizabeth was a strategy & operations consultant at Deloitte Consulting focusing on large healthcare clients. Outside of her client-facing work, she contributed to business development efforts that led to over $200M of new work. If you love the show today then you can head over to syndicateroom.com and see all the previous episodes as well as accompanying angel articles and resources but for now I am delighted to hand over to Elizabeth Galbut, Founding Partner @ Sogal Ventures.

In Today’s Show We Discuss:

How Elizabeth made her way into the investing world?

How Elizabeth looks to establish pattern recognition as a recent entrant

to the VC community?

What does Elizabeth look for in her co-investors?

What does Elizabeth’s diligence process look life for prospective investments? How do this differ from deal to deal?

What was the hardest element in establishing SoGal Ventures? What would Elizabeth most like to change about the early stage investing world?

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Jon Lerner is a Managing Director @ Smedvig Capital where he actively looks for the best tech enabled business in the UK and currently sits on the board of Mediamorph and Captify. Prior to Smedvig, Jon was a Senior Consultant at Bain in London and Toronto. If you love the show today then you can head over to syndicateroom.com and see all the previous episodes as well as accompanying angel articles and resources but for now I am delighted to hand over to Jon Lerner, Managing Director @ Smedvig Capital.

In Today’s Show We Discuss:

What angels really look for in VC partners?

What are the most common elements of contention and disagreement between angels and later stage VCs?

How does Jonathan look to harness the early angel ecosystem to provide him with a strong incoming quality of dealflow?

How does Jon approach valuation and ownership? Does he adopt the Sheryl Sandberg approach of it does not matter where you sit as long as you have a seat on the rocketship?

What would Jon like to see more of in the early stage angel ecosystem in London?

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Simon Bichara is an active angel and advisor with investments in the likes of Jinn, Ignite, Fit Gurus and many more incredible companies. He is also the founder of Hired By Me, the tool that helps contractors get hired faster. Prior to being immersed in the world of startups and investing Simon spent several years at Barclays before seeing the late and moving to the tech space. Now if you enjoy the show and would like to see more information then you can head over to www.syndicateroom.com where you can find the investor academy with more articles podcasts and information.

In Today’s Show We Discuss:

How did Simon’s financial background lend to his role now as an angel?

What elements of a founding team gives Simon confidence?

How does Simon view of the maturation of the early stage investing environment?

Is all money good money? In what cases is dumb money a problem?

How does Simon analyse the current levels of valuation? How does Simon determine valuation at the earliest of stages with no measurable data?

Learn more about SyndicateRoom: www.syndicateroom.com