Podcast appearances and mentions of christopher mirabile

In this episode, Christopher Mirabile, Executive Chair of Launchpad Venture Group, explores the pivotal role of boards in startup companies and discusses how boards can be both a critical support system as well as a driver of success. We love our listeners! Drop us a line or give us guest suggestions here. Big Ideas/Thoughts/Quotes “Life is too short to suffer with the wrong people in your boardroom.” Startup Boards are different, but still vitally important “Boards have featured prominently in my entire professional life.” “When I was a consultant with the strategy group at Pricewaterhouse, ultimately our work was commissioned by boards and delivered to boards, and those board presentations when I was lucky enough to be in the room as a young person on the team were some of the most high-pressure situations that I ever was in professionally and left a real impression on me.” “When I got into the startup world, I sort of had to unlearn a certain amount of what I'd learned about boards and moved to the end of the spectrum where boards provide as much mentoring and business value as they do governance.” “Startup boards tend to be a little smaller, a little bit more nimble and often the membrane between shareholders and directors is much thinner because you often see meaningful representation direct from the shareholder base on the board.” “When you run into resistance from a founder [about a board], it's often really more of an educational journey than a negotiating journey to try to get them to understand the value of a board.” Why is a board important for a startup? Your investors want it and you're not going to be able to raise money without it and why would you reinvent the wheel when you can have people who made those mistakes before and can help you avoid wasted time and wasted resources. “A big part of what [we] do is help CEOs understand that …if you go into a relationship with your board, it's sort of like an intellectual partnership where you bring the courage to admit you don't have all the answers and you really seek to draw the wisdom out…”  …If you show me a CEO that's failing, I'll show you a board that's failing to support that CEO properly … Attitude of Startup board members “I don't want to be anywhere near the blast radius of a startup that fails, so I want to make sure that this company is going to succeed…” Feedback to CEO after a Board Executive Session A great way to give feedback after an executive session is: "Hey, let's just do a little case study here. In the meeting, you said this, here's what they heard..." and then it's not an in-your-face criticism, it's just helping them understand how they're being perceived and how their choice of words and their manner of speaking and their style affects the impact of their communications…I think that can be a very effective non-confrontational way to give quick feedback to a CEO.  The Independent Member of a Startup Board “What we're looking for is two things. One is the avoidance of some negatives and the other is certain positives. I'll start with the avoidance of the negatives. We don't want an inexperienced blowhard who has a lot of ego involved in telling people what to do and insisting that their advice be followed, and someone who contributes to a board meeting in a manner which sucks all the oxygen out of the room and makes it super awkward to disagree with them.  We're looking for someone who has a little bit of experience, understands boards are a working thing and that startups are an imperfect science and they're not going to be a disruptive or difficult board member. That's the kind of the key negatives that we're looking to avoid.  In terms of the positives, really, we want someone who understands the industry dynamics, understands the players, knows who the company and the CEO should be talking to, and has that bigger perspective, who can put the day-to-day operational challenges of the company into a broader industry context, and then ultimately make introductions when it's time to find additional investors or exit the company.  So, all we need is a well-behaved genius. It's easy.” Training Board Members “Launchpad now has at least 50 portfolio companies and 40 Launchpad members are either in the boardroom as a director or an observer. That's a pretty large portfolio of board members and observers that the group is adding as human value to the companies.” Our training consists of three things. ·      One is expectation setting and accountability, ·      The second is we tend to give the newer investors in our group an opportunity to serve as an observer under an experienced board member for at least a year so they get a little bit of a sense of what it's about. ·      The third piece is really traditional training and that consists of training we do before they serve on the board and then ongoing training after they've begun. The training we do before is basically making them read the director's guidebook that Ham and I wrote, which really covers all of the basics, and we go to great pains to say, "No, we really mean it when we say we want you to read this. Don't come to the class if you haven't read it because we'll know." ·      Then we do a class where we give them an opportunity to discuss questions and things that weren't clear from the book and we take them through a whole layer of sort of pragmatic suggestions on how to get that first meeting successful and how to run a good board Overboarding “It's really an issue in the VC world … I think a lot of people draw some measure of professional pride out of being on a board and they can tend to get a little carried away and take on too many board assignments.”  “In our experience doing a startup board well, even in a year where it goes pretty well, it's about a 200-hour-a-year commitment.” “We do go out of our way to keep them [people with too many board seats] off the board, and one of the reasons we really prefer to lead rounds is because we want to have a hand in building the board and making sure that we're giving our CEO all the resources she or he needs to succeed and putting the right people around our management team.” Responsibilities of Boards have expanded dramatically “The basics sort of used to constitute most of what a board did, and now a board has so many other jobs, it's really overwhelming a number of things that we expect boards to do and I think that it not only takes away from some of the time that could be spent on the basics, but it creates a ‘whack a mole' kind of a mindset in terms of directors.”   Links  linkedin.com/in/christophermirabile  Bio Christopher Mirabile is the Chair Emeritus of the Angel Capital Association and the immediate past Chair of the U.S. Securities And Exchange Commission's Investor Advisory Committee. He is also the Executive Chair of Launchpad Venture Group, a Boston-based venture investment group focused on seed and early-stage investments in technology-oriented companies. Launchpad is top-three ranked group in the U.S. As a full-time angel investor and an active member of the Boston-area angel investing community, in addition to his Launchpad work, Christopher has personally invested in over 65 start-up companies. He was named one of  the "Top Angel Investors in New England" by Xconomy, one of "Boston's Most Helpful Investors" in an entrepreneur survey by Companyon Ventures and is the recipient of the Angel Capital Association's Hans Severiens Award for his contribution to the advancement of angel investing. Christopher has co-authored six books on early stage investing, been a columnist on entrepreneurship for Inc. Magazine, is a co-founder of portfolio management tool www.seraf-investor.com and co-author of the Seraf Compass, a comprehensive web catalog of educational materials about early stage investing, an adjunct lecturer in the MBA program at Babson's Olin School of Business, a regular advisor and mentor to start-ups, and a frequent panelist and speaker. He is a member of the Board of Directors or Board of Advisors of numerous start-up companies and non-profits. Christopher has served as a public company CFO and General Counsel with enterprise software provider IONA Technologies PLC, a corporate and securities lawyer with Testa Hurwitz & Thibeault and as a management consultant with Price Waterhouse's Strategic Consulting Group.

