Building a Women's Angel Network with Purpose & Intention

A women's angel investing network has been growing in SoCal since 2010. On Friday, Dec 9, 2022, SoCal and San Diego Women Angel Investors and Women in VC met up to just connect over the holidays at Breakthrough Properties , led by Susie Harborth (thank you Susie!). It's been a decade of women connecting and growing their capital. I've hosted this meetup now for about 5 years, before COVID to primarily share deal flow & share best practices, during COVID over zoom & holiday hat, to just see each other over little windows, and now post COVID at one of our co-invested coffee houses, Nostalgia Coffee Roasters , founded by Taylor Fields and invested by San Diego Angel Conference angels, adastra.ventures , Crescent Ridge VC and many more individual angels. What a progression! I value deeply the camaraderie of these bold & strong women who have cared deeply in their startup ecosystems to INVEST their own hard-earned capital into entrepreneurs with a passion, business plan and the grit to build. My mission is to make their voices heard and their journeys seen. What we were building is a NEW network of women angel investors who show up for each other and keep on investing. These women are leaders in their industries, both soft and outspoken women who know how to pick startup founders, and what I love most, they are purposeful in growing their investment portfolio and intentional about WHO they build their co-investments with. I admire them all greatly. Below is a picture of Orianna Bretschger , founder of Aquacycl , giving her investors an update on her milestones, from technical to her extremely successful B to B growth. The intent in listening to all the great successes is felt even in a still photo.

This meetup was special, all attendees felt energized with the three women entrepreneurs who gave updates, they were empowered by the other women n attendance, and as a promoter and catalyst for growth within this exceptional network of women angel investors, I paused to reflect on WHY this network has flourished.

First of all, THIS network of women angel investors are a collective of diverse angels, mostly in the pre-seed and seed stage who invest in early-stage founders with some kind of technology competitive advantage or CPG with exceptional moat, and who predominately are impact investors, co-invest with other investors & groups, care deeply about the development of the founder & take an active part of advising during the first year of involvement. Even though from different types of angel groups and funds, all believe in the collective economic impact (Return of Investment) and good (Return on Impact) a local geography can experience with the influx of capital, resources, networks and women leaders! We had represented over 12, a dozen, entities: Stella Foundation Angels, NuFund Venture Group , San Diego Angel Conference , Angels in the Law , Next Wave Impact , Kachuwa Impact Fund , Blackbird Ventures , adastra.ventures , Interlock Capital , Aquillius , Mission Driven Finance? , Torrey Project , and Behind Genius Ventures . This is so robust! I define this because angel networks come in all shapes and sizes, some syndicate with a syndication lead, others just meetup, others co-invest through a common investment vehicle, some just know each other are present.

How has this women's angel investor network grown over the past decade? Through intensional connections and purposeful investing, primarily. However, after spending the weekend reflecting (over cups of hot chocolate, Christmas music, a warm fireplace and peppermint bark), here are 15 practical and relational ways this network has become strong and always growing; thus, collectively THRIVING:

1_ Continually build deep trust for relationships to flourish. Respect and trust are planted with initial conversations and mutual respect, then watered and grown with insights, connections and collaborations and then flourished with radiant light of others who add to the respect and trust being built by that relationship. This relationship is earned by all parties respecting and trusting the process and the connective actions. Purposeful relationships abandons personal ambition, diminishes negative intent and builds on collective wisdom & knowledge and amplifies abundance. Each member of this collective relationship-build devotes their whole intelligence, creativity and talent to network. I have seen this time and time again with women angels helping each other out on due diligence teams, supporting each other with sharing investor updates from portfolio companies (like in an SPV), and in providing warm intros when needed for a co-investment to occur or championing an entrepreneur. Don't confuse this idea with outright self-sacrifice, this relationship building is built on confidence in each other, respect for everyone's intellect and leadership in their respective areas of expertise.

2_ Share good, purposeful deal flow. Deal flow from a trusted network is essential for angel investors to flourish; and it's readily shared in our women's angel network. How has this been done in an industry devoid of "trusted networks" for women investors? We built it. Since many women investors care about impact, purposeful deal flow is more readily shared and received. Then, there is "good" deal flow. In the early stage, it is hard to quantify and qualify "good" deals from "bad" deals, however, I know that if I receive an introduction or a deal from one of my trusted women angel investors with a note saying that they have done some due diligence, the founder is right in the sweet spot of my investment thesis, and that the angel investor has met with the founder and there is something I would be interested in. I will take the call. I also share readily with other investors the deals I am making and the due diligence I conduct. If I believe it's a good deal, other investor sin my network should benefit from the investment as well. I heard some new deals from the investors at the angel investing meetup that I am excited to follow up with.

3_ Honor the investment thesis' of group(s) & individuals. This is so important in mutual respect. Every angel group has an investment thesis that lends gravity to their investments. There is a particular startup in a certain industry with a special type of founder with the right product-market fit and founder-market fit that the investor group is knowledgeable and insightful about that the investment makes sense and makes money for them. Then, there are individual angels with their own investment thesis'. Then, there are syndicates, mega groups, sidecar funds, funds, etc. To grow a network of diverse women angel investors, honoring the individuality of each and sending them opportunities within their sweet spot is key and honoring the collective thesis that could be "women investing in women, depending on XYZ (industry, stage, geography, etc)" by bringing to the table some excellent opportunities for all to dive into. These are all important, so embracing an abundantly perceptive and intensional opportunity-making mindset helps.

4_ Build margin for friendships. This is something hard for me, personally, with being squarely a sandwich generation woman with 1,000 responsibilities on my plate, friendships with other women leaders is hard, but not impossible. I have found that building margin in my day and week to pray for my colleagues allows for me to build time to be mindful in thinking about them and then reaching out to let them know that I am praying / thinking about them, sometimes makes all of the difference. Margin, even by a little bit. Then, capturing and cherishing moments of friendship-building around successes is transformational. We were going to celebrate an investor's birthday on Friday, but even though it did not happen because of schedule conflicts, the mere fact of thinking about that person was friendship-building.

5_ Collaborate, not compete. At the beginning of my career, I was informed by women leaders in my industry that if they had it hard, I 'm going to have it hard also. Competing is all they knew. As a latina & italian, I collaborate, so this was foreign to me. Then, I learned about the queen bee syndrome. Competing again. What I have seen in this angel investing network of powerful women leaders, we collaborate on as much as we can. We will only change the power play of investing and the economic growth of startups by collaborating on everything - sourcing of companies, due diligence, knowledge-sharing, relationship-building, connecting for better co-investors, and the list goes on. As an angel network, as Dr. Don Clifton said 30+ years ago , "Focus on strengths and manage the weaknesses", so focus on the top 3 strengthsfinder that women have in abundance over men and the ratios associated : Empathy?(2:1),?Developer?(2:1), and?Positivity?(1.5:1).?Almost 30 years ago, Dr. Don Clifton issued the world a challenge: "Focus on strengths and manage the weaknesses."

6_ Take other angels out to coffee. As you take our entrepreneurs to coffee to get to know their technology and their runway and path to commercialization, angels should take each other out to coffee to get to know what their investment thesis' are, how their portfolio is being built and their wealth management