What Angel Investors Look For in Entrepreneurs and their Startups [Expert Interview]

Many years ago, long before co-founding Altar.io, my colleague Paolo quit his job in investment banking, absolutely convinced he wanted to be an entrepreneur.

So he set out to build hid first startup, a social events marketplace.

And recently he told me the full story of what happened next:

"Like most first-time founders, I made some mistakes along the way. Well, maybe more than some. Including going to investors without enough to persuade them to open their wallets.

I specifically remember one conversation in which I presented my idea, in great detail. About 5 minutes into my big speech he turned around and said:

Paolo, I don’t give a sht about your idea… I need you to show me some traction.*

That set the tone for the rest of my quest. I was aiming at 200k for that pre-seed round and only managed to get around 40k.

Ultimately, I failed to get investments because I had zero traction. I didn’t have the proof investors needed to see that people wanted my product."

But traction (or lack of it) isn’t the only aspect that angel investors will look at as they decide whether or not your startup is a good bet.

So, to find out exactly what angel investors look for in entrepreneurs and their startups, Paolo and I sat down with Armando Biondi.

Armando is a successful entrepreneur and multiple-time founder. One of his most well-known projects was AdEspresso: a “Facebook ads made easy” tool that was acquired by Hootsuite.

Currently, Armando is working on Breadcrumbs.io – a lead-scoring service taking its first steps into the market.

Besides that, Armando is also an angel investor with over 150 startups in his portfolio.

In our conversation, he shared exactly what he looks for in entrepreneurs and their startups, and delved into what you can expect from an angel investor/entrepreneur relationship.

Follow this link to see the full conversation.

Thanks for Reading.