Angel investing

Looking for funding or dealflow?

I'm a founder & operator turned investor, building a venture portfolio of promising technology companies.

With my angel investor syndicate Striking Markets, I invest in the pre-seed & seed stages, with initial tickets up to $100K. Besides money, I bring 10+ years of entrepreneurial expertise and a network of domain experts in tech, music, blockchain and finance.

I'm in the good company of these awesome startups.

Why invest in startups?

I've been fascinated by businesses since my early adulthood. Companies are part of the fabric of society and can be great forces for good. The innovation resulting from entrepreneurship has contributed to the continuous improvement in quality of life for the average person globally (see life expectancy, poverty).

Throughout 10+ years of entrepreneurship I've learned how to be an operator. And in the past 7 years I've learned how to be an investor. I started investing in public companies and always had the intuition start-up investing would be a logical progression. Now that I've been angel investing for 2 years, I know it's my path.

Areas of interest

• Blockchain: decentralized finance (DeFi), infrastructure
• Future of finance: increasing access, education, transparency
• Future of work: creator economy, empowering communities
• Future of play: entertainment technology, gaming
• B2B SaaS

Select guiding beliefs

• First-time and small business entrepreneurship will continue to grow with education, tooling and ways to monetize a community.
• Micro-communities are changing social life. Where people with esoteric interests (e.g. kimchi) used to be "the only girl in the village", they are now finding their spouses and best friends in a Discord chat. These niches can be served profitably and such communities can seed endless opportunities.
• Remote work is ever-important, despite the COVID back-to-work trend. I believe this will result in labour being more borderless.
• The gig-economy will grow. People want flexibility and autonomy over their work life. Freelance work will continue to grow in popularity and more people will do multiple jobs at once and side-hustle.
• Hotspot cities are valuable, but not critical. I've built my businesses outside of hubs, instead practicing thoughtful remote (and largely asynchronous) work and traveling regularly to maintain relationships. While the network effects of hubs are great, the competition and cost is off-putting and founders outside of hubs aren't sufficiently recognized and supported.
• The average person and especially women are financially under-educated and lack access to the best financial products. There's a taboo on speaking about money. Few of us were taught finance - and us young people need it more than ever. The future of finance is more democratized, but must come with education and thoughtful governance. DeFi can be the bedrock.

Why let me invest?

• 10+ years of operating expertise in the music industry. Bootstrapped 3 businesses to millions in revenue. Developed bedroom artists to global fame, most notably electronic artist San Holo. Grew Heroic & bitbird teams to >20 in staff. Traveled globally, learned about culture and consumer behaviour globally. Exited in 2022 with sale of Heroic catalog to focus on investing full-time.
• 6+ years of public market investing with a specialization in FinTech, Gaming, E-Commerce & SaaS. Broad understanding of sectors, business models, competitive landscape.
• Founded blockchain investment DAO, syndicate and advisory. Our members have combined tens of years of blockchain experience, and include fund managers, traders and builders. We've got a growing presence on crypto Twitter (30K+ combined followers).
• My non-blockchain syndicate co-investors include founders and investors, primarily from the entertainment and technology sectors. Lots of operating expertise and network to tap.
• I won't ask for a board seat and am proactive with suggestions and connections. My goal is to have a high helpfulness to ticket size ratio.

What I look for in investments?

• Asset light business model
• Initial traction: you've already built something, found users, generated revenue

Want to invest alongside me?

If you're an accredited investor and interested in getting access to qualified and diligenced dealflow, we might be a fit.

I operate my syndicate as follows:

• I only make money when my investors do. No management fee, 20% performance fee.
• Long time horizon. Early stage investing implies ~10 year holding periods.
• Open to hands-on and passive co-investors, as long as expectations are set clearly. I prefer hands-on (because startups often do too!).
• SPVs via Odin, which are cost-effective. Generally aiming for a <10% expense ratio.

If you're with a larger fund or family office, I'm happy to explore synergistic partnerships without the expectation that you'll invest in my vehicles. I'm looking for win-win scenarios and enjoy nurturing a network of follow-on investors.