The October Edition of the Berytech Meetups Powered by GIST gathers experts and entrepreneurs around the subject of Angel Investment, sharing their knowledge, tips and personal experience.
Brigitte Bauman
Brigitte Bauman is an entrepreneur and an angel investor who turned her hobby into a profession 14 years ago. She clarifies that the difference between a business angel and a venture capitalist is in approaching investment. Business Angels invest in 2 to 10 % of their personal wealth while VCs invest other people’s money with a specific investment strategy and timing for cash back.
She advises entrepreneurs to ask themselves a few questions before going to raise money:
- Why am I raising? Bringing in investors is a big change. Make sure you evaluate the different forms of financing your venture.
- Have a back up plan. Deals should not take longer than three months. You need to evaluate the different outcome possibilities when aiming to raise funds.
- Think about how much money you need to raise not only in the first round but in the second and third.
- What kind of investors do I need?
- How much time can I afford to have this going?
- Will I do it all alone or will I bring in someone to help me raise funds?
Corine Kiame – IM Capital
Corine Kiame, investement manager at IM Capital, introduces the two angel investment programs that IM Capital currently runs: The SEEDERS Masterclass for business angels and the Lebanese Women Angel Fund.
Here are her tips to pitching to Angel Investors:
- Your startup needs to have a passionate team that shows commitment and skin in the game. Angels are driven by passion.
- Do not outsource your business plan. You need to know all the details of what you are proposing and why it is headed that way.
- An angel would like to see the first 18 months or two years of where you are headed vs the VC who would like to see 5 years projections.
- Do not ask an Angel to sign an NDA. That’s a big NO.
- Be prepared for the due diligence. Have all the materials ready and your contracts.
- Don’t be shy in showing your mistakes, what you’ve done wrong and what you’ve done right.
Pascale Monsefis – MAD
Pascale Monsefis the chief project officer of MAD, a talent hunter and producer platform for artists. For the type of investment that MAD was looking for Angel Investment was ideal. MAD were introduced to SEEDERS of IM Capital and were selected to receive investment. By securing the funding from SEEDERS, MAD were able to raise money from VCs to complete their funding round. Pascale shares the challenges and advantages of raising Angel Investment in this video:
Every month, Berytech organizes a community meetup around an interesting subject in science and technology and hosts three guest speakers to share their knowledge and expertise with a passionate audience. For information on the upcoming Berytech Meetups follow us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram.
