44 min
Phillip Lachman, Angel Investor "Young Angel" Balancing Career & Angel Investing Angel Invest Boston
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- Entrepreneurship
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Still in his thirties and still working full-time, Phillip Lachman is a leader at Walnut Ventures. How this startup exec finds time to invest as an angel is a remarkable story. Clever, articulate and full of good cheer, Phillip is always a delightful interlocutor. Fun episode!
Highlights:
How Phillip leverages his angel network and modern means of communication to work full-time and still be an active angel. Phillip’s first angel investment was in a company called CoolChip, in which Sal also invested. The company went under but Phillip and Sal still greatly respect the founder. Will Sanchez, PhD and his co-founders provided an example of how to wind up a failed venture. Phillip and Sal would gladly invest in a future venture of Will Sanchez. He showed a sterling character in difficult circumstances. Will is actually friends with Shakeel Avadhany, CEO & co-founder of ClearMotion where Phillip works. Phillip explains his approach to early-stage investing. He looks for founders with whom he has a rapport, a sense of shared values. Phillip looks for grit and perseverance in the character of the founders, considering the enormous obstacles founders have to overcome. Phillip relies on emotional intelligence to gauge the commitment of founders. He looks for the ability to be good stewards of investor money, for the ability to listen and the determination to solve problems. Sal tells the story of his investment in PIKA Energy, recently acquired by Generac. Two MIT frat brothers eager to democratize the wind turbine business. PIKA discovered that the real business was creating circuits to manage the load from the various alternative energy sources in an efficient way. Their partnership with Panasonic batteries gave Powerwall from Tesla a good run for its money. Sal invites you to consider his syndicates. Phillip talks about one of this podcast’s favorite founders “Action Jack” Huntress of HomeBinder as an example of someone who has his act together as an entrepreneur. Fundraising tip from Phillip Lachman: no does not mean no forever; it means no right now. If an angel turns you down, continue to keep that angel in the loop on your raise. That’s how Jack Huntress got Phillip to invest in HomeBinder. Sal talks about how hard it is to resist the temptation to play business analyst when deciding to invest in a startup. The angel should focus on the team, provided the market is large enough. If the team is really great, let them figure out the business. On pitch decks, Phillip Lachman emphasizes having a simple explanation of the business the startup is in. Fearless Angel Joe Caruso also made the same point in his interview. Keep in mind that angel investors are usually intelligent generalists. Don’t assume deep familiarity with industry jargon. Phillip Lachman is also a fan of Kendall Tucker of Polis, a startup with sophisticated software to inform door-knocking campaigns. Polis, a Techstar alum, has raised $2.5 MM in seed funding from Haystack VC whose portfolio also includes DoorDash and Instacart. Kendall Tucker, like Jack Huntress, is a founder who stays engaged with her investors. Reaching out for help and keeping investors informed with regular reports. Regular reporting has many virtues that founders may not appreciate. Encapsulate the key take-aways in the subject line. Remember that you’re fighting for mind share with your investors. Phillip makes a point about building credibility by saying what you’re going to do and then doing what you said you were going to do. Seems obvious but too many founders fall into the trap of over-promising. ClearMotion, where Phillip works, started out in 2009 trying to harness energy being dissipated by shock absorbers with the goal of increasing fuel efficiency of military vehicles by 1 or 2 percent. Given how hard it was to build business with the government, ClearMotion (formerly Levant Power)
Invest Alongside Boston's Top Angels:
Click Here to Learn About Our Syndicates
Still in his thirties and still working full-time, Phillip Lachman is a leader at Walnut Ventures. How this startup exec finds time to invest as an angel is a remarkable story. Clever, articulate and full of good cheer, Phillip is always a delightful interlocutor. Fun episode!
Highlights:
How Phillip leverages his angel network and modern means of communication to work full-time and still be an active angel. Phillip’s first angel investment was in a company called CoolChip, in which Sal also invested. The company went under but Phillip and Sal still greatly respect the founder. Will Sanchez, PhD and his co-founders provided an example of how to wind up a failed venture. Phillip and Sal would gladly invest in a future venture of Will Sanchez. He showed a sterling character in difficult circumstances. Will is actually friends with Shakeel Avadhany, CEO & co-founder of ClearMotion where Phillip works. Phillip explains his approach to early-stage investing. He looks for founders with whom he has a rapport, a sense of shared values. Phillip looks for grit and perseverance in the character of the founders, considering the enormous obstacles founders have to overcome. Phillip relies on emotional intelligence to gauge the commitment of founders. He looks for the ability to be good stewards of investor money, for the ability to listen and the determination to solve problems. Sal tells the story of his investment in PIKA Energy, recently acquired by Generac. Two MIT frat brothers eager to democratize the wind turbine business. PIKA discovered that the real business was creating circuits to manage the load from the various alternative energy sources in an efficient way. Their partnership with Panasonic batteries gave Powerwall from Tesla a good run for its money. Sal invites you to consider his syndicates. Phillip talks about one of this podcast’s favorite founders “Action Jack” Huntress of HomeBinder as an example of someone who has his act together as an entrepreneur. Fundraising tip from Phillip Lachman: no does not mean no forever; it means no right now. If an angel turns you down, continue to keep that angel in the loop on your raise. That’s how Jack Huntress got Phillip to invest in HomeBinder. Sal talks about how hard it is to resist the temptation to play business analyst when deciding to invest in a startup. The angel should focus on the team, provided the market is large enough. If the team is really great, let them figure out the business. On pitch decks, Phillip Lachman emphasizes having a simple explanation of the business the startup is in. Fearless Angel Joe Caruso also made the same point in his interview. Keep in mind that angel investors are usually intelligent generalists. Don’t assume deep familiarity with industry jargon. Phillip Lachman is also a fan of Kendall Tucker of Polis, a startup with sophisticated software to inform door-knocking campaigns. Polis, a Techstar alum, has raised $2.5 MM in seed funding from Haystack VC whose portfolio also includes DoorDash and Instacart. Kendall Tucker, like Jack Huntress, is a founder who stays engaged with her investors. Reaching out for help and keeping investors informed with regular reports. Regular reporting has many virtues that founders may not appreciate. Encapsulate the key take-aways in the subject line. Remember that you’re fighting for mind share with your investors. Phillip makes a point about building credibility by saying what you’re going to do and then doing what you said you were going to do. Seems obvious but too many founders fall into the trap of over-promising. ClearMotion, where Phillip works, started out in 2009 trying to harness energy being dissipated by shock absorbers with the goal of increasing fuel efficiency of military vehicles by 1 or 2 percent. Given how hard it was to build business with the government, ClearMotion (formerly Levant Power)
44 min