"Angel" hosted by Jason Calacanis - Video

Mamoon Hamid, Partner at Kleiner Perkins & expert early investor (Slack, Box, Intercom) on evolving from growth to venture, lessons from founding & leaving Social Capital, great founder qualities, wisdom of complementary teams, & winning formulas

Matt Ocko, Managing Partner of Data Collective, invests in deep tech with an algorithmic edge, shares decision-making in difficult markets, building a world-class team, state of Seed in 2019 & taking risks to create a utopian future

Charles Hudson, Managing Partner of Precursor Ventures, shares strategies on the great rewards & risks of pre-seed, betting on founders with unique insight, analyzing market structure vs. size, importance of mobilization to increase SV diversity, & the art of making early deals without data

500 Startups Co-founder & Managing Partner Christine Tsai shares lessons from her fund's 10 unicorns & 2200+ startups across 74 countries, what it takes to be a successful founder, achieving a 26% women-led portfolio, greatest hits/misses, & strong leadership through adversity

Pete Flint, NFX Managing Partner & Trulia Founder, shares insights from entrepreneurship to investing, criteria for $150m seed fund, supporting persistent founders, company-building & culture, targeting markets ripe for disruption, & the power of data network effects

Rob May, investor 45+ co's & founder Talla & Backupify, shares dealbreakers, successful founder patterns, using scar tissue as entrepreneur to be a better angel, creating Talla's ICO & future of bots, blockchain, & crypto

E17: Clara Brenner, Urban Innovation Fund shares insights from ~50 investments focused on solving our biggest challenges, importance of tenacity, momentum, culture to scale & positive communication with investors

Satya Patel, Homebrew, on 80+ investments, betting on founders with mission, solving problems over building biz, funding "phases" not stages, portfolio stars, & the critical importance of boards & organizational muscle memory

Jeff Clavier, Uncork Capital, on pioneering micro VC, lessons from 200+ investments & 5 funds, strategizing at Seed for Series A crunch, risky ICOs, & the hard-won wisdom of always be raising

BoldStart Founder Ed Sim on 20yrs seeding 50+ enterprise co’s, how his father’s fleeing N. Korea shaped his VC, NYC deep tech, & being 1st dollar in to help move founder-product fit to product-market fit to self-sustainability.

As populations grow, and climates change, could cities be our salvation? With the right infrastructure, urban areas or megaregions can be the most carbon & economic efficient habitations. But cities face countless problems, in housing shortages, broken transportation, overflowing waste, and more. With Urban.us, Shaun Abrahamson & Stonly Baptiste seed startups solving for challenges to make our cities better and our futures more hopeful. Shaun & Stonly talk to Jason about what they're working on, why cities are so critical, what they look for in startups, which problems they are tackling, and much more.

In Episode 10, Jason talks with Matt Brezina, angel investor in 65+ startups, including Dropbox, Cruise & Ring, and founder of Xobni & Sincerely. Matt shares how & why he got into investing, his critical formative time in YC, the lasting influence of Paul Graham, meeting Drew Houston (failing to hire him, but investing in Dropbox down the road), learning sales from his mom, letting ego interfere with business, why he loves Twitter, his belief in founder-builders and investing in their careers.

Ask an Angel! It's a special episode of "Angel," with Jason Calacanis & Brian Alvey (Clipisode, LAUNCH) candidly answer the burning questions of investors and those aspiring to be. Picking startups, evaluating founders, due diligence, Syndicates ins/outs, deal terms and a lot more. Listen and learn!   What’s the best way to verify the customers of a potential investment are happy with the product? - Alan When completing financial due diligence what documents should I be asking for/what am I entitled to? - Sheila How can I tell if the founder is the right fit for the company? - Mark “What is the best way to evaluate a founder for persistence?” - David If an idea sounds exciting but I don’t have any experience in the vertical how do I intelligently evaluate the opportunity? - Brian When I invest via an Angel Syndicate is my identity kept secret? Is my name on the cap table? - Kyle I have a great company for your syndicate, what’s the best way to discuss investment opportunities with you, Jason? - Marianne What is the standard carry? What is the minimum investment? - Craig Do you only accept US based companies? - Bill What opportunities are currently available for non-accredited investors? - Pam Re: closing mechanics...should I expect/demand an escrow type closing where all the $ of the round comes in at once?  - Anonymous

