Epic Angels

It’s Friday- time for your weekly investor learning! In this #InvestorGlossary episode we dive deeper into #DataRooms, the digital vault where startups keep all the important documents you need to see before #investing. Think of it like a virtual filing cabinet where you'll find everything from financial statements to legal documents, #team bios to customer contracts. It's where the #startup shows you they're serious about transparency. Here’s what you should look for in a data room: 💸Past and future projections for the P&L 📄Recent Balance Sheet 👥Cap table  ✅Incorporation documents 🧑⚖️Other relevant legal documents like patents A well-organized data room is a good sign - it shows the startup respects your time and takes the #duediligence process seriously. If it looks like they just dumped files in randomly or it’s a maze of documents… that tells you something too! Next week, we will talk about what to do with these documents- due diligence! Ready to begin your angel investor journey? ➡️Join our ‘First steps towards angel investing’ webinar where we take a hands-on approach to learning the ins and outs of angel investing: https://lnkd.in/g-6qGeXk ➡️Subscribe to our #InvestorGlossary Series here: https://lnkd.in/g4pfgEfB Maaike Doyer

🎙️Tune in to the latest episode of our Investor Talk podcast with Olivia Ogilvie and Laura Domigan, the visionary founders of Opo Bio, as they reveal how they’re setting the gold standard🌟 in cell line manufacturing. Hear how their patented technology tackles the bio-manufacturing industry's biggest hurdles– paving the way for sustainable AND scalable solutions in food, cosmetics, and medicine. Did you know that 70% more animal products are needed by 2050 across the food, cosmetics, and medicine industries? This is a problem– life stock produces 15% of all green house gases and 2/3rd of all animals used for food, cosmetics, and medicine live in factory farms. Bio-manufacturing is a scientifically proven solution to this issue, scientists are able to grow products like meat and collagen without animals, using a single cell. However, while the science is great, scalability and cost efficiency are massive hurdles in making this a widespread reality. Learn about Opo Bio’s proprietary tech from the University of Auckland that addresses this fundamental bottleneck– allowing them to not just grow cells but make the process faster, more affordable by optimizing how cell lines are developed and produced. ✨As a bonus, hear from #EpicInvestor Nathalie Gibson on her excitement about this opportunity at the intersection of the cultivated meat and collagen industries and why she believes Opo Bio is best suited to tackle it (and deserves a spot in her portfolio). At the moment this podcast is published, Opo Bio is actively raising funds for further growth. Listen to their story here: 👉 Apple: https://lnkd.in/grEG_eU5 👉 Spotify: https://lnkd.in/gcYFQakA #NewZealandStartups #Biotech #DeepTech Hester Spiegel-vdSteenhoven Maaike Doyer WNT Ventures

In today’s #InvestorGlossary episode, we discuss #ESOP or the Employee Stock Option Pool. ESOP is like a startup’s secret weapon to attract top #talent when they cannot match big corporate salaries. So instead of cash, they offer a piece of the potential future pie. Companies usually set aside 10-20% of their equity for employees. And these shares are not given out all at once. They vest over time - typically 4 years with a 1 year cliff which means if the employee stays a year, they earn one chunk and then the remaining on a monthly basis depending on how long they stick around. As an investor, this is why ESOP matters:- 🍕It affects your #ownership percentage 💪It’s a positive sign (if structured well) that the startup is serious about keeping key talent. Stay tuned for our next video where we'll break down another term from startup land! Ready to begin your angel investor journey? ➡️Join our ‘First steps towards angel investing’ webinar where we take a hands-on approach to learning the ins and outs of angel investing: https://lnkd.in/g-6qGeXk ➡️Subscribe to our #InvestorGlossary Series here: https://lnkd.in/g4pfgEfB Maaike Doyer

Catch Hester at the Deep Tech for SDGs series by UNDP Global Centre, Singapore in collaboration with SGInnovate on March 6th! We're excited for an insightful discussion with Hortense LE FERRAND from Nanyang Technological University Singapore, Kanchana Gupta from vLookUp, Linda Nguyen Schindler from ACE.SG (Action Community for Entrepreneurship), and Weijing Ye from UNDP about the support needed to bridge the gender gap in deep tech, and how incorporating the insights of women in developing new technologies can lead to more inclusive innovations. 👉 Register now: https://lnkd.in/gm4gbiaz See you all there? #WomeninDeepTech #Innovation #WomeninTech

🤓 People often think angel investing requires a background in finance and venture capital. Tune in to today’s #AngelSpotlight episode to learn that is not the case! In today’s episode, we feature Rosann Ling from Hong Kong🇭🇰, one of our Investment Committee members and Founder of the Prism Creative, who shares how she joined Epic Angels with a mission to support #femalefounders and built the muscle to identify solid companies to invest in by #learning about different industries through our monthly Pitch Night. After all, there is no better way of learning than doing! Rosann also shares how female entrepreneurs naturally lean towards impact-driven projects that benefit the planet or the community which further drives her conviction to invest. How did you build your #angelinvesting skills? Let us know in the comments! Or are you looking to get started? Join our upcoming free ‘First steps towards angel investing’ webinar to learn the foundations of angel investing: https://lnkd.in/g-6qGeXk 📺 Watch all our #AngelSpotlight episodes on YouTube: https://lnkd.in/gVD5BrkX

