Name: How to Become an Angel Investor
Uploaded: 2026-04-29T14:16:11.230Z
Duration: 54 min 4 s
Description: How to Become an Angel Investor

Transcript for "How to Become an Angel Investor": Alright. Good morning, and thank you for hanging out with us this Wednesday morning. My name is Stephanie. I'm the founder of Startup Austin, and this is our awesome panel that we have here today. So to kick things off as people are trickling in, the big thing I will always say to people is to please feel free to introduce yourself in the chat, include, like, your LinkedIn URL. That way you can start to, like, build your own connections and your own network. And then I mean really from this end of things I'm excited to have you. Really the whole purpose of Startup Boston is to be that front door for the startup ecosystem, so really aggregating all the resources created already in our startup ecosystem and putting them into one place to find it easy, to really how to start and scale your company. And for this specific event, we're really excited to be working with the city of Boston on it to kind of go through the ins and outs of how to become an angel investor. So with that stated, I'm gonna hand my very imaginary mic, because I don't have one right now, over to Taylor, our awesome moderator, to kick things off. So, Taylor, can you take it from here? Thank you so much, Stephanie. Hi, everyone. I'll just give a quick introduction to myself, and then we'll hear from our speakers. My name is Taylor. I'm a current junior at Boston University. I'm the director of media for Girls Into BC, and I'm currently interning at True Wealth Ventures. So I'm really excited to hear from our amazing speakers about angel investing. So if each of you just wants to give a quick intro, maybe we can start with Cammie, then go to Chris, and then to George. Thanks, Taylor, and thanks, Stephanie, for having us. So my name is Cammy Kyler. I'm currently the VP of brand and marketing at Alembic Technologies. We are a causal AI platform. We essentially help, c suites make better decisions through causal chains, which means that we effectively ingest enterprise data and, take a lot of super compute and effectively take mathematical, equations and and essentially build causal chains to help them understand is there a relationship between point a and point b. Usually, point b is revenue and point a is activity of some kind. So is that marketing activity? Is that supply chain? And understand, is there a relationship to revenue so that they can, a, understand, is the decision that they made in the past correct? And can they simulate, decisions to understand if we were to make any changes to those, could we improve outcomes in the end? In the past, I've worked at other start ups, but I've spent a lot of my career in the advertising space, both at agencies and brand side. Awesome. Thanks, Taylor. Chris Combs, founder of Linksquares. Linksquares pioneered some of the very first legal AI, here in Boston, back in 2015. So the business has been around, for, eleven years now. We've raised about a 160,000,000 in in venture, about 250 employees in Downtown Boston. As far as angel investing, I've been angel investing for, little over four years, and invested in about 15 company handful venture funds as well, investors that we over the year. Thanks everyone for joining. Appreciate, Taylor being the moderator for this panel. My name is George. I'm the owner of Lee experimental, holding company. Worked on a lot of AI, based applications. Been a serial founder my whole life. Started my career off at Techstars, built and sold two companies. Have backed about a dozen or so startups so far, with two exits there as well. So excited to have a chat with the full group here. Awesome. Thank you so much, guys. So we can just dive into the first question, I think. So to get started, if you could all just briefly tell us about your very first angel investment, and then maybe also kind of touch on what motivated you to get started. And why don't we go in the same order that we did the intro? So Cammie, Chris, and then George. Yeah. Yeah. So I mentioned that I spent a lot of time in advertising. And, and so the first angel investment that I've ever made and I'll say I've made, quite a few since. But the first angel investment that I've ever made, was on the back of noticing that one of the most prolific, female ad execs of probably of all time is a woman by the name of Cindy Gallup. If you've ever heard of her, you should you should look her up. Her LinkedIn bio says, she's the Michael Bay of business. She likes to blow shit up. And, and so she has become she left the ad business and became a serial entrepreneur. And, she, as many female, founders have experienced, she's had a really hard time raising money. And so she posts a lot about that fact. And, and one of the businesses that she has spent a lot of time raising money for and building is a business called Make Love Not Porn, which is a on a mission to end rape culture. And what that does is essentially is a business that effectively is built to, to, evangelize the notion of, you know, essentially safe sex practices and help, essentially young men understand, that there are other means of learning how to have sex outside of just, you know, traditional porn, which have very misogynistic tendencies. And so as a mother raising a son, this feels very important to me that these options are available knowing that realistically my son is probably not gonna come to me asking how to do these things. And so, I wanna make sure that there are options available. So, knowing that she is a female founder, that she's had trouble raising money, she started crowdsourcing. Can other people help me raise this money? And so I wrote her a check. And, on the one hand, that felt really good to do, just knowing that this was a person who is raising money for a company that, I believe should exist. Two, I felt really good about, you know, supporting a female founder, specifically one that I've looked up to for a really long time in the space that I've existed in for for a while. And then three, it kind of gave me this idea of, like, well, I don't really know a lot about angel investing, and it really