Angel Insights | Your guide to angel investing

Henry Joseph Grant has extensive experience both in startup operations and mentoring. Having started working as a paperboy at 11, he then went on to work with the likes of Virgin, JustEAT (where he saw the company's hyper growth phase from seed to Series D) to where Henry is today with UNIDays. Alongside this impressive operational career Henry has also been a startup mentor and advisor at the likes of SeedCamp and PiLabs. Due to this connection, he has also made several angel investments adding the strategic value that has been gained from his time in operations.

In Today's Episode You Will Learn:

1.) How Henry made his way into the world of Tech and what made Henry want to start angel investing?

2.) What were the main lessons for Henry in watching JustEat scale into hyper growth mode? What did they do right and what did they do wrong?

3.) When comparing Henry's angel investing strategy with other angels in the ecosystem, how does his differ? What does Henry make of hyper aggressive super angels?

4.) How has his time in operations equipped him with the perfect skills to be the strategic advisor to startups? Where do startups most need his help?

Items Mentioned In Today's Show:

Henry's Fave Blog: TechCrunch: Steve O'Hear (http://techcrunch.com/author/steve-ohear/)

Henry's Most Recent Investment: Splittable (https://www.splittable.co)

As always, you can learn more about SyndicateRoom here: www.syndicateroom.com

and see Henry's twitter page here: www.twitter.com/speirin

Joining me today is our very own Tom Britton, Co-Founder & CTO @ SyndicateRoom, one of the UK’s leading equity crowdfunding platforms having raised £40m in funding for startups last year and having recently raised their own round on their own platform, so a big congrats to them for that and in the show today we discuss the future for crowdfunding in fluctuating credit cycles, why one business is more suitable for crwdfunding than another and the effect of Title III, will it have the ramficiations everyone is expecting?

1.) How did Tom come to co-found SyndicateRoom from a little office in Cambridge?

2.) How will crowd investing perform during a different part of the credit cycle? Does Tom think crowd investing will do well when interest rates rise and defaults rates increase?

3.) What makes a business suitable for crowdfunding vs suitable for VC, and in which case should a business do something like Beaulah did and utilise both? How does Tom compare SyndicateRoom to Angelist?

4.) With the recent announcement of Title III in the US, a friend Ryan Caldbeck, Co-Founder @ CircleUp told me that unaccredited investors would get the worst dealflow as the best startups go to VCs and get funded, those that do not get rejected by them, then go to angels, then go to HNW’s and then when everyone else has rejected them then they go to unaccredited giving them the worst dealflow. What are Tom's thoughts on this and how can we solve for this?

5.) Does Tom see institutional capital entering crowd investing at any point? Would Tom be averse to this?

6.) What does the roadmap look like for the crowdfunding space as a whole in the next 10 years? What are Tom's predictions?

Items Mentioned In The Show Today:

Tom's Fave Book: Talk Like Ted by Carmine Gallo

Tom's Fave Blog: CB Insights, Both Sides Of The Table

As always, you can learn more about SyndicateRoom here: www.syndicateroom.com

and see Tom's twitter page here: www.twitter.com/tombritton

Orson Stadler is an investor @ mustardseed. mustardseed seek to enable the creation of world class businesses that generate positive and sustainable outcomes and they do this by connecting influential investors with socially driven entrepreneurs. Orson himself is a former associate at Blackrock and now at mustardseed his responsibilities include fund strategy and operations, as well as an array of other biz dev roles. If you like the show then headover to syndicateroom.com where you can find a whole host of past episodes and articles from the show.

Discussed Today:

1.) How Orson came to be an investor in early stage social impact startups?

2.) Why is there so much skepticism towards the ability for both impact investing and LP returns? How does Orson respond to this?

3.) What needs to change in the public's perception of impact investing? How has crowdfunding affected both the seed and impact investing scene?

4.) How mustardseed look to measure the impact their companies are making? What are the metrics that suggest success?

5.) Where does Orson believe the next wave of impact investing will take place?

Items Mentioned:

Fave Investing Resource: Crowdsurfer

Most Recent Investment: Beulah London (https://www.syndicateroom.com/beulah?tab=0#deal)

As always, you can learn more about SyndicateRoom here: www.syndicateroom.com

and see Orson's twitter page here: www.twitter.com/orson_stadler

Avin Rabheru is the Founder and CEO of Housekeep (https://housekeep.com), London’s top rated cleaning service which allows you to find and book a local and trusted house cleaner in minutes. Prior to being an entrepreneur, Avin worked in venture capital at Smedvig Capital in London, investing in early stage, high growth companies with an investment range of £2-15m. Throughout both Avin’s operational and VC experience, he has been a prolific angel investor having made over 40 direct investments in the likes Zipcar, Crowdcube and Kabbee just to name a few.

