Angel Insights | Your guide to angel investing

Nancy Fechnay is a Partner @ Flight Ventures where Nancy runs the UK syndicate which now has over 430,000 comitted to the syndicate and Nancy moved to London from Silicon Valley in 2014, having spent time with the likes of Kleiner Perkins and GE Ventures. Now in the UK, Nancy is the Interim Director at Techstars London as well as an advisor to several select UK and U.S. based startups and has a soft spot for wearables and other digital hardware plays, but invests across all sectors.

Contained In Today’s Episode:

1.) How Nancy made her entry into the tech and investing world? What was it that attracted Nancy to the world of investments?

2.) Having working in both the US and UK venture scene now, when comparing the US and European scenes what are the biggest differences? Do the entrepreneurs have a fundamentally different mindset? Are UK entrepreneurs more risk averse, as is always suggested? Are investor expectations different in the US?

3.) Does the narrow exit funnel for European startups not concern NancySome suggest that startups must go to the valley if they are to be acquired for $bn plus or have a successful IPO. Does Nancy agree?

4.) Why did Nancy agree to setup Uk Technology by Flight Ventures with Gil Penchina? What is the mission? What is the average investment? Is there a plan to be investing further in Europe in time?

5.) At a talk with the Chicago Angels Network Nancy said that European investors are much more KPI led, in comparison to US investors who follow the passion of the team and the vision? Which side does Nancy fall on and what are the pros and the cons?

6.) What have been Nancy’s biggest takeaways from working with Gil Penchina?

Shopping List From Today’s Show:

Favourite book and why: Machine Learning: The Art Of Science & Algorithms That Make Sense Of Data by Peter Flach

Fave blog or newsletter: The Memo, Term Sheet

Most recent investment and why: Lystable

As always, you can learn more about SyndicateRoom here:

www.syndicateroom.com

and see Nancy's latest tweets here:

www.twitter.com/NancyFechnay

Ruzbeh Bacha is the CEO and Founder @ CityFalcon and has worked in finance and strategy roles at KPMG, Nokia, Skype and Microsoft and With more than 15 years of investing and trading experience, he looks for parallels when investing in start-ups, and has invested in more than 10 start-ups since 2013. He also runs London Value Investing Club where members discuss stock investment opportunities and share their investing views and theses.

In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:

1.) How Ruzbeh made his entrance into the world of startups and investing?

2.) What were the biggest takeaways from working at Skype and how Ruzbeh has applied them to his role at CityFalcon?

3.) What were the hardest elements of starting and then building CityFalcon? What are Ruzbeh’s thoughts on the progression of London’s ecosystem as a fintech hub? Where are we doing well? How could we improve?

4.) What made Ruzbeh want to make the move into the investing world? How has his operational background impacted your investing perspective?

5.) What was the most challenging aspect about making the foray into the world of angel investing? How did Ruzbeh attempt to develop some form of pattern recognition when starting out investing?

6.) How has Ruzbeh honed his investment decision making process over time?

Items Mentioned In Today’s Episode:

Favourite blog or newsletter: Linkedin NewsFeed

Most recent investment: Lobster Media

As always, you can learn more about SyndicateRoom here:

www.syndicateroom.com

and see Ruzbeth's latest tweets here:

www.twitter.com/ruzbehb

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 for being located in a tech hub? Does it really matter? What are the disadvantages, what are the advantages? How does it affect startup valuations?

4.) What are the determinants of a successful incubator? How can incubators differentiate themselves in the sea of incubators on the west coast?

5.) How can entrepreneurs learn to not get confused and disheartened by the famous investor whiplash? Is it right to hear feedback and not react to it?

6.) What does Sara believe is the optimal way for angels and incubators to act? How can angels get the most from the accelerator process?

7.) What Sara make of Sam Altman’s famous incubator hopping essay, where do Maven stand with regards to multiple accelerator startups?

Items Mentioned In Today’s Show:

Fave book and why: The Alchemist

Fave Blog or Newsletter: Mattermark Daily

Most recent investment and why you said yes: HomeMade

As always, you can learn more about SyndicateRoom here:

www.syndicateroom.com

and see Sara's latest tweets here:

www.twitter.com/saraannet

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 companies graduating from Tectstars every batch, how does Max retain the same quality control and level of mentorship for every company?

5.) What is the most common sector prospective Techstars companies are looking to enter? What is the least common?

6.) How do the VCs play a role in the process? Do some get exclusive access to prior to demo day? What do the best VCs do to make the most out of Techstars?