propelled me into this world of, like, well, what does this actually mean? And, and and do I wanna get involved more? And and it kind of sent me on this journey that, that we'll talk about a little bit more. But, but that was my first and and, my first of many. So we'll talk about kind of, what that meant from then on, but but that was my first. And and I I sort of, I I like to think about how, when people see that on my LinkedIn that it's kind of, the the first thing that they see about me being an investor was that I invested in a in a sex tech company. So I wonder what that makes people think about me. Yeah. So my first investment, was a little different than that. It was in the commercial real estate space. So, had known the founder, for a while. The company is called LeaseUp, and I knew the founder, Kurt, for, a year or two, before I invested. So spent some time with him, and sort of tracked what he was doing. And and, I previously, been involved in some companies in the real estate space in the past, so I kinda felt like it was a space that I knew enough about to be helpful. Ultimately, wrote a small check-in in association with a a round that he did, and, began to kinda try to help. And, over time, he actually ended up asking me to join the board of the company, which, you know, was sort of an exciting opportunity that came out of the investment. Not, typically don't plan to do things like that, but in this situation, ended up working out that way. And I've been on the board for two years now, and and it's been really fun, exciting journey, to work with them. Awesome. So for me, my experience was really born out of my time at Techstars. And, you know, working through the accelerator program earlier, I only really became involved in backing companies was in being a MIR and being there with the start ups day in, day out, and getting to know a lot of these people as people. And, ultimately, with a lot of these founders, they're working through some of the toughest challenges in, you know, really difficult, environments. And, you know, whether it's macroeconomics to the individual day to day, you know, you get to see what people are made of. And to me, that really, you know, wasn't wasn't something that was on my radar to really put put, you know, back into some of these companies until I started seeing like, oh my god. You know? Like, I really appreciate what these people are doing, you know, trying to either generate generational wealth for themselves, solve a problem, so on and so forth. And so for me, I just remember, company, at the time, it was Ally Connect now, known as Thriveolution. And Colleen at Tech Stories Boston was, an incredible force. I was just someone who, you know, was saying that they were gonna do something and went out and did it. And to me, that was really impressive. And as someone who, came into the industry, really only have really been working as a founder, you know, was kind of impressive. Because, like, to me, I just start companies. I don't really think about, like, working for someone. But it was kind of a measure of, like, that I actually want to, like, work with this person and understand them on a deeper level. And for me, like, backing the company, being able to work with these people, and Tully in specifically, it was just, like, a really great opportunity and a win win situation. And so that's really what drove me to do that and kind of started, you know, snowballing into repeatedly doing this over and over and over again. Awesome. Thank you all for sharing. I think it's great to hear all the different perspectives and different ways that people can kinda get involved. I wanna kind of try this next question to Chris and George. I think that starting angel investing is kind of like a clouded of mystery almost. And so I'm wondering if both of you can kinda speak to the biggest misconceptions that you believe there are around angel investing. And then if you can speak a little bit more about what a good angel investor does beyond just writing that check. And maybe let's start with George this time. Great. Yeah. I think that one of the things that I wanna really impress upon is that people can approach, you know, this you know, whether you wanna say it's a career, a hobby, a side thing, whatever it is to anybody, I think it's totally fine across the board. And I think that a lot of people have different motivations as to how they want to approach and look at these things. Right? And so whether it's to, you know, like I was saying earlier, like, generate generational wealth to participate in, you know, what you believe are rocket ships to, you know, just, you know, status symbol. Right? Like, I was the early investor in x, y, and z thing. Right? And just being able to talk about that. Gaining access to, certain individuals, backing your friends, backing causes that you believe in. I think that those are all things that are really important. And I think for a lot of people when they are introduced to, you know, this field and this industry, you know, sometimes it's a little bit like, oh, well, I kinda feel bad if I'm coming at it from this approach or from, a different approach. Right? And I think all of it is equally valid, and I think it's just you wanna approach it in the way that, you know, makes sense for yourself, your financial position, your goals in life, and what you wanna do. And so those are kind of my thoughts on, you know, some of the things that I think are sometimes clouded and have misconceptions within the industry. Yeah. I think that's helpful. You know, to to the other question, what does, what what does a good angel investor add beyond just a check? The the thing I always try to triangulate around, is, you know, spaces that I understand, know well, and feel like I can make some contribution to, have either folks in my network that I could connect them with, that, you know, can help them on their journey, and, or or just knowledge about the space, be able to, you know, sort of speak to, the space. I would I would say that that's not necessarily a requirement. I mean, certainly, there's probably been a few deals where I just say, oh, this is an interesting company. I don't I don't know anything about the