Tony Shipley, chair of the nationally-recognized angel group Queen City Angels (QCA), joins Shubha Chakravarthy to demystify the rigorous process of due diligence from an investor's perspective.
Drawing from his background as an engineer and a founder of QCA, Tony unpacks the structured, process-oriented framework that has enabled his group to achieve a "remarkably different" and lower failure rate in its investment funds.
Check out Tony's thoughtful, time tested views on:
- Why rigorous due diligence is the single biggest driver of investor success
- The key attributes every investor evaluates before writing a check
- How founders can turn diligence into a powerful discovery and learning process
- The real reason uncoachable founders rarely get funded
- How to make “greed overcome fear” when pitching investors
- What every deep tech and life sciences founder must prove before investors say yes
- The two make-or-break deliverables that define fundable milestones
- What investors really look for in your market sizing (and why your TAM might be irrelevant)
- The hidden art of building investor confidence through your sales strategy
- How to build a moat that actually matters—across SaaS, life sciences, and advanced materials
- Why founders underestimate the due-diligence deep dive into team dynamics
- Common red flags on your cap table that kill deals before they start
- The investor’s inside view on SAFE agreements—and why most angels won’t touch them
- The one preparation habit that makes founders 10x more likely to get funded
and much more!