"Pakistan🇵🇰 doesn't need a miracle- it needs a PR agent!" Check out Maaike's article about her recent trip to Pakistan- where she dives deeper into the country's potential and why investors should be paying attention. Here are the numbers: 💪 Pakistan is the 5th largest country in the world, we're talking 250 million people with a median age of 24- tech-savvy and ready for innovation! 👩💻 Top tech talent- Pakistan consistently produces highly skilled developers and engineers who are already integral to many global startups and tech companies. 🌏 Their strategic location between China and the Gulf states will make Pakistan likely to be part of the next big thing. 📈 The World Bank isn't just optimistic- they're predicting Pakistan could hit the $1 trillion economy mark by 2025! Our Pakistani portfolio companies- Oraan, Sehat Kahani, BusCaro, and Metric - Max CF-AI, have already been showing us the massive opportunity in this market but after meeting their teams in-person (finally!), we're more convinced than ever about Pakistan's startup potential! Special shoutout to Dr.Sara Saeed Khurram, Mahrukh Qadeer, and HEC Pakistan for the amazing hospitality- we will be back! Are you an early-stage, female-led, startup from Pakistan (or the broader APAC region)? Pitch to us: https://lnkd.in/g6HWKJ8F #startupecosystem #Pakistan #femaleinvestors

This Friday let’s talk about Term Sheets, something you'll encounter more as a "follow on" investor than as the one writing them. A #TermSheet is set by the lead investor, typically a VC firm, and lays out the key terms for the investment round. As an angel investor, you often follow these terms rather than setting them. This is actually good news! When you're investing alongside established VC firms (at Epic Angels, we co-invest with global leaders like SOSV, QED Investors, and Sequoia Capital), you benefit from their experience and negotiating power💪They've done the heavy lifting of setting and negotiating terms that protect all #investors in the round. Think of it like joining a well-planned dinner party - someone else has already planned the menu and set the table, you just need to decide if you want a seat! When you see a term sheet from a reputable VC, it's usually a good sign. It means the #startup has passed their rigorous due diligence process, and you'll be investing under professional terms. Stay tuned for our next video where we'll tackle another piece of the startup investment puzzle! Ready to begin your angel investor journey? ➡️Join our ‘First steps towards angel investing’ webinar where we take a hands-on approach to learning the ins and outs of angel investing: https://lnkd.in/g-6qGeXk ➡️Subscribe to our #InvestorGlossary Series here: https://lnkd.in/g4pfgEfB Maaike Doyer

📈Angel investing is less about numbers, valuations, and metrics than you might think! Hear from Meenal Khare, an #EpicInvestor from Singapore🇸🇬 with a background in tech sales at Google and recruitment who shares how angel investing for her is more about evaluating the founding team behind the numbers, something her career in sales, marketing, and recruitment has uniquely positioned her to do! She also shares how angel investing is not as objective as it seems and depends on the investor’s personal experience and expertise that shapes the way they perceive the risk and potential of early-stage #startups. And that’s exactly what makes it super exciting! How do you evaluate early-stage startups? Do you bet on the founder or the numbers? Let us know in the comments! 🚀 Ready to start your own #angelinvestor journey? - Join our upcoming free webinar: https://lnkd.in/g-6qGeXk - Become part of our Collective: https://lnkd.in/gkM8iCNS 📺 Watch all our #AngelSpotlight episodes on YouTube: https://lnkd.in/gVD5BrkX

In today’s #InvestorGlossary episode let’s talk money.💸 Because just like that fancy no-fee credit card that actually has fees, #startupinvesting comes with its own costs. The most popular one is Carried Interest or #Carry. This is a success fee that only kicks in when there's a successful exit. It's typically 20% and only applies to your profits, not your initial investment, and only when there's a successful exit. Let’s do some quick math: Imagine you invest $5,000 in a startup. Years later your investment grows to $50,000. That's a $45,000 profit! The 20% carry means the investment lead gets $9,000 of that profit. Fair enough, they helped you make money! And if the startup doesn't succeed- no carry at all. Next, there's the AUM or #AssetsUnderManagement fee. This is mainly for funds, where you pay an annual fee for them to manage your money. Finally, there’s deal fees - the one-off costs for getting the deal done. Whether direct or through a syndicate, someone needs to pay for all that paperwork! It's usually 3-10% of your investment. ❓As an investor, always ask about ALL the fees upfront. Some of them hide better than a startup's pivot plans! Next week we talk Term sheets (the prenup of startup investing)! Ready to begin your angel investor journey? ➡️Join our ‘First steps towards angel investing’ webinar where we take a hands-on approach to learning the ins and outs of angel investing: https://lnkd.in/g-6qGeXk ➡️Subscribe to our Investor Glossary Series here: https://lnkd.in/g4pfgEfB Maaike Doyer

“If we change who invests, we change what gets invented.” That is the hypothesis with which Epic Angels started and 3.5 years later, the results are staggering. Hear from Hester, Founding Partner at Epic Angels, in this #Tedx talk about the bias driven decision-making loop present everywhere- from deciding where to eat lunch to investing in early-stage startups. Epic Angels is the story of how we used bias to work to our advantage instead of trying to change human behaviour. And it worked- 63% of our portfolio consists of projects that are good for people and the planet which is significantly higher than the industry benchmark. 📺Have a watch! https://lnkd.in/gBjzdqUJ 💪If you’re an (aspiring) female angel investor looking to build the future you want to see, join us: https://lnkd.in/gkM8iCNS #FemaleInvestors #VentureCapital #Changemakers