Items Mentioned In Today’s Show:

Fave book: Zen and the art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Most used app: Citymapper, Voxer, Headspace,

Fave Blog: CB Insights, The Daily Shop, Exponential View

As always, you can learn more about SyndicateRoom here:

www.syndicateroom.com

and see Max's latest tweets here:

www.syndicateroom.com/maxkellyuk

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 commonalities amongst the successful entrepreneurs?

Items Mentioned In Today's Show:

Sean's Fave Book: Robert Cialdini: Influence

Sean's Fave Blog: CB Insights

Sean's Most Recent Investment: NerdWallet

As always, you can learn more about SyndicateRoom here:

www.syndicateroom.com

and see Sean's latest tweets here:

www.twitter.com/SeanBlack

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 Edward focus on when determining the investability of a product?

4.) What are the pros and cons of being both an operator and an investor at the same time? What does Edward find to be the most challenging element?

5.) What are Edward’s thoughts on successful consumer products? What are the commonalities in those that are successful? How important is branding in creating a successful consumer product?

As always, you can learn more about SyndicateRoom here:

www.syndicateroom.com

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 way into the world of investing and startups?

2.) What are the main benefits for Chris of collaboration both in the working space and the investing realm? Is there anything that can be done to maximize the effectiveness of this type of working from the investor perspective?

3.) What is Chris’ investment strategy? How does he approach deal flow? What is his filtering methods?

4.) In the past Chris has discussed 2 different types of investors, engineers vs financiers. What are these two different types of investors? Which one is right for which business?

5.) Chris has written about the abundance of solutions provided to white people problems. What does he mean by this and where does he see potential for true problem solving ability on a much wider scale?

6.) Finally I would love to discuss one of my fave topics in the world of pitching and investing and that is FOMO. So how does Chris create it for the investor as an entrepreneur and how does he as an investor stay cautious and aware that FOMO can misguide him when investing?

Items Mentioned In Today’s Show:

Chris’ Fave Startup Investing Resource: Paul Singh, 500 Startups

Chris’ Most Recent Investment: 86co

As always, you can learn more about SyndicateRoom here:

www.syndicateroom.com

and see Chris' latest tweets here:

www.twitter.com.cschultz

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 he is a full time angel?

3.) How has David found the transition coming from a professional investing background? What is the biggest surprise for David on entering the industry full time?

4.) What does David believe makes a great lead investor? What is required to carry out the round successfully?

5.) When looking back at the experience starting out what were the biggest pitfalls David faced? How did he overcome them?

6.) What have been the biggest takeaways from David’s 1st year full time angel investing? How has David’s strategy and investing thesis changed over the year?

Items Mentioned In The Show Today:

David’s Fave Blog: Biotech and Money (http://biotechandmoney.com)

David’s Most Recent Investment: Smart Surgical (http://smart-surgical.com)

As always, you can learn more about SyndicateRoom here:

www.syndicateroom.com

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 investing? Does Jake think investor specialization can be beneficial?

5.) Looking back at your time investing, has there been a pareto’s principle happening? Has 20% of the work produced 80% of the results? If so, what 20% was that and how do you plan to further increase this segment?

6.) How does Jake aim to differentiate himself from the mass of other angels? How important do Jake believe angel personal branding is? Has differentiation been the hardest aspect of the investing experience for Jake?

Items Mentioned In Today’s Show:

Jake’s Fave Book: Leaving Microsoft To Change The World

Jake’s Fave News Source: Twitter

Jake’s Most Recent Investment: Meadow

As always, you can learn more about SyndicateRoom here:

www.syndicateroom.com

and see Jake's latest tweets here:

www.twitter.com/iamjakestream

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 choose to adopt the Betaworks model of a startup studio entrenched within a venture fund?

5.) How important does Ben believe proximity to his investments is? Can long distance investments be sustainable and efficient?

6.) Ben reveals a war story, where he reveals what is going wrong, how it has altered his investing style and how he plans to resolve the situation?

Items Mentioned In Today’s Show:

Ben’s Fave Book: Traction by Gabriel Weinberg, The European Discovery of America

Ben’s Fave Blog: Mattermark Daily, CB Insights, Jerry Newman, Leo Polovets, Mobile Fix by Simon Andrews

Ben’s Most Recent Investment: Exigence

As always, you can learn more about SyndicateRoom here:

www.syndicateroom.com

and see Ben's latest tweets here:

www.twitter.come/BeninJLM