The Opportunitites in Angel-Scale Biotech: https://syndicate.angelinvestboston.com/en-us/the-surge-of-opportunities-in-angel-scale-biotech The dynamic duo of founder Adam Martel and super angel Christopher Mirabile are back on the podcast to report on the sale of Gravyty and to discuss Adam's new startup, Givzey. Highlights: Gravyty Created a New Category How COVID Affected Gravyty Merging Gravyty and Graduway Sal Compares the Gravyty Exit and the Mavrck Exit Selling a Startup to a Private Equity Firm Adam Martel Talks About his New Startup, Givzey “Because we're experts in data, we've seen if you make a gift to your alma mater for the last 20 years, odds are that you're going to make a gift in the 21st year.” “...the ability to understand the market and to understand the timing of the market; is the market ready for this, has been shown to be a very important predictor of success in ventures.” Sal Daher Shifts the Conversation to the Life Sciences “...you don't meet many academics who aren't pretty sharp. When you think about it, many of them are really quite good at project management.” Being Coachable Is Essential for First-Time Academic Founders “...Michael Jordan wasn't coachable, but I think he would tell you that he heard everything people said.” AceUp, the Executive Coaching Platform Purdue University Entrepreneurship and Peter Fasse, Patent Attorney at Fish & Richardson Sponsor the Podcast Hilltop Biosciences and Founder Amanda Drobnis QSM Diagnostics Kalion: Bioengineering Microorganisms to Produce Valuable Compounds KnipBio – Another Use for Microorganisms Piction Health – AI for Skin Topics: product, exits, biotech

Christopher Mirabile is Senior Managing Director at Launchpad Venture Group. We have an awesome conversation about a non-Unicorn chasing investment philosophy.