In episode8 of "Angel," Jason sits down with Pejman Nozad, Founding Managing Partner of Pear VC. Pejman came to the U.S. from Iran with nothing, and eventually became one of the most successful angel investors ever, seeding 100+ startups including 6 unicorns. Pejman reveals lessons and insights from his journey, starting from his carpet-selling days and breaking into tech by hosting events at the rug store, to moving into venture capital, starting his own firm and backing massively successful companies. Pejman shares the secrets of his process, including staying disciplined, qualities he looks for in founders (desire to make a difference, combined with a healthy paranoia), conducting due diligence, handling failure, and belief in the good will of Silicon Valley, where you can be a nobody, but still make it.

On Episode 7 of "Angel," Jason talks to Freestyle Capital co-founder Dave Samuel, a former founder (Spinner, Brondell) who brings his entrepreneurial focus to investing. Dave shares what qualities he looks for in startups & products, his love for building teams & companies, the trouble with B2C, raising money in a financial crisis, early internet days including founding & selling the internet's 1st music service to AOL, his innovative smart toilet, why he became an investor, and much more.

Ben Narasin has a unique view on early-stage investing, quite different than Jason's, and today on "Angel," he shares his proven thesis and dives into a track record that speaks for itself, with over half of his seed companies reaching Series A, and 3 unicorns. Ben explains what he looks for in a startup (teams factors heavily, but not exclusively), the absolute critical characteristic a founder must have to succeed, and executing on the strength of your convictions. Plus, portfolio hits, misses, regrets, and more.

In today's episode of "Angel," Jason welcomes Syndicate leader Zach Coelius, Triggit founder who, only after 2yrs as an angel, has already enjoyed a $1b exit (Cruise, bought by GM). Zach shares his insights as a founder-turned-investor, including finding deals & deal-breakers, hustling & other techniques to be a better investor, advising your way onto the cap table, what stage of product development is the most exciting, the skinny on AngelList funds, his (tremendous) hits & (very few) misses, and, from personal experience, the great respect & empathy he has for entrepreneurs ("startups are like rocket ships into the walls of your incompetence"). Thank you Audible for sponsoring this podcast.

In episode 4 "Angel" podcast Jason talks to angel & syndicate leader Ed Roman. Ed describes his journey from serial entrepreneur in Austin to syndicate angel in Silicon Valley, and shares strategies for optimizing for outsized outcomes, developing the right alchemy gut & market analysis, the biggest mistake investors make, his greatest hits & misses, how to tell when a founder will go 10x, how to know when you're a seasoned investor...and much more. Thanks for Audible for sponsoring this podcast.

In "Angel" episode 3, Jason speaks with Andrea Zurek, Founding Partner of XG Ventures ("ex-Googlers"), and angel investor since 2006. Andrea, whose portfolio includes Facebook, Twitter and Box, shares how she picks companies, her ideal terms and valuations, the trouble with TAM and solo founders, deciding when to follow on, how she applies lessons from building Google to help her founders, portfolio greatest hits & misses. Thank you to Audible for sponsoring this podcast.

In episode 2 of Jason's new podcast, "Angel," Super Angel & Syndicate Leader Gil Penchina shares secrets from his 20 years investing in 200+ startups, including LinkedIn, PayPal, & Cruise. Gil reveals why he became an angel, which founders & verticals to back (& which to run away from), deal flow strategies, tips for learning the game & making your own rules, how to support founders, & lessons he's learned from his greatest hits ... and failures. Thank you to Audible for sponsoring this podcast.

Welcome to the first episode of the "Angel" podcast. In this series, Jason interviews angels about their investment strategies and pulls back the curtain on how early-stage startups get funded. In E1, Cyan Banister, former angel investor (Uber, Thumbtack) now Founders Fund Partner, shares with Jason her portfolio successes & brutal losses, her formula for choosing successful startups & founders, and her journey from angel investor to VC. Thanks to Audible for sponsoring this podcast.