space, and maybe this is an opportunity to learn. But I typically, see the the most synergy come out of a situation where I say, hey. Look. Like, this is a a space I know, understand, and wanna try to help, you know, have a passion to try and help help in the space. And so, you know, I think that tends to be the best way to to help. You know, the other thing, being a founder, love, learning from other founders. So this is you know, the the check is sort of the price of admission to get involved in the company in some cases, but, really, it's a learning opportunity in a lot of ways. You can learn about, you know, how how this founder is running their business and what they're doing that's unique. And so those sort of things tend to be, you know, really exciting ways to to, you know, learn new things and, improve yourself as a a founder and a entrepreneur. Awesome. Thank you so much, guys, for sharing. I think that's those are all really great points to make and maybe kind of add a little bit of clarity to kind of getting started and how it can benefit yourself and others. Cammy, I wanna go back to your initial angel investment story because I think it's really interesting. And I think that the main question that I think we wanna focus on in this part is kind of talking about realistic ways to get started in angel investing if you're not ultra wealthy and kind of talking about that aspect of angels. Do you have to be ultra wealthy to actually make an investment? Mhmm. No. The answer is definitely not. I think, one of my own biggest misconceptions, is that you may have to be, you know, a really prolific investor already to know what you're doing and to be invited in. I think, one, it does help to know other angel investors so that you can ask good questions and and know kind of, the lay of the land. I think going in blind is a is a tough is a tough thing. It's not impossible. But the barriers to entry in angel investing are a lot lower than you think. I mean, the first check that I wrote to Cindy Gallup was $250. And I think what what I didn't know at the time and what I do know now is essentially what it is that you're getting in exchange. And in reality, the way that I wrote that check actually felt a lot more like a donation than than it should have. I mean, really, what you're getting in exchange, whether that's a convertible note, if that's a safe, if that's, you know, equity at the time when you're when you're investing that early in a company, typically, they haven't raised an institutional round yet. So there's no, like, true valuation put on it yet. It's a, it's usually pre revenue. It's the the the company is only as valuable as the founder says it is. And so you you sort of have to, place a bet on what you believe the company will be worth at some point. And so you're just putting a lot of faith in what you believe that founder can do. And so it helps to know, one, what is that founder's background? Is this their first time founding a company? Do they have any previous success? What other, you know, employees are involved in the company already? Do they have, you know, previous success working together? Do they have previous success at other companies? What other angel investors are involved? Do they know what they're doing? How involved are they in advising the companies? Like Chris, for example, as he's talking about getting involved in writing checks and lending his network into those businesses. You wanna know essentially who else is involved in, in these other you know, in these companies so that you can sort of get a handle on, like, what are the chances that this company is gonna work out. Right? Like, knowing that going in is really helpful, but that's essentially the barrier to entry is just knowing what it is that you don't know and knowing how to derisk what it is that you don't know by asking questions and, and just figuring out how much risk you're willing to put on the table. So the reality is is that the barrier is a lot lower to entry. It's how, you know, what is the dollar amount, that the that the founder is willing to accept on individual checks. Sometimes it's, like I said, like, it's as low as, you know, $250. Sometimes it's as low as $5,000 or $10,000. And so, you just have to, you know, you have to work that out with the founder. I think sometimes it it really helps to to join an angel group. I'm in I'm involved with TBD Angels, and I find that that's really, really helpful in terms of, having other backgrounds and perspectives to lend to the, to the group in terms of diligencing a company. You're not alone. And so, that kind of perspective sharing is really helpful. But, to become an accredited an accredited investor, really, you know, the you in terms of the SEC, they require you to be able to essentially have enough wealth to be able to invest, which that wealth just equates to. You need to have a million dollars in assets or $200,000 in income as an individual or $300,000 in income as a joint, like, household. So, you know, the reality is is that, most people in an urban setting in Boston probably meet that standard, if we are sitting around this table. So, and in this audience, I I have to imagine. But that is, that's pretty much the standard. And so the like I said, the barrier to entry is a lot lower than than you might think. Perfect answer. Thank you so much. I also wanna give George and Chris just an opportunity to add anything kind of about understanding your own risk, kind of creating a risk profile. If one of you wants to just explain what that is, and how you maybe went about that in your initial investments. Yeah. I can quickly jump in. I I I could actually maybe just, share the other side of the coin, which is, I I initially probably wrote two x, and just sort of didn't really fully assess, you know, how I wanted to actually go about doing this. I mean, there's certainly I I know some folks that have made literally one or two investments and wrote rather sizable x and have done very well with that. My philosophy sort of evolved into more making a lot of smaller bets, so starting to kinda mirror a true, like, seed fund, pre seed fund strategy as an angel investor. So I ended up over time actually cutting down the