Click Here to read Marcia's profile on LinkedInClick Here to read Christopher Mirabile's profile on LinkedInClick Here to read Hambleton Lord's profile on LinkedInClick here to learn more about LaunchpadClick here to learn more about the Investor Advisory CouncilClick here to learn more about SerafClick here to learn more about the Hans Severeins AwardsClick here to find out more about the Angel Capital AssociationTake courses to learn how to be an angel investor at Angel University - click here for info!Want to reach the Angel Capital Association? CLICK HEREHave ideas for the show?  Email us at theacaangelnextdoorpodcast@gmail.com

Join Sal's Investment Syndicate List: Click to Join Launchpad, Boston’s leading angel group, has published a polished collection of stories that illustrate the success and failure of their portfolio companies over two decades. It is titled “The Entrepreneur’s Journey”. Listen to my interview of authors Ham Lord, Christopher Mirabile and Joe Mandato to learn more about this valuable resource for angels and founders. Highlights from the interview: Peter Fasse of Fish & Richardson Sponsors the Angel Invest Boston Podcast Boston’s Answer to The Three Tenors, The Three Super-Angels “…back in 2012, started working with some of the members within Launchpad to understand why some of our companies succeeded and why some of them failed.” “But there was something about that team that we just couldn't disengage.” “…it was one of these software purchases ... unlike a lot of enterprise software ... that immediately paid for itself.” “…if we had looked at Mobius and said, "No, hardware company, we're not investing," we would have lost out on an investment that ultimately is going to be a 35x return.” “…Intuitive Surgical, where it violated every principle of venture investing. Right?” “…it was a 10 year, 35x. That is a beautiful, beautiful investment.” “…I could sort of hear myself in some of these stories, and I've changed the approach that I'm taking in certain areas.” “We included as much failure as success in this book. Every theme is illustrated by both companies that got lucky and got it right, and companies that didn't.” “…One of the challenges is the timeline. For VC, the timeline, it's so long with the biotech's and that's really become problematic.”

Join Sal Daher's Investment Syndicate: Click to Join The collaboration of Ham Lord and Christopher Mirabile, two of Boston’s most consequential super angels, is widely admired. Its most visible fruit is the success of Launchpad Venture Group, which they manage together. In the relaunch of this revealing interview, they let us in on how this winning collaboration came to be and what keeps it productive as it approaches the end of its first decade. Christopher Mirabile and Ham Lord are already familiar to our listeners.  Each has been interviewed individually on earlier episodes of the Angel Invest Boston Podcast. In the current episode, the two different personalities interact and give us a glimpse into what drives their working relationship. Click here to read the full episode transcript. TOPICS COVERED INCLUDE: Christopher & Ham’s Remarkable Collaboration How They Connected Division of Labor Lucky to Have Jody Collier as Operations Manager Complementary Skills & Creative Tension What They Enjoy in Working Together What Motivates Christopher and Ham How Christopher & Ham Differ in their Investing Gene Gregerson, an Engineer’s Engineer & Mobius Imaging – Astonishing Feat of Entrepreneurship Blind Spots: How Having a Partner Helps Avoid Them Integrity in the Founding Team is Essential – Due Diligence Screens Out Frauds Geographic Focus Makes It Possible to Add Value Dos & Don’ts for a Winning Collaboration How Ham and Christopher Work Things Out When Problems Arise Co-CEOs Raise a Red Flag but Can Work Trends Christopher & Ham See A Business Semyon Dukach Would Like!

Christopher Mirabile the Boston based Chair of the Angel Capital Association, co-founder of Seraf and Managing Director of Launchpad Venture Group joins us this week with an incredible story. Christopher takes us from his early days in law and explains how he arrived in the venture, start-up and entrepreneurial space. His vast knowledge makes for an entertaining listen as he discusses what excites him and what pains him about angel investing. Christopher gives us his take on a classic start-up by saying  “A classic start-up consists of a team that’s never done it before, creating technology that’s never existed before, to serve a market that doesn’t exist yet, what could possibly go wrong?”

