Climate Pioneers Cherry Swayne

For this episode of Funding a Better Future: Angel Investment Insights for Founders and Aspiring Investors, I spoke with Andy Ayim, founder of Angel Investing School and most recently, Open Angel. He works to diversify and democratise access to angel investment, and teaches people how to take their first steps towards becoming investors.
Please note - when discussing his early experiences with investing, Andy's audio drops out just as he mentions his first encounter. This experience was with Arlan Hamilton at Backstage Capital.
Video versions of this and previous episodes are available here.

Open Angel
Angel Investing School

3:43 - Andy’s journey into investing
9:35 - Arriving at investing and seeing a thesis in action
10:23 - Why do people struggle to close funding rounds? 
11:41 - How Angel Investing School came to be
14:21 - How did Open Angel come about?
18:12 - Being a ‘life adventurer’
22:15 - How to access Open Angel, what you can learn and what the goal is
23:58 - What are the potential barriers to entry for investing?
28:44 - Andy’s lessons from the last four years of investing and niching his thesis
34:23 - Do you need a thesis to get started?
38:00 - Crowd funding as a route into angel investing and what to be wary of?
40:53 - Basics to start thinking about if you want to move into angel investing
44:21 - What are you excited about for the second half of this year? (Developing talent and leaders)

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For this episode of Funding a Better Future: Angel Investment Insights for Founders and Aspiring Investors, I spoke with Molly Allington, CEO and Co-founder of Albotherm, about the fundraising process and in particular, the due diligence experience..
Video versions of this and previous episodes are available here.
Albotherm.com

2:09 - How Molly came to set up Albotherm
3:09 - How did you go from it being a summer project to a fully-fledged business?
4:26 - How did you decide it was time to raise initial funds after grants?
6:29 - What did your first round of funding unlock for you in progress?
7:33 - What is Albotherm developing
8:45 - Will you venture into offering your coatings in other industries?
9:34 - How did you know it was time to raise a seed round?
10:55 - What was your strategy for the seed raise?
12:10 - How did you value the business for a raise and how did you decide how much to raise? 
15:34 - What kind of objections did you come up against?
17:22 - What was the due diligence process like?
19:06 - What did due diligence teach you about your business?
20:06 - How did you know what to pull together in advance?
21:13 - When did you put a board together?
22:08 - How has angel investment played into things?
23:45 - How do you stay in touch with investors?
24:13 - How frequently and how deep do you have to go with financial and impact reporting?
25:27 - What were your biggest learnings from fundraising?
27:57 - How did you clarify your messaging and how did it evolve over the process?
29:48 - What did you need to have in your data room?
31:23 - What did your seed round enable you to do, and what are you excited about coming up?

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For this episode of Funding a Better Future: Angel Investment Insights for Founders and Aspiring Investors, I spoke with Cam Ross (Green Angel Ventures) about how to invest for impact, particularly within climate.
Video versions of this and previous episodes are available here.

Greenangelsyndicate.com 
Climatechangefund.co.uk
 

2:01 - Cam’s investment path and establishing Green Angel Ventures
4:23 - How has the world of impact investment changed over your seven years with GAV?
6:08 - How robust an investment strategy is climate?
8:20 - The scale of the climate change problem
9:07 - How do you minimise risk factor when investing in early stage businesses in climate?
11:28 - Making the most of knowledge across a syndicate
12:53 - How do you conduct due diligence for climate impact or carbon reduction?
15:42 - How does the increase in the amount of investors in the space affect existing investors?
18:21 - What does an ideal company profile look like for Green Angel Ventures?
21:03 - At what point would you consider founders ready to approach you for investment?
23:08 - Have you seen any patterns or trends around companies that have performed well, or not so well?
26:07 - What should founders have ready in advance for due diligence?
30:09 - Which parts of the climate sector do you think are the most exciting or offer the most potential for growth at the moment?
33:14 - Are there parts of the climate sector where the bubble has burst?
34:54 - How can you become part of the Green Angel network?


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For this episode of Funding a Better Future: Angel Investment Insights for Founders and Aspiring Investors, I spoke with Marla Shapiro (HERmesa) and David Fogel (Alma Angels) about the importance of female angels and the lack of diversity in investing.
Video versions of this and previous episodes are available here.

6:40 - Connections are important when fundraising
8:36 - Angel investing is very network driven
10:23 - Women do more research and want more knowledge and understanding before investing or doing anything new
12:05 - Reflecting on the differences between now and when you launched in 2019, how has the female angel landscape changed?
 
15:27 - Investing at scale in important to success and change
15:52 - What do you think holds women back from investing?
18:11 - You don’t have to write large cheques to be angel, you can start small
22:04 - Are there different trends in how women invest or their motives for investing?
27:14 - Facts about return on female investment
31:19 - How are you finding the funding landscape for 2024?
33:12 - Q1 2024 for female funding
36:40 - Advice for aspiring angels
40:22 - What are you excited about this year?

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For this episode of Funding a Better Future: Angel Investment Insights for Founders and Aspiring Investors, I spoke with Anna Sandgren, CEO and Co-founder of Unibloom.
Video versions of this and previous episodes are available here.

4:45 - When did you know it was time to raise your next round after being part of Zinc?
6:00 - How did you know where to find people and start conversations?
7:43 - Building connections and the value of intros
10:16 - Getting a sensible valuation for your business
11:52 - How did you balance finding and communicating with investors alongside the day-to-day building of a business?
13:53 - What did you learn about your business during the process?
19:07 - What were the biggest objections you faced from potential investors?
22:02 - Syndicate Room angel network
22:44 - How to manage investor communications post-close
27:24 - In-person investor communication and celebration
29:00 - What does the next raise round look like and how will this round shape the next?
32:46 - How much do you think your personal brand has fed into the success of your fundraising?
35:48 - What general advice would you give to someone who is 18 months to two years behind you? 

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For the first episode of this series, Funding a Better Future: Angel Investment Insights for Founders and Aspiring Investors, I spoke with Ben Keene from Raaise and corporate lawyer, Fran Spooner.
Video versions of this and previous episodes are available here.

3:25 - Coming out the other side of a bad time for fundraising
9:38 - When to talk about your startup for fundraising
12:00 - The investors are vetting you as much as you are vetting them
15:00 - Getting your ducks in a row, from cap tables to contracts
16:08 - Early stage metrics
19:48 - How long does fundraising take?
22:11 - How to benchmark a sensible and sustainable valuation for your business
28:55 - Ways to get investment without a valuation or giving away equity at that time
30:16 - Do you or don’t you engage a lawyer?
39:17 - The difference between engaging with angels individually or through a syndicate
44:00 - What to think about post-raise

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