Recently we published the What’s Your Angel Strategy article, a brief article on how to build out the first steps of your angel investment strategy. What followed was a deluge of questions, comments and feedback, with active angel investors and angel networks engaging in great discussions on how to develop angel strategies in practice. In this article, we go back to our four angel investors from the first article and dig deeper into their angel investment strategy.

Catching up with our four angels

In the first part of What’s Your Angel Strategy, we introduced four different angel investors, all with different backgrounds and experiences.

Jacob, the former C-level executive, new to angel investing.
Jill, the successfully exited founder, with a strong angel network around here
Moritz, another ex-founder, looking for high-volume angel dealmaking
Heidi, the former corporate development, M&A and corporate venture executive in the European climate space.

Digging deeper with angel strategy canvases

To dig deeper into their respective strategies for angel investing, we introduce the Business Angel Strategy Index. We have 15 key items, pillars, if you will, of a successful angel strategy. Using these 15 items, each angel can assess themselves today and select their target or aspiration, using a 1-5 scale.

The first item, Number of investments, allows each angel to set the target number of investments they wish to hold in their angel portfolio. Select one, for a couple of deals. Select a five for a 200+ giga portfolio of investments over time.

Another item, number five, digs into your understanding of and access to Co-investors. A novice angel would like to answer one; why do I need co-investors? Truly beginner angels might not yet have learned the power of investing in the right networks. A very structured and experience angel may answer four, I have multiple, strong angel, accelerator and VC networks I co-invest with.
Of course, your starting point today, your self-assessment today might be one or two; but with an aspiration to develop into three of four in the future.

Item 12, value creation, is often a critical one for business angels. An honest self-assessment might reveal, answer one, Not sure what I would bring to the able, possibly due to a lack of relevant experience with early-stage investments. A successfully exited founder-turned-angel investor however, may have far more to bring to the table here, and possibly consider herself a four or a five, with multiple strategies and well-developed growth strategy roadmaps.

In total, angel investors can work through the 15 items to both self-assess today and develop their personal development plan for the future.

Emerging vs. experienced angel investors

To accommodate both experienced and new, emerging, aspirational angel investors, you will find the Business Angel Strategy Index in two versions. One for experienced investors, and another for new ones.
We generally think about new vs. experienced at three completed investments. So, if you have never done any angel investments, or you have done one or two, we would suggest you are an emerging angel investor. If you have successfully completed three or more investments, we think it is fair to call you experienced.

At the end of the article, you can download the Business Angel Strategy Index and Emerging Business Angel Strategy Index to both self-assess and create your own, personal development plan.

Returning to our four angel investors

With the introduction to the canvases behind us, we want to return to our four angel investors, Jacob, Jill, Moritz and Heidi. Let’s see how they would use the canvas to assess and shape their angel strategy.

Low deal flow, high tickets (Jacob)

Jacob is our emerging angel, still finding his way into the field. He is still pursuing his low deal flow, high-ticket strategy. In doing his self-assessment, Jacob quickly discovers areas he was not even aware of as an angel. With his C-level experience, he brings extensive experience to the governance and board, but limited relevant experience with funding rounds and exits. For Jacob, there is still a lot to learn.

Trusting the network (Jill)

As a successfully exited founder, Jill has been through the entire founder’s journey from idea to exit. Historically she has had 1-2 exits, and some performance on her angel investments. Looking ahead, she is building up a very structured way of working across access to deal flow, decision making and founders support. Given her experience and willingness to help, most of her founders would possibly call her ‘family’.
She brings extensive depth to both funding rounds and coaching founders on exits.

High Volume (Moritz)

Another exited founder, Moritz is a deal machine. His network of founders, co-investors and follow-on investors make him a Super angel, with a proven ability to structure complex financing rounds and get deals done quickly. Given his experience, Moritz knows the importance of having a long-term exit strategy on all of his investments, and he cultivates a strategic network of 200+ exit options, mostly corporate M&A teams globally.

High-volume, corporate climate tech champion (Heidi)

Heidi left her position in corporate development, M&A and corporate venturing, and now building her own portfolio of projects. Her passion for climate tech runs deep, and her structured way of taking new ideas to market proves incredibly valuable for the 5-10 companies she invests in. Her expertise is commercial, customer discovery, customer personas, sales strategy and go-to-market, primarily to the energy and utility sector. With less focus on exits, Heidi is truly an extension of the BD team for her startups.

There is no, one single correct strategy

As we discuss in The Eight Angel Investor Types: Which One Are You? no two angel investors are the same. Similarly, no two angel strategies need to be the same. Different angels bring different expertise, careers, networks and skill sets. Two angels can get very different outcomes from the Angel Strategy Index, and both can do very well.

What we recommend is for all angel investors to do the following:

• Step one, an honest self-assessment
• Step two, looking ahead and reflect on your strengths and weaknesses
• Step three, develop a forward-looking development roadmap, to become a better angel investor

Our four friends, Mortiz, Jill, Heidi and Jacob all have different careers and backgrounds. They bring different skills, from board and governance to exits and go-to-market. They all have different strategies, designed to maximize their expertise, drive impact and create value in their investments.

Assessing Your Angel Strategy

Now, it’s your turn.

Download the Business Angel Strategy Index OR the Emerging Business Angel Strategy Index to assess and develop your own angel investing strategy.

Reflect on where your strengths are today, and which you want to develop for the future. From founder relationships, like being the first call when something goes wrong in the startup, to developing your network of active co-investors, how you shape your angel strategy is entirely up to you. Using the Angel Strategy Index, you can now assess and score yourself, and then track your development over time.

Good luck with shaping your angel strategy.

A note for angel investor networks

Most angel investor networks are focused on learning and developing the skills of their respective angels. You may want to consider downloading the Angel Strategy Index, print it and run an in-house workshop where angels work in breakout groups to assess, reflect and develop their respective strategies.