How to find angel investors

Founders often ask where to find angel investors. Start with senior people in your industry.

They will understand the big problem you are solving. You will get helpful feedback even if they don't invest. They will make useful industry introductions even if they don't invest.

Repeat.

Then, industry angels show people outside your industry that you are solving a real problem.

Best of luck!

AI-generated disruption is good

People are worried about AI-generated disruption. If the world changes that fast, what will it mean for jobs?

You only get disruption if the goods and services that do the disrupting are much better than what they disrupt. Otherwise, how can it happen?

Then, even if employment looks very different, it will only be because the world looks much better afterwards.

There will be winners and losers. But disruption happens precisely when the overall outcomes are way better than a zero-sum game.

Founder strength vs investment process

Every investor says they overweight on founder strength. Every investor spends 90% of their process on the business. Every investment memo is 90% business.

What do you think actually happens?

PoC advice

Founders, if you are doing a PoC, remember these three things:

1. Make sure you get regular feedback, not just at the end.

2. Get paid. Some companies run lots of PoCs. You need to know that they care. You need to be able to demonstrate to investors that they care. If they don't care, you may be wasting your time.

3. Define upfront what success looks like. What will it need for them to roll this out nationally or globally. This will tell you exactly what problem they think you can solve. It's not always what you think it is. You can take this insight into other sales pitches. What do you do to make sure a PoC is successful?

Blending boundaries - AI's role in redefining leadership and management

Includes a callout for Mica Vaipan's RunYourself which helps turn managers into highly-skilled coaches.

This is my latest article for Business Brief. Thank you Amanda (Mandy) Eulenkamp.

Adapting to AI changing the world

AI is changing the world. It's clearer than ever that the world will be different in five to ten years and less clear exactly what it will look like.

How are you adapting to this?

The best research assistant in the world

ChatGPT (the paid one) is the best research assistant in the world.

People complain it gets things wrong. If you had a human research assistant, would you take their word for everything or would you ask follow-up questions if you weren't 100% sure?

That's what I do. Don't assume it's always right, ask the right questions, and you have the best research assistant in the world for $20 a month.

I was not paid to write this post.

Thank you, Gabriel

🎥 Gabriel Isserlis of Tutti (visit www.tutti.space) gave me some insanely insightful feedback this weekend.

Gabriel, you couldn't have been more helpful.

Thank you.

Not where you expect

The best investments are rarely where you expect to find them. They sound bad until you hear them in the founder's words.

Before, "No way."

After, I'm desperate to hear more.

15-30 Seconds

Founders, people say an investor will look at your pitch deck for an average of 3 minutes. It's much worse than that.

The average includes some who spend a lot of time. Most will take a glance and move on.

You have 15-30 seconds to get an investor's attention. Then they decide if they want to spend more time on you.

It may not be fair. It is the reality.

Wrong is right

If you don't think you can be wrong, you'll never learn.

Operating under uncertainty

Understanding risk reward is an important skill for founders and investors.

We all operate in a world where outcomes are never guaranteed. Very rarely do you have all the information or knowledge to make a decision with absolute certainty.

We still have to make the decisions. A fast decision is better than no decision.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

More at unbundled dot vc.

Ask Marc Anything

My "Ask Marc Anything" bot is up and running. It requires a ChatGPT Plus subscription.

I would love it if you could test it for me and give me feedback.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Critical founder decision

I spoke with a founder who was facing a critical decision on whether to self-fund their business, having not paid themselves a salary for some time.

They weren't sure their own funds would be enough, didn't think existing investors would support them, and had another option to start a new venture in a related space.

They were worried that if they took the latter option, their investors would be upset or angry.

I recommended they speak candidly with their existing investors and explain that the current situation was unsustainable. They need to earn money to support their family and it's unreasonable to expect them to fund the business on their own.

Then, with this context in mind, they can talk through the potential scenarios like a recap and pivot, or closing the existing business and starting a new one.

The key is to manage expectations while being honest and transparent about the options.

Investors should respect that, see that they have worked hard and contributed above and beyond what they might reasonably have expected, and hopefully recognise that any proposed outcome is the only reasonable way forward.

Best of luck.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Decision making mindset

The right mindset for decision-making is asking yourself, "Will this matter in twenty years" and "What would the me in twenty years' time want me to do?".

I am still working on this.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Make it easy

Founders, if you can easily make me understand you are solving an important problem for your customers in a space I know little about, that evidences a skill set that is just as important as the problem you are solving.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Are you worth it?

Founders, if you ask for a pre-seed valuation of £4m, you are saying you and your co-founders deserve an aggregate net worth of £4m.

Are you worth it? The best founders are. And more.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Text to video

If you've not seen Sora, the new text-to-video tool from OpenAI, you need to check out Sam Altman's Twitter feed.

The text prompt for this video was "A bicycle race on ocean with different animals as athletes riding the bicycles with drone camera view".

The world is changing fast.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Change the world

Founders, you are the people brave enough to try and change the world. Win or lose, you give it your all.

Most people just want change. You are the few prepared to risk failure and make it happen.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Coffee and love

The coffee machine is working again and all is well with the world.

Happy Valentine's Day!