size of my checks so that I could write them more and, again, sort of going back to what I said before, which is, more at but also getting to meet more people and being involved in more companies to from a learning perspective. So, I I kind of evolved the other direction, which was I wrote some bigger checks, did okay, but I was realizing that I wasn't gonna be able to write and get involved in as many of the opportunities that I was getting. So I sort of cut that down to to give myself more of that. For me, I think that, the obvious adage is, you know, risk only what you're willing to lose. Right? I think that the only primary difference is that when you're investing into ideas or, like, companies, right, and you're thinking about these type of things, like, the one thing that stands out is when you invest into people, right, people don't just go away, generally. Obviously, caveat there. But, for the most part, if you're trying to build, like, long term relationships with individuals, right, and this just kinda is, in a way, a formalization of you being willing to back them, be a part of their journey, and invest, you know, capital, but also time because as as Chris mentioned, right, there's more to, you know, being an angel than just, you know, investing capital. It's the learnings. It's the advice. It's being there for people when they're at their lowest moment and being there to celebrate in their highest moments. Right? And so, you know, with all that across the board, right, that that can be an emotional investment, not just capital, right, where these things can affect people certainly negatively. And I know that for some people that I've talked to in the past, right, if you can't take a loss well, right, this might not be something that you might wanna look at. Right? Because, you know, the success rate for startups is not not very high. Right? And if, you know, something impacts you incredibly, right, I think that that's not just financial risk, but also your emotional well-being, which I think, these days, right, that's a premium for us to take care of. So, you know, just kinda thinking about, like, holistically. Right? Make sure that you're in a good state in, you know, those two fundamental areas. And I think that you're, if you're good in both, then you're well on your way. Amazing. Some great advice from all around. I appreciate that. I want to talk a little bit more about deal flow. So we'll start with Chris on this one, but just from and then we can go to Cammy and then to George. But just from your own experience, curious what advice you'd give to new angels to start building deal flow from scratch. And then in addition to that, I'm kind of curious, Chris, if you can also touch a little bit on solo investing versus joining a group, in your answer here. Yeah. So so, I have not joined an Angel Group. I know there's some amazing ones, here in the Boston area. For for me, it was really just a time perspective trying to run a company. So so I typically got the most of my deal with meeting other founders and, getting to know them and not necessarily looking for deals upfront. But you but I that if is that I wouldn't have the opportunity to ask to get involved. And so, that was typically how how I've approached it. I I do think it is important, and expect safe note that that for me try to stick to, is that there is an actual venture round or there's a round coming together and that I'm I'm not just writing a check by myself. Right? Because you can if, you know, relatively small check writer, in comparison to, you know, fifty hundred, two 100, 300, investments by seed funds and maybe up towards, like, a million for, a true fund. You know, my checks are really small, so I I can't make as much of an impact if I just write, you know, write a small check into a round. I'm sure I have done that, but, one of my rules is to try and, you know, help that founder if if I want to write a check, try to help that founder put a round together, with a VC that can give them guidance, more capital, then my check becomes more valuable and it becomes part of a larger, finance company to hopefully give it, you know, 12 in twenty four months of runway so that they can really make some progress and hopefully, you know, graduate into the ground. So so for me, those are the kinda things I try to look for, you know, as I'm working with the founder and and, I think, you know, not have sort of not sort of forcing yourself to, you know obviously, in some situations, the round could be coming together. But in other situations, it's okay to take your time, get to know the founder, and and see what comes together for them. And knowing that Yeah. if you built a good relationship, you'll have time to essentially hit when the time is right, ask to to put in a check. Awesome. And then, Cammy and then George, do you guys wanna kind of quickly talk about, advice for building deal flow from scratch? Yep. I think, I think the two the two pieces of advice that I would give just really quick is, one, start with what you know really, really well. No one knows better than you what you know. And so, the the the first place I would go is, like, what is your domain expertise? In my case, it's it's marketing and go to market in both b to b and b to c spaces. And so that's the the those are the two places that I know I can't get bamboozled or I'm less likely to get bamboozled. Right? So, I think you'll you'll know the competitive spaces. You'll know how crowded they are. You know how, when you when you come across a company that is truly unique and differentiated and that they're they're onto something or they're cracking something that is truly a wedge, then I think you'll be, much more likely to say, like, okay. This is a I'll I'll know to write a bigger check or I'll know to, this is a bit more crowded and it's it's a bit more undifferentiated, but I believe in this founder. I'm gonna take a bet bill, write a smaller check or what have you. Or I know exactly who to connect, these people to in my network. And so I know I can create a lot more, value for these, for this company than I can for for a different company. And so I think being able to, one, know exactly how to participate and, b, how to