Since the start of the year I’ve been working on a project to write a book profiling the best angel investors. I posted a couple of early posts referencing the project at the beginning of the year. I am interviewing angels and learning about how they approach angel investing, how they think about returns, how they think about their involvement, and so on. I have now crossed the 40 interview mark (keep in mind these are 30-60min interviews) and continue to find great investors to interview. The book itself will be present the investors directly to the reader, I won’t take bits and pieces out to use as evidence that my style of investing is correct or show that I am a smart investor – I am taking a bit of a back seat in that regard and allowing the reader to get to know a little about each of the investors in the book. Yes that does mean that I’ve interviewed some people who invest in a way that I would never invest… but they are so good at it leaving them out would truly be a dis-service to readers trying to learn the art of angel investing.
There are a lot of great books written from one angel or super angels perspective, there are also a lot of great books about the science of angel investing, and how to structure angel investments. I highly recommend a lot of them and will include a list of my favorites soon. I have not found any that take this approach though and have found an amazing amount of diversity in how angels approach investing that is worth learning about.
Personally I have learned a lot and I am working hard to keep the things I have learned in check as the reader should learn these things on their own through reading the book. That isn’t to say I won’t share what I’ve learned over time on this blog, through speaking engagements, and elsewhere. I do know that I’ve learned more through these interviews than any of the other books I’ve read on angel investing.
Some of the people I’ve been lucky to interview include Brad Feld, Joanne Wilson, Seymon Dukach, Bril Flint, David Tisch, Andy Liu, Mike Crill, Jim Connors, David Verrill, Bill Warner, Bart Lorang, Jeff Carter, Michael Dornbrook, Lars Johansson, Will Herman, and so many more.
I’m working on getting the last interviews scheduled before I really start to crank out the chapters. If you have been investing in early stage companies for years and invested in more than 50 companies – or perhaps you know someone that has – I definitely want to interview you. Let’s get something setup.
Have you seen David Rose’s new book?
Yes I have – there are lots of good books out there like his. Brian Cohen has a good book that was recently published as well.
It’s been fun. Psyched to see you book.