In Today's Episode You Will Discover:

1.) How did Avin make his way into the world of startup investing? How did Avin’s mindset alter when comparing his angel investments to his VC investments?

2.) How does Avin decide his capital allocation profile? Does he set aside an initial pool of capital and have a set investment range and set portfolio size he is looking to achieve?

3.) How does Avin look to differentiate himself in the ever increasing angel market? What is the value add? Is the brand important for Avin?

4.) How does Avin go about sourcing companies to invest in? Is Avin a hunter? A referrer? What has Avin found to be the optimal process for deal sourcing?

5.) How does Avin approach the due diligence process of the deal? How does Avin look to deep dive into companies and their teams? Founder evaluation is probably the most important skill an angel can have, how does Avin approach this and how has Avin honed this with time?

6.) What are the biggest mistakes and challenges that Avin has made and faced? How did he combat them and learn from them? How did they influence his thesis?

As always, you can learn more about SyndicateRoom here: www.syndicateroom.com

and see Avin's latest tweets here: www.twitter.com/AvinRabheru

David Rose is the Founder & CEO @ Gust, the platform that has allowed $1.8bn to flow through Gust to startups. David himself is a serial entrepreneur having personally raised millions in VC funding and being named a ‘world conquering entrepreneur’ by BusinessWeek. David is also a prolific angel investor himself having invested in over 70 early stage companies and having founded and chairing the New York Angels. It has to also be said that David is a master of the VC pitch and you can check out his incredible Ted talk here.

Topics Discussed Today:

1.) How did David make his way into the world of investing in tech startups?

2.) What were David’s biggest lessons from watching the success and achievements of his entrepreneurial father and grandfather?

3.) How has David seen the startup and investing ecosystem evolve over the last few decades?

4.) Is entrepreneurship itself an element that can be taught or is it an innate being within an individual?

5.) What are the commonalities amongst the great angel investors David has worked with and been invested in?

Items Mentioned In The Show Today:

David’s Fave Investing Resource: Gust.com

David S. Rose: Sayings From My Father

Angel Investing: The Gust Guide To Making Money and Having Fun Investing In Startups

The Startup Checklist: 25 Steps to a Scalable, High-Growth Business

As always, you can learn more about SyndicateRoom here: www.syndicateroom.com

and see David's latest tweets here: www.twitter.com/davidsrose

We have a very special show for you today both in terms of people and organisation. Firstly, we have two guests joining us today in the form of David Barrie, David has created and managed several ventures that have been credited with raising £300m+ of new investment through public-private partnerships. In 2013, David proposed to the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea a seed investment in the foundation of the new Wild Blue angel investment network. David is joined by his investment director Deepali Nangia, who has enjoyed a career spanning the heights of Wall St to the financial hub that is London to founding a business in India. Now the second element that is slightly unusual today is the organization that David founded, Wile Blue Cohort an angel investment network with a specific hyper location focus on West London investing in business close to home.

Today's Episode Covers:

1.) How did David and Deepali make their move into the world of investing?

2.) What was the impetus behind the founding of Wild Blue? What were the benefits and then once decided, what were the steps to take to legitimize the process?

3.) A group is like a product, the value is in the users, so how did David and Deepali attain the initial user base? What were the member acquisition channels? How important was the hyperlocality to the success of the angel network? Can you have long distance angel networks that are super effective?

4.) What is the investment thesis, with the social responsibility aspect, how do David and Deepali manage to balance the financial returns with social impact?

5.) What does success look like to David and Deepali with Wild Blue? What potential pitfalls will be encountered and how will David and Deepali combat them?

Mentioned Today:

Deepali and David's Fave Blog: CB Insights, Term Sheet by Dan Primacy

Wild Blue Most Recent Investment: HomeTouch

As always, you can learn more about SyndicateRoom here:

www.syndicateroom.com

Chris Mairs (https://twitter.com/Chris_mairs) is the chief scientist at Metaswitch where he has seen the company exponential growth over the last few decades including the raise of their first vc money in 2008 with the likes of Sequoia and Francisco partners investing, he is also a prolific angel investor and has an immense portfolio with the likes of MagicPony, SmartUp and Adbrain all being investments of Chris’. Chris is also the chair of Code Club and the UK Forum for Computer Education. Finally to cap it all off he is also a Fellow of the British Computer Society and a Fellow of The Royal Academy of Engineering.

In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:

1. How Chris made his way into the world of tech and then later angel investing?

2. What were the lessons that Chris took from his communications with Sequoia and Jim Goetz, that he has applied to his angel investing thesis?

3. Which element of the Metaswitch journey was Chris favourite time of the experience to work in?

4. How was the scaling process for Chris and Metaswitch in terms of hiring and maintaining the Metaswitch company culture?