create value, as a as an investor for that company just by way of having a a larger network being such a, you know, so knowledgeable about that space and just having cultivated, a career in it, I think that, those are just two really, really powerful components of of how to really get involved in, one, angel investing and two, just deal flow in general. And so those companies will will just come to you a lot more naturally. I think the second way is to, again, get involved in an angel group. I think, you know, being involved in TBD Angels, I I have, you know, meetings on my calendar on a weekly basis, sometimes two to three a week that are just, meetings of of presentations from founders that are, you know, meetings that come to me. I don't seek them out. They are, you know, coming from there are hundreds of of investors in TBD Angels that are all, you know, that are all pulling in, companies to the group that are that are deemed worthy. And by the way, we all vote on whether or not the these are, companies worth hearing presentations from. So there's multiple steps for even just getting these presentations put on your calendar. So you you're not required to show up to these presentations, but this is just a way for deal flow to kind of come to you rather than have to go and hunt them out and seek them out. And so, it's just nice to be able to have those opportunities kind of come to you. And so you can kind of look at it two ways. One, I know that this deal flow is available to me, con constantly coming into my into my calendar. And then two, if you are in the startup ecosystem and you want to see, even just for your own sort of, knowledge and and and just, edification, I think it's nice to be able to see how founders are presenting themselves and, you know, how pitches are going and that kind of thing. It's really nice to see, that, you know, different how different companies are presenting themselves. So that, those are those are the two ways that I would do it. How about you, George? Thanks. I think I'll cap it off by just thinking about, you know, a different different approach as well. For me, I kind of see myself not as a hunter. Like, I'm not actively I like well, I used to, but now I don't. And the reason is the more that I've actively started hunting, it's great. There's a lot of people who want to present their idea, these type of things, but I just think that the way that I think through things and work with people, I wanna connect with them on an individual level. And it were it's really hard for me, to not just wrap my head around something, but to provide the full experience of what I think is most valuable to people, as founders when I just don't feel emotionally or, you know, willing to have that time investment with them. Right? And so for me, right, like, leading someone on a one off, and if their expectation is that I'm going to back them right off of that, I think that that's a misaligned, misaligned between the two parties there. Right? And I think that for me, it's, you know, the process of, like, gaining an understanding of where does this person stand, where is this person going to be in the long term. Right? And so my deal flow is more farming than necessarily, like, hunting, in my opinion, right, where I'm trying to cultivate different relationships with people whom it might not be this particular, you know, instance where I would be backing, you know, them. But, you know, sometime down the line, maybe they have something that is interesting. Or, as I think Chris alluded to earlier, right, just, hey. I want to just invest into just this person as a whole. Maybe their thing right now is not it, in my opinion, but I've been surprised before and also surprised the other way. So, you know, like, I think the person is going to be there no matter what. Right? No matter across a particular idea or venture or anything in between. Awesome. Thank you. Hopefully, that provides some of the viewers a little bit more knowledge about kind of solo or joining a group. I think that all of that was great to hear everyone's opinions on that. I think we've talked a little bit already kind of about the variation in check size that comes with angel investing. But if we can kind of focus a little bit more, and I'll open up to any of you. So just jump in. Kind of looking closer, what do you guys think are realistic, returns for an angel investor to expect just from investing in startups? Yeah. I'm happy to start on this. You know, the my perspective is, I guess you could look at it a couple different ways. Typically, if you're looking for more consistent returns, you know, you should consider venture funds or seed funds, as a way to, you know, participate, not just in a single company, but in, you know, a fund investing across multiple companies. Those typically have more consistent returns of, you know, two, three, four, times money, but it's it's a fund takes, ten years. Obviously, startups can be a little bit more, you know, home run or strikeout, in some cases, or, you know, maybe there are some singles and doubles in there as well, hopefully. But but, really, there's obviously a lot of risk, and I think George put it well. Like, whatever you invest, you should be prepared for it to go to zero or lose it because that does happen, you know, some percentage amount of the time. So so you really you know, from from that perspective, like, there's certainly more risk. I tend to look at, my portfolio as something that will probably begin to, see some benefits in, you know, the next ten years. So I'm not investing thinking, oh, I'm gonna make money on this in a year or two years. There could be some of those situations. Certainly, that, would be great. But in most cases, you're playing a five to ten year game is what I would say. Awesome. Thank you. Cammy or George, anything else to add? If not, we can move on, but I wanna give you an opportunity. Yeah. I think that's I think that's exactly right. The only other thing I would add is a is a little bit adjacent to that, which is I got some advice recently from, you know, a a long time angel investor, somebody who's done this a lot longer than I have and and somebody I would consider a mentor. He's, his his