Our guest walked in saying he had so many failures, he kept a notepad to remember them. Even showed us the pad. Our mistake was we didn’t look closely. Surely, though, we should have known something was up when he said he had already listened to some of our episodes. In retrospect, we had to wonder whether that was casual listening — or something more akin to Belichick and Brady watching Rams videos in the run-up to the Super Bowl. This was clearly going to be Christopher Mirabile’s podcast. Managing director of Launchpad Venture Group, chair emeritus of the Angel Capital Association. You got it. Join the team from Failure - the Podcast and Christopher Mirabile in a wandering story of consultancy, the auto business, entrepreneurship, investment, and you name it. It’s a nail biter.

Repeat founder Adam Martel went to work for Babson College as a major gifts fundraiser in order to get his MBA for free. While at Babson he identified the problem Gravyty is addressing and met his co-founder Rich Palmer. Gravyty attracted early support from Christopher Mirabile’s LaunchPad Venture Group. The company just completed a $2 million plus raise to ramp up its growth. A really sparkling interview with two outstanding leaders. Adam Martel, former coach, and full-time fundraiser at a college, tried to start a couple of businesses but realized he needed a co-founder to improve his odds of success. Adam decided to quit his job and go to work at Babson College where he could get his MBA for free. Adam’s motivation was to find a co-founder at Babson. Rich Palmer, a fellow MBA student, had worked on Wall Street building quantitative models. They hit it off and have made a great founding team. From Adam’s work at Babson it was obvious that each fundraiser needed help in identifying which of their more than a hundred assigned potential donors to prioritize. Rich Palmer was confident he could build software that would provide that intelligence. Rich used to build systems to predict which stocks were likely to pop. He and Adam found that predicting donations had a lot in common with that. It was easy to sell management on the platform; the problem was that fundraisers were no logging in; which is the real measure of success for this type of platform. Adam and Rich discovered the “three screens” principle, i.e. people have three screens they’ll look at: their calendar, their email and their database. It’s hard to get them to look at a fourth screen. The solution to the login problem was to incorporate all the insights from the platform in emails addressed to the fundraisers. This approach was a big game changer. The product is called “First Draft” and provides, in addition to predictions of who is most likely to give, content which is intelligently adapted to the individual fundraiser’s writing style. Christopher Mirabile and Ham Lord were initially not convinced that there was a big market for the company but they were so impressed by Adam and Rich that they scheduled a series of meetings. After each meeting Ham and Christopher got more and more impressed with the team from Gravyty and decided to invest. LaunchPad early on impressed on Gravyty the need to have a board. Adam and Rich signed on eagerly, much to their credit. Too many founders perceive boards as “grumpy dogs” that have to be “managed. Christopher and Ham were provided great help. Christopher thinks Gravyty has the perfect set up for the board, two members representing the common shareholders (founders), two members representing preferred shareholders (investors) and one independent member with industry experience; perfect for the early years. Gravyty is 100% SaaS. Gravyty Live provides support for fundraisers, a profession plagued by high turnover, who frequently need to be brought up to speed on their new accounts. Gravyty has achieved great SEO and leads their category for search terms. Adam’s experience as a sports coach has served him well in his work of team building in his companies. Of particular value is the ability of getting people to do the things that need to get done. Working as a college fundraiser taught Adam to listen and to build relationships. These skills translated to raising money for Gravyty. Adam and Christopher fifteen-minute call every two weeks and this has been highly fruitful. Christopher sees three functions for early=stage companies: (1) support in execution, (2) different perspectives, and (3) mentorship. A really meaty podcast!

Every business deals with a certain amount of risk. How do venture capitalists really think about risk...and how they look at it from both a qualitative and quantitative perspective. Do analysts and investors feel the same about risk? How much do you tell your investor about the risk? How do people in the energy industry deal with risk? Do analysts and investors react the same way when it comes to risk? Do venture capital investors worry about your competition? The Language of Business looks at risk assessment. Host Greg Stoller talks with Bill Contente, Partner at Gesmer Updegrove LLP; Christopher Mirabile, Co-Managing Director of LaunchPad Venture Group; Bob Goodoff, Principal of Sea View Global Advisors, LLC

In this episode, Hall T. Martin conducts an interview with Christopher Mirabile, Managing Director of Launchpad Venture Group.

