Writing the check is the easy part. The marriage that comes after is what nobody warns founders about until they are five years deep. Mitra Miller, President and Board Member of the Houston Angel Network, gets into what actually makes a startup investable, why she hunts for red flags fast, and how being a founder herself rewired the way she writes checks. Plus where Texas capital needs to go next, why AI is quietly soaking up all the oxygen, and how 25 years reshaped the Houston ecosystem.

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0:00:00   Intro
0:00:28   Inside the Houston Angel Network at 25
0:02:12   From the dotcom boom to angel investing
0:05:44   Why being a founder makes a better investor
0:09:43   How new angels learn the game
0:13:38   Pitching HARN and what makes a company investable
0:18:18   Why investing is a marriage, not a check
0:27:25   Reading founders and spotting red flags
0:36:48   What has changed in 25 years
0:42:01   When venture money is not the answer
0:46:29   Houston, Texas, and the energy transition
0:51:25   All of the above: data centers, the grid, and fusion
0:58:02   Public vs private capital in Texas
1:02:44   The capital outlook and AI's pull on funding
1:09:16   Secondary markets and finding liquidity

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