advice to me was that I I've been taking too much of a sort of like a a singles approach to, to my to my portfolio. He's like, you're you're invested in, like, these onesie, twosies in each category. And he was like, what you need to do is take, a bit more of a of a of a portfolio approach to your portfolio. So he's like, rather than do one company in each category, he's like, do 10 companies in each category because you're gonna have a higher chance of success in each category. He's like, you know a lot about each of these categories. So so go, you know, just basically go wider in each of the categories rather than go, just go one in each category. So I thought that was a really interesting perspective, and so I think I am going to take that approach moving forward. So I thought I would share that with the group, just in terms of, you know, a higher chance of of seeing those returns that Chris just talked about. Awesome. George, anything to add there? Yeah. I think that yeah. I think that generational wealth creation like, obviously, there's cases of people who have done incredibly well in angel investment, and I hope that all of us, you know, eventually are able to do so. I think that the returns that I've been able to generate, thankfully, through, like, acquisition of some of the start ups to, you know, these liquidity events, right, which is, you know, company gets old. The ten year time cycle that Chris was mentioning was, like, an IPO, or a larger acquisition. And so I was able to receive modest, you know, two two, three x off of, you know, two to three year cycle returns. Right? That's not necessarily a level set expectation of what people should be receiving because, obviously, like we mentioned earlier, right, the risk from the financial side is potentially going down to zero. Right? Which is why I I always wanna impress upon people who are looking to go into this field. Right? Like, if you're just betting on the people, right, people just don't go away. Right? And so even if the financial part might go to zero, right, you still have that relationship moving forward. Right? And whether that's something else, lessons learned, like, often I find that founders after, like, a first start up, the second, the third, the fourth, especially if they keep going, right, generally better better hit rate there. Right? And. so, you know, when you're looking at these type of things, you're constructing the portfolio. Right? I wouldn't necessarily think about it not just on the company side of the house, but also the people. Right? And think of it as, like, a roster, right, of of a of a team, like a football team or a baseball team. Right? And you're investing in people. It's not just that one particular at bat they have. Right? But it's across their whole entire career. And, you know, just like in baseball, you can cut a player if you don't think that they're, performing to your expectations. That's great. But, like, you know, just to see if, like, a single investment into a single at bat. Right? That that's kind of the the analogy that I would have. Right? And think about it. Like, are you looking at someone across their entire career? Like, hey. Like, they might hit home run. They might hit a single, double, triple, or they might strike out. Right? These are the things that happen. It's just part of the game. Right? And in baseball, right, you know, the batting averages are not as high as you'd like, right, if you think about it from the financial side. And so, you know, when when we're just thinking about these things, right, again, just, you know, obviously, speaking to a financial adviser for your particular financial position. But, you know, if you are in a solid position to be able to do it, I would think of careers over single advance. Awesome. Great sports metaphors. I think those are great to help kind of understand understand the points there. I appreciate that. My next question for you guys, I'm excited to hear about and, Cammy, I think you kinda touched a little bit about the fact that you have a couple different areas that you're you're investing in, but I wanna hear at least one from each of you. Current investment spaces that you're really interested in at the current moment. And maybe, Cammy, let's start with you. Can you ask that question one more time? I was typing back to somebody in the chat, so I just Yeah. I worries. No worries. Just a current investment space that you're really interested in at the moment. a second. Yes. Well, so, actually, I'm I'm interested in a couple. So one, I'm always I'm we're in this sort of, you know, post AI era, and I think that infrastructure is a really interesting space. Deep tech is a really interesting space because, you know, something has to stand up all of this tech. Right? Like, we have, we're we're just we're in this sort of, like, new revolution and and and there is, there's just so much infra that has to stand it all up. And we're and we're honestly we're choked on compute. And so wherever there is choke, there is business. And so, so there's a lot there. I think and there's there's another little small piece of advice that somebody gave me once that it's like when, when there is a long line, for coffee, don't invest in the beans, invest in, the coffee sleeves. So, like, invest in adjacent spaces, which I just think, like, I always think about that as, like, a as a metaphor for investing in general. Think about all of the adjacent spaces around whatever it everybody else is focused on, like, oh, the beans. Everybody is everybody wants coffee. Go for the coffee. And it's like, no. No. No. Think about all the other things that go along with the coffee. So I think that's a good one. But then, the other pieces and I guess this kind of goes back to, like, the original thesis that kind of got me into it, Angela investing. You know, fintech and and and female founders in general, like, female founders are still underfunded. Right? So that is, still a wide open space, and there are there are so many statistics. I'm sorry, guys. Like, there are so many statistics that support that female founders are just more responsible founders, period. And so, and so there is a lot there. And then I I so I look for that. But