We thank all of you who indicated an interest in the recently concluded angel investor training event that was held on the 14th of March 2015 at the Strathmore University, with special thanks to those who managed to attend the event.
The participants had an opportunity to learn about angel investing from experienced entrepreneurial finance practitioner and educator, Stephen Gugu, and renowned entrepreneur and angel investor, Robert Yawe.
Stephen opened the session with a master class on angel investing; explaining to the participants how angel investing works with an emphasis on what an angel investor should look out for when analysing investments.
Stephen Gugu
Robert, a startup coach and mentor, and career entrepreneur then took the participants through some of his personal angel investing trench stories, telling the tales of his investments: both the ones that made him money and where he burnt his fingers, careful to point out that in the angel investing space, “you will lose money, but you will make money also. The idea is to minimise your bad deals and maximise on your good ones.”
Robert Yawe: “You will lose money, but you will make money also. The idea is to minimise your bad deals and maximise on your good ones.”
Stephen took the reins once more and walked the participants through a typical angel investment term sheet, deliberating some of the terms at length to explain their importance in early-stage investing. One of the highlights from his session was the discussion of a vesting clause, whereby shares are not immediately fully disbursed to a shareholder, rather they vest over a prescribed period of time, so as to ensure that the shareholder is motivated to stay on board the startup boat.
Two selected startups made pitches and Robert walked the participants on a startup appraisal scoring matrix used by a local early-stage investment fund, and the startups were evaluated based on the scoring matrix provided. The varying opinions in terms of the scoring by the participants elicited an interesting discussion, with the startups very keen to listen to the feedback from potential investors in their companies.
