Angel Investor Interview Questionnaire

i. ABOUT YOUR GROUP

Questionnaire for Angel Investors:

1. Tell me briefly your background/ if an individual angel or about your group /if it is a group.

2. Do you /any of your angels have any particular industry expertise?

3. Do you consider yourself regional, national or international group? If regional, what is your primary region /s?

4. Is there anything else very specific that makes your angel investing different from any other angel of any group? (some invest only in women, etc.)

5.What are some of your success stories?

ii. DEAL FLOW

1. What are your current sources of deal flow?

2. Out of those, which are your best sources and why?

3. If you could imagine an ideal system of deal flow, how would it look?

iii. PITCHES

1. How entrepreneurs who seek funding can reach you? (anyone can send an email pitch, only referrals, etc)

2. On average, from all sources, how many pitches do you receive a month? How many pitches would you like to receive?

3. Out of all pitches that you receive, how many deserve your closer look?

4. If you see a promising pitch, what are your next steps of engagement?

5. Do you hold regular meetings where selected entrepreneurs have a chance to present? How often?

6. What factors do you give the most weight to when debating whether or not to fund a venture?

7. Is there anything by which your group is very different from other groups in valuing a start-up company?

8. How do you usually conduct your due diligence?

iv. INVESTMENTS

1. How many investments did you make in the last 12 months?

2. What is the dollar amount you usually invest? (ex. $25,000 — 100,000)

3. How often your investment is the “first money” for a startup?

4. How long does it take for a company to receive funding from your group?

5. What is a typical valuation of a company that you invest in? (ex. $1-3 million)?

7. Percentage wise, how much of a company’s equity do you usually seek? (ex. 20-40% for $1 million invested)

8. What is a typical return you seek, over what period of time? ( ex. 10x over 5 years)?

v. BUSINESS

1 In what stage of business development do you usually invest? (an idea on paper, product ready, validated with customers, without revenues, with revenues?)

2. What should be the TAM (total available market) for the company’s product/service?

vi. WHO DO YOU INVEST IN

1. It has been said, that angels usually invest in someone they know personally. Is that true with your group?

2. Do you invest in teams straight out of school or do you require previous business experience? If only with experience, what level of experience do you require? (from sales to CEO?)

3. Do you invest only in complete business teams? Or, does a single founder also have a chance?

4. Is there some character traits of a founder/ founders that could clinch the deal?

6.What is an average number of deals you review a year and how many you usually invest in out them? What is your ratio?

7. What do you do with your rejects, (businesses you don’t invest in), if anything? (nothing, refer to another group, tell them to improve and try again)

vii. WHAT DO YOU INVEST IN:

1. Do you have any sector preference?

eCommerce/Web 2.0 / Web 3.0
SaaS / Cloud Computing / Enterprise 2.0 / Enterprise 3.0
Semiconductors
Networking
Healthcare IT
Online Education
Mobile and Social Media Apps
Healthcare Services
Biotech and Life sciences
Outsourcing / BPO
Travel and Hospitality
Entertainment
Food and Beverages
Retail
Restaurants
Other?

viii. INVESTMENT TYPE

1. Do you have to have an exit strategy, or would you invest in deals that can go on generating dividends over a long time?

2. What is your preferred investment type? (common shares, preferred shares, royalties)

3. Do you do debt financing? Convertible? Non-convertible? Terms?

ix. EXIT STRATEGY

3. How long you prefer to stay invested, before you exit in case of deals that are likely to go through M&A?

4. What exit strategies did you have in the past? (M&A, IPO, any other)

5. Do you have a preferred exit strategy? If so, what is it?

x. CLOSING QUESTIONS (optional)

1. What is your biggest investment success to date?

2. Could you tell about an investment that had a particular interesting story?

3. What is a single most important thing that angel-backed founders could do to increase their chances of success?

4. What is a single most important thing that angels could do to increase their returns?

5. Do you track your cumulative internal rate of return /IRR? Could you share it? (ex 20%)