then two, there is a there is a whole, host of wide open space for, femtech and women's health that is completely underfunded. And, and this is a space that I'm really actively looking at and, and investing in. So, I could talk about one of my investments, which, I I we can talk about later. But I, I'm very, very interested in those spaces. Yeah. I thought that's that's well put. I mean, I think if if I categorize what you said, on one side, you're looking at, like, market trends and where big opportunities are. Obviously, hardware compute, you know, is is something that is really emerging and, you know, still in the early innings of what could be a big, market shift. But, also, like, looking at spaces where you're just passionate about it, and it's just exciting space. Like, part of part of the investing, I would assume, for most folks is not just to make money, but it's, you know, to advance your career, learn, and do things that are fun and exciting. So, I I tend to kind of agree, in the sense that, like, finding, you know, either a space that you're really excited about or passionate about or finding a space where you just say, hey. This this is a big opportunity. I tend to sometimes will think about ideas that I like, and then we'll sometimes go try to find the startup that is doing similar things or doing a version of that. You know, I guess to to maybe answer the question, obviously, agents, in in infrastructure for agents is really interesting. I think that you have a lot of obviously, the agent wave is, you know, started and continues, but, think about all the infrastructure that's gonna be required to really run these products. And and, so I think that that is something that I've been watching closely. Awesome. And, George, current investment space you're excited about right now? Yeah. I think if I'm putting on my capitalist hat and just thinking about, maximizing returns, the one thing that I would share is, you know, a concept of nonconsensus alpha. And I think that, you know, alpha means just, you know, the level of earnings that you might have against what is considered the baseline. Right? And for in the investment space, that's the S and P 500. You wanna beat the SPY. That would be considered good to positive returns. Right? And so how can you generate beyond that? Now in start ups, right, boom bust. Right? You hit a home run, a home run makes up for the rest of the portfolio. Right now, obviously, in our current vintage, in the, you know, what people are obviously very hyped about is LMAIs. Right? And in that space specifically, right, Kenny had mentioned about looking at, you know, the adjacent spaces. Right? And, you know, looking at what what is, adjacent and interesting to the current thing. I would note, right, that, like, you know, a couple of years ago when LMs were part of, you know, the nonconsensus that it was during the vintage of crypto. Right? And crypto was the big thing. It was in vogue. I personally didn't participate in that. Right? But, you know, decided to participate in AI and in LLMs. Right? And it was what was nonconsensus at the time because everyone's like, I'm so tired of AI. That kinda sounds kinda familiar. Right? I'm so tired of AI. Who cares about that? The ML was really cool in, you know, the previous period, but now crypto, it's the new thing. Everyone's so excited about it. It's doing crazy things that can change the world. Right? And I think that in my evaluations just happened to be in the early part of my career, I decided to, you know, take the road less traveled. It's worked out well. And I think that that's something that, you know, in just history, right, a lot of people are really looking at, you know, a really particular area. There's probably a lot of alpha left over in the areas, that are outside of that. Right? And so I think that right now, there's a lot of founders who are looking for money in areas that are not necessarily related to generative AI. Right? Not working at LLMs, not working even in the overall AI ML space. Right? And that, you know, some of these businesses are looking for capital and that they can, you know, be, considered for your attention and that if you are looking at it from purely returns perspective, right, that these might have attractive valuations and attractive opportunities. Right? Room on the cap table that may not have existed in, you know, the hype cycles related to that particular field. Right? So, that would be something that I would, recommend people look at. Awesome. Thank you all for answering that. We are running low on time. So just for my final question, maybe just a really quick answer of what's one thing that someone who's interested in becoming an angel investor can do this month to move from just being interested in investing to actually almost active investing. And why don't we do Cammy, Chris, and then George just kind of wrapping fire really fast here. Well, my first my first answer would have been, figure out how much risk you are willing to take. Right? Like, in for some people, that can be, one, like, look at your own balance sheet and figure out how much money do I wanna carve out for to write my first angel in check or my to write my first angel check. But Andre in the chat just asked a really good question, earlier, and I I responded to it. I replied to it, which is, like, what is the what does diligence actually look like? And I actually think that the first step might be, what should I do to actually diligence a company? That is the first step before actually writing a check. So understand what your diligence should look like. And so, I just gave, like, my sort of approach to diligence, and so you can follow that. You can adapt it adapt your own. But I recommend talking to a bunch of people that, that are angel investors. And you can start with the three of us who are on this panel. There are four, Taylor two. We're more than happy to, volunteer ourselves as tribute if you'd like to borrow from our playbooks. But, but develop your own, and and you will over time. I think definitely, start start small, but but start soon because, you're never gonna feel completely ready. And then and it's only when you have those at bats that you actually, you