03: Angel vs VC, finding purpose and community in startup investing

https://is1-ssl.mzstatic.com/image/thumb/Podcasts221/v4/16/95/63/169563c9-ef8d-0a3c-379d-c4cd8eb11edf/mza_2686481019628352065.jpg/600x600bb.jpg

First Funders

Shaherose Charania and Aamir Virani

22 episodes

1 month ago

Learn from angel and seed investors bold enough to write the first check. How do they decide which startups to invest in? How do they gain conviction in founders and ideas? How do they add value to their companies? Shaherose Charania and Aamir Virani are operators turned investors. They chat with their friends investing in early-stage technology startups and learn about their strategies to fund the best founders and startup companies. If you are an angel investor or seed investor, you'll hear how others operate. If you are a startup entrepreneur, you'll hear how investors filter and decide on writing that first check.

All content for First Funders is the property of Shaherose Charania and Aamir Virani and is served directly from their servers with no modification, redirects, or rehosting. The podcast is not affiliated with or endorsed by Podjoint in any way.

Investing

Business,

Entrepreneurship

03: Angel vs VC, finding purpose and community in startup investing - Rachel Sheinbein

First Funders

1 hour 3 minutes

1 year ago

03: Angel vs VC, finding purpose and community in startup investing - Rachel Sheinbein

Rachel Sheinbein is an angel investor with over 250 startup investments. She shares her insights on angel investing and how it allows her to work with founders “even before the seed stage,” writing $25k checks into technology startups through her vehicle Very Serious Ventures. Later, Rachel discusses how building a community drives her investing strategy and lessons from memorable startup investments. Shaherose and Aamir kick off the show with a special message for founders who like to argue and end with their personal takeaways from the conversation with Rachel.

Highlights from our discussion:

Why Rachel chose angel investing over a partner position at a VC firm
What to look for in a quality angel group
Using a DAF to align with an investing purpose
Detecting founder passion and coachability
Defining your purpose

This is for information purposes only. This is not investment advice.

Topics

(00:00) - 03: Rachel Sheinbein, Angel
(01:14) - PSA: Your startup's users know more than Aamir the angel investor does
(02:51) - Rachel Sheinbein, angel investor and advisor
(04:56) - From engineering to venture capital to angel investing
(07:28) - Do angel groups and angel networks provide value to startup investors?
(13:23) - How Rachel aligns purpose and philanthropy with her early-stage startup investing
(16:08) - Rachel's first angel investment was in a gaming startup
(19:17) - Investor experience, startup luck, and Sequoia
(21:49) - How does an angel investor like Rachel measure bad outcomes in startup investments?
(24:53) - How angel investors operate differs from venture capitalists
(29:47) - Pitch decks - do they matter when seed investing so early?
(33:45) - Startup founder signals that matter to an angel investor
(40:47) - A climate tech seed investment that paid off quickly and returned funds
(46:39) - Very Serious Ventures angel invests $25k super early in founders
(48:51) - An exercise to help you become a better angel investor
(51:04) - Speed round, and the best book on strategy for startup founders
(52:59) - Our takeaways on better startup investing

Connect with Us

Follow the First Funders Podcast

Newsletter with behind-the-scenes access and key takeaways

Twitter/X @shaherose

Twitter/X @avirani

Email us with feedback and suggestions on topics and guests