5. Does Chris apply the same educational focussed hiring strategy to his founder assessment approach when he is angel investing? What does Chris look for in the founders he backs?

Items Mentioned Today:

Chris' Investments: MagicPony, Adbrain, Tractable

As always, you can learn more about SyndicateRoom here:

www.syndicateroom.com

and see Chris' latest tweets here: www.twitter.com/Chris_mairs

Simon is an active angel investor in UK companies with a focus on the technology sector. His current portfolio consists of twenty companies and to date has achieved four exits, including the likes of SwiftKey to Microsoft.

Simon is also a member of Cambridge Capital Group (CCG) and Angel Academe (a predominately female network), where he is on the advisory board. He participates as a mentor for the University of Manchester, Cambridge Judge Business School's Accelerate Cambridge programme and Angel Academe's female entrepreneur programme.

In Today’s Episode We Dive Into:

1.) How Simon made his entry into the investing world? What was it that attracted him to the world of startup investments?

2.) With 4 exits in the last 12 months, how has this affected you mindset to investing? What have been the commonalities when looking at those investments?

3.) At what point can an angel decide not to follow on in a round without providing a negative signaling function? Does it matter if you are the cornerstone investor?

4.) On the flip side of the 4 exits, what has been the most common reason Simon has seen startups fail? What attributes lead to a startup not reaching their potential?

5.) Where do Simon lie on the relationship between growth and revenue? Is revenue always required or can the sole aim of a company be growth? When does a company have to start considering monetisation?

Action Points for Today:

Fave blog or newsletter: Ben Evans

As always, you can learn more about SyndicateRoom here:

www.syndicateroom.com

and see Simon's latest tweets here:

www.twitter.com/thorpesi

Russ is an angel and venture investor and non-executive director of a number of high growth businesses. He is also a limited partner in Ariadne Capital’s ACE Fund and an investor in and advisor to Amazing Media Group. Russ is also a board member of the Tech City Advisory Group. Previously, Russ was Vice President & General Manager at Skype with responsibility for its mobile division globally. Russ exited when Skype was sold to Microsoft. Before Skype, Russ was at Telefonica, where he was the Global Innovation Director. This included managing a venture fund and an internal ‘incubation’ initiative. Prior to this role, he was with Telefonica’s O2 mobile business, as Marketing Director, responsible for initiatives such as The O2 venue in London.

In Today’s Episode You Will Hear:

1.) How Russ made his entry into the investing world? What was it that attracted

2.) What were Russ’ big takeaways from his career investing institutionally? How does he allocate his portfolio in terms of differing asset classes? How much of his angel capital pool does Russ set aside for follow on rounds?

3.) What does Russ believe are the right reasons for founders to be raising money? What does Russ want to hear founders spending angel money on?

4.) How has Russ’ investment decision making process changed when approaching prospective startups to invest in?

5.) What is the TLA? What is the main purpose and function? What more can London do to become and be seen as the hub of tech behind Silicon Valley that we all so desperately want it to be?

Items Mentioned In Today’s Show:

Fave startup or investing blog? Huff Post, Tech City News

As always, you can learn more about SyndicateRoom here:

www.syndicateroom.com

and see Russ' latest tweets here:

www.twitter.com/RussShaw1

Jonathan is a General Partner at Indicator Ventures, however, Jonathan has not always been an early stage investor! After graduating from Yeshiva University, Sy Syms School of Business, Jonathan was the Director of Marketing at Sheets Brand Energy and Sleep Strips, helping launch their national advertising campaign in over 50,000 retail locations. He parlayed his experience into founding Socialosity, a digital marketing agency connecting brands with top-tier celebrities and influencers (LeBron James, Serena Williams, Pitbull, Chris Paul, etc.) through social media. Most recently, he was Co-founder of Kodiak Samurai, a NYC-based social media agency catering to complex global brand clients including Amazon’s Audible.com, Rolling Stone Magazine and Polaroid, among others.

In Today’s Episode We Discuss:

1.) How Jon made his way into the world of early stage investing?

2.) What does the Jonathan make of the evolution of social with the rise of the mobile? What does Jonathan think will be the platform for social in the future?

3.) How can angels use social media to assert their presence and thought leadership in an industry?

4.) How can angels bridge the divide of being a thought leader in one industry without losing the deal flow from another?

5.) How can angels build better relationships with current portfolio company founders through different social platforms? Does taking the conversation off email make the relationship deeper?

6.) Tell us about a war story, can you give us a little detail on an investment that went awry, what went wrong and how you changed your style as a result

Shopping Basket For The Show Today:

Favourite investing blog or newsletter: Launch, Strictly VC

Most recent investment: Wade and Wendy

As always, you can learn more about SyndicateRoom here:

www.syndicateroom.com

and see Jonathan's latest tweets here:

www.twitter.com/Struhl