know, start to feel really comfortable. So, yeah, that's what I would say. Yeah. I would recommend, you know, spending time with founders that you know, like, wanna learn from, and don't, if you're not ready to write a check-in the moment, you don't have to have an agenda. Just, you know, trying to help founders, and trying to, you know, spend time with them and see if you can if there's ways you can impact them and their business. The the really, the the moment I would say that tends to be a little bit of a go no go is, like, when a round comes together. And so the round's coming together. It's closing, you know, in thirty days, and, you know, that's kind of the point where you have to decide whether you're, you know, willing to to write a check and, get involved. Obviously, talking to the founder, asking them if it's it's a fit, what their minimum check size is, and if there's alignment, that you guys could work together and that you could help. So, you know, those are the big things for from, you know, from a diligence perspective. I tend to that that's one of the reasons I like to have a round, be a part of a a real round and not just write a one off check is that there's a process that that lead investor is taking the company through, and you can simply just ask for, you know, what that investor packet looks like, look through the deck, look through, you know, what financials sometimes in the pre seed seed stage. That that's not extensive. But if there's a round coming together, there should be some sort of diligence and, you know, pitch deck and packet that, you can look at and better understand the business as you're evaluating it. You know, something that I've been thinking about, like, how how would you get started in this? How would you formalize it? What is there, like, a ticking point? Well, it's not really like you know, there's no job application. I think I see in the chat, like, when do do you register with the SEC to say, like, you're accredited now? That's not really part of the process. But I think that it's you putting in your heart of hearts saying that I'm going to be someone who's gonna be a resource for founders. Right? Whether or not I do engage with them on a financial level, it's like being there as a mentor, being there as an advisor, being there at some level. Because the tipping point, obviously, between that and being an angel investor, right, is just the financial component of it. Right? And so, know, the things that you generally are expected, the expectations that should be had out of a good angel investor is just the financial component on top of being a good mentor or advisor, right, and being there for people. I think that's something that's incredibly important. So if you're just out and about in the community, being a great resource, being available, right, and, you know, putting on, a good reputation and brand for yourself, you're already, right, 75% of the way there. Right? And the remaining portion really is just the formalization, the, you know, the financial component of it. Right? And so that's something that I think that for a lot of people, like getting into the habit of being a good mentor, being a good advocate, being excited about stuff. Right? Finding out who the clicks that you really wanna spend time in. Right? And and get, you know, get out of your comfort zone. Be things that maybe, oh, am I potentially interested in this? Is prop tech actually interesting? Is, you know, deep tech interesting? Maybe, maybe not. Right? It's different for every single individual person. I think it's a great time to start that exploration because, you know, there isn't a really set formal moment where you're like, here's your badge. You're now, anointed an angel ambassador. Right? It's, you know, just internal and it's gonna happen naturally, but you've gotta get in the habit of doing it, get into the position to be able to do it, Yep. and to have an understanding of the ecosystem writ large. So that that would probably be, you know, the entry point, if you will, in my mind. Awesome. Thank you all so much for sharing. Such great advice all in all. I think that that's about as much time as we have to answer questions, but I appreciate you all for kinda coming on here. I think that you've had so much great advice, so many, different perspectives, which is always super helpful in kinda deciding if this is something that people wanna start start going for. So with that, we can pass it back to Stephanie. Thank you all so much. Honestly, I learned so much from this panel both, like, as part of, like, listening to the panel itself and then also the chat. Like, shout out to Cammy who was just, like, over there answering all the questions as they came up too. So amazing multitasking job. Love it. And then George and Chris, like, you are so full of knowledge. Like, I cannot thank you enough for kind of walking us through your process for how you got involved in angel investing and sourcing deals. Like, just amazing. And honestly, Taylor, you're a rock star, per use. So I will stop for a second. So this is Shanice on the line with me. Shanice represents the city of Boston, who's our partner for this event. Shanice, would you like to say a few words to close us out? Yes. I wanted to say, first and foremost, thank you for everyone who joined us this morning. I hope you all enjoyed the topic. I was over here taking notes. This has been a topic that I've been interested in learning more about, so thank you all. And then thank you to Taylor, Chris, Cammy, and George for sharing your insights with us. And then, of course, thank you to Stephanie for partnering with the city, with this event. We've been part we're working with Stephanie on a startup series, for about over two years now, Yeah. about two years now. So and, we'll be hosting more events. So so everyone that joined us this morning, please look out for other events. Amazing. Well, I hope you all have a fabulous rest of your day. The recording will be available. I'll be emailing everyone out with it kind of later today. So if you need to go back and find those tidbits, they will be available. And to our speakers, thank you again. Well, I'll see you all soon, so have a good one. Bye.