The Winning Angels: The 7 Fundamentals of Angel Investing - Softcover

Amis, David; Stevenson, Howard

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0273649167 ISBN 13: 9780273649168

Publisher: Financial Times/ Prentice Hall, 2001

Synopsis

Winning Angels is a practical, hands-on guide to angel investing, which includes tools, tactics and strategies for high-tech, low-tech, and every other kind of early-stage investing. Over 50 winning angels in the US and Europe, including Mitch Kapor, Esther Dyson, Andrew Filipowski, Audrey MacLean, and Dick Morley, share their hard-earned years of experience. Some have done over 100 deals each, while others reaped rewards on investments in companies such as Apple Computer, Amazon.com, RealNetworks, idealab!, StarMedia Network, Kozmo.com, returning on occasions several hundred times their original investment.

Winning Angels reduces the art of angel investing into a science, and opens the doors to those angels who have limited experience, while augmenting the experience of seasoned investors. Entrepreneurs will benefit by reading and reflecting on the contents of the book before they seek funding. They will gain access to the mindset of winning angels, and how best to win them over, as well as finding information on how to value, structure and harvest their deals.

David Amis, who has made 15 angel investments, previously served as the Managing Director of Venture Capital Report Ltd, which has matched over 300 entrepreneurs with angels. He currently invests individually and through StartUpFund I, where he serves as the Managing Partner. As an entrepreneur, he has raised over $10m from more than 100 individual investors.

Howard Stevenson, who has made over 80 angel investments, headed the Entrepreneur Management Unit at Harvard Business School for 18 years. He is a leading thinker in the areas of entrepreneurship and angel investing and has authored/co-authored six books, his latest is Do Lunch or Be Lunch, and 43 articles.

 

About this title

Review:

The new economy moves blindingly quickly, as business ideas move from backs of envelopes to reality in months. Venture capital is the seed corn of this frenetic activity, but it's not just faceless City banks out sowing. Individual investors, or angels, provide a growing slice of initial cash. And they are becoming an increasingly professional breed. Amis and Stevenson spoke to more than 50 to find what makes them tick--and to glean the lessons that will allow the rest of us to make money out of other people's ideas, too.

"We invest in great entrepreneurs, with sound business models that will make money", says Amis, himself a veteran of 15 investments. Of course. But the trick is knowing which to choose from the thousands of hopefuls vying for your investment cash. The writers eliminate as much risk as possible, with seven fundamentals of early-stage investing: sourcing, evaluating, valuing, structuring, negotiating, supporting and harvesting. Each is set out in fine detail, and at each stage you rigorously research and examine your project--deciding whether to proceed or fold each time. No one is pretending this is risk-free. "If you are the best going, you'll hit it out of the park 10-15% of the time. That's one of the scariest things about angel investing", admits one angel.

Still interested? Then you will need plenty of money. Amis and Stevenson reckon $25,000 for a worthwhile single investment... and they don't believe in single investments. "Early-stage investing is like drilling for oil ... you can't just do one", one angel advises.

Winning Angels is a superbly organised and invaluable handbook to start-up investing. You will examine the shape of a typical deal, from chance contact at a networking group to flotation on the stock market. And all the time, you will be told to ask questions. What does my intuition tell me? Do I have experience in this area? Is there a clear product and revenue possibility? And you will learn about leaving people wanting to deal with you in the future. Very wise--that next one could be the real thing. --John Rennie

Review:

"Winning Angels is a superbly organised and invaluable handbook to start-up investing. You will examine the shape of a typical deal, from chance contact at a networking group to flotation on the stock market. And all the time, you will be told to ask questions. What does my intuition tell me? Do I have experience in this area? Is there a clear product and revenue possibility? And you will learn about leaving people wanting to deal with you in the future. Very wise--that next one could be the real thing."        Amazon.co.uk "An insightful and fact-filled primer on how to ferret out great opportunities."  – Richard Kramlich, angel in Apple Computer, and partner at Venture Capitalist firm, New Enterprise Associates  
"Entrepreneurs would do well to read and reflect on the contents of the book before they seek funding."  – Peter Crisp, founding partner of VenRock Venture Capital  
"Winning Angels is required reading by angel investors and entrepreneurs. It is the best book on the subject of angel investing."  – David Gladstone, Venture Capitalist, angel investor, and author of Venture Capital Handbook and Venture Capital Investor  "This book will be a framework helping angels to become winning angels and helping start-up entrepreneurs understand the criteria for support from winning angels."  – Bert Twaalfhoven, angel in 24 deals in over 10 countries, Venture Capitalist, and founder of Europe's 500  
"In its ever-bigger deals with more predictable pay-offs, the traditional venture capital industry has itself become ripe for disruption. Winning Angels provides a wonderful tutorial for how angel investors can make this happen." – Clayton Christensen, Harvard Business School professor and author of The Innovator's Dilemma  
"This is a book about effective execution in a chaotic environment. A must-read for both angels and entrepreneurs."  – Wade Myers, Harvard Baker Scholar, US Army Ranger, and founder and CEO of Interelate "Winning Angels shows how many styles and frameworks there are that work, and reinforces how this early stage investing is still hard work."  – Michael Rockefeller, member of the Venrock Board, and CEO of Active Media "This is the first world class book on early stage investing, I wish I'd had it years ago."  – Prince Heinrich von Liechtenstein, international angel investor, and co-founder of FirstFive   

About this edition

• Publisher: Financial Times/ Prentice Hall
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0273649167
• ISBN 13: 9780273649168
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 392