Christopher Mirabile is the Public Policy Chair of the Angel Capital Association and the co-founder of portfolio management tool Seraf. He is also co-Managing Director of Launchpad Venture Group, a venture investment group focused on seed and early-stage investments in technology-oriented companies. Launchpad is the largest angel group in New England and top-three ranked group... The post Christopher Mirabile of LaunchPad on Valuations, Exits, Startup Trends and the Future of IPOs appeared first on The Syndicate.

The collaboration of Ham Lord and Christopher Mirabile, two of Boston’s most consequential super angels, is widely admired. Its most visible fruit is the success of Launchpad Venture Group, which they manage together. In this revealing interview, they let us in on how this winning collaboration came to be and what keeps it productive as it approaches the end of its first decade. Christopher Mirabile and Ham Lord are already familiar to our listeners.  Each has been interviewed individually on earlier episodes of the Angel Invest Boston Podcast. In the current episode, the two different personalities interact and give us a glimpse into what drives their working relationship. Topics covered include: Christopher & Ham’s Remarkable Collaboration How They Connected Division of Labor Lucky to Have Jody Collier as Operations Manager Complementary Skills & Creative Tension What They Enjoy in Working Together What Motivates Christopher and Ham How Christopher & Ham Differ in their Investing Gene Gregerson, an Engineer’s Engineer & Mobius Imaging – Astonishing Feat of Entrepreneurship Blind Spots: How Having a Partner Helps Avoid Them Integrity in the Founding Team is Essential – Due Diligence Screens Out Frauds Geographic Focus Makes It Possible to Add Value Dos & Don’ts for a Winning Collaboration How Ham and Christopher Work Things Out When Problems Arise Co-CEOs Raise a Red Flag but Can Work Trends Christopher & Ham See A Business Semyon Dukach Would Like! Sign up to be informed of live, in-person events and of new content at: Angel Invest Boston Sign Up Link

Christopher Mirabile is an angel with a plan. This super angel wants to make angel investing more professional and methodical. He comes to this aspiration by way of being a consultant, a corporate lawyer and a CFO of a successful tech company. He is co-managing director of Launchpad Venture Group and sits on numerous boards. He has co-founded Seraf, a platform for tracking angel investments and helping angels become better informed. He is an engaging and thought-provoking interlocutor. Do not miss this energetic interview which includes the following topics: Christopher Mirabile Bio From English Major to Junior Management Consultant and, Eventually, a Corporate Lawyer Law Firm to Tech Company, First as Chief Counsel, Ultimately as CFO Taking the Company Public Turbulent IPO Leads to Decision to Become an Investor Rather Than an Operator What Christopher Mirabile Looks for in a Startup Christopher Mirabile’s Favorite Pivots: Pixability, Powerhouse Dynamics and Vela Systems Christopher Mirabile’s Informative Columns and Posts Boston Has the Best Ecosystem for Angel Investing: “I've seen a lot of angel investing, and, as far as I'm concerned, there's no city in the world I would rather invest in than Boston”. The Angel Treaty – Angel Syndication – Collaborative Culture of Angel Investing Christopher Mirabile on the Value of a Board to an Early-Stage Company “I'm to the point now where if I run into a team that I otherwise like and I get any sense of hesitancy about building a board, that's a huge red flag for me”. Episode Transcript with Subject Headings Available at: Link to Angel Invest Boston Podcast Episode Pages  

Christopher Mirabile joins Nick on The Full Ratchet to discuss Angel Investing evolution and changes including: Can you briefly summarize the traditional Angel Group model from a decade ago and why it worked okay then? You highlight four major themes that have evolved with the modern angel group.  The first is...   To listen more, please visit http://fullratchet.net/podcast-episodes/ for all of our other episodes. Also, follow us on twitter @TheFullRatchet for updates and more information.