Overview

Winning Angels is a practical, hands-on guide to angel investing, which includes tools, tactics and strategies for high-tech, low-tech, and every other kind of early-stage investing.  It is a treasure trove of advice from knowledgeable angel-veterans. Over 50 winning angels in the US and Europe, including Mitch Kapor, Esther Dyson, Andrew Filipowski, Audrey MacLean, and Dick Morley, share their hard-earned years of experience. Some have done over 100 deals each, while others reaped rewards on investments in companies such as Apple Computer, Amazon.com, RealNetworks, idealab!, StarMedia Network, Kozmo.com, returning on occasions several hundred times their original investment.

Content & Structure

To begin with, angels are guided through the process of setting their investment strategy. This includes resolving issues, such as:

• Capital available to invest

• Optimum number of deals

• Participation role

• Time commitment

• Risk/reward tolerance

Next, angels are lead through the seven fundamentals they must master in order to succeed. These are:

• Sourcing

• Evaluating

• Valuing

• Structuring

• Negotiating

• Supporting

• Harvesting

Within each of these chapters, the book has the following sections:

• Start Section
  (overview and options available to angels, eg structuring: two camps, menu of deal terms, three fundamental deal structures, future rounds and the VC perspective)
   

• What Do Most Investors Do?
  (summary of typical approaches)
   

• What Do the Winners Do?
  (winning approaches with examples and advice from successful angels)
   

• A Few Winning Tools and Tactics
  (tools and tactics angels can utilize to maximize success)
   

• Special Sections
  (additional info on areas of interest, eg valuations of some real deals)
   

• Four Take-Aways

Finally, the book closes with brief bio’s on the 50 angels who were interviewed, 15 in-depth angel profiles, an angel glossary, and a thorough index – just try to find an angel term that’s not there.

Who should read Winning Angels?

• Experienced/Seasoned angels will find numerous insights to improve their ability to win.
    

• Inexperienced (high-potential) angels will find the book to be the definitive guide on how to do it.
    

• Entrepreneurs will see how the other side works, but will also get information on how to value, structure and harvest their deals, information that has not been published previously.
   

• MBA and entrepreneur students whether seeking to raise capital or join a VC firm, they will see how early stage deals are sourced, evaluated, valued, structured, negotiated, supported and harvested.
   

• Venture Capitalists as the venture capital market is more competitive than ever, will want to know how winning angels think and operate and where there are any tricks they have missed.

Experienced and inexperienced angel investors will benefit from Winning Angels. This book reduces the art of angel investing into a science, and open the doors to those who have limited experience, while augmenting the experience of seasoned investors.

Entrepreneurs will gain access to the mindset of winning angels, and how best to win them over, as endorsed by Peter Crisp, VenRock Venture Capital, and investor in Apple and Intel, “Entrepreneurs would do well to read and reflect on the contents of the book before they seek funding.”

About the Authors

David Amis has made 15 angel investments, led an award-winning field study at Harvard Business School on seed capital networks, and previously served as the Managing Director of the world’s first matchmaker, Venture Capital Report, Oxford. click here for more

Howard Stevenson has made over 80 angel investments and headed the Entrepreneur Management Unit at Harvard Business School for 18 years. He has authored/co-authored six books, his latest is Do Lunch or Be Lunch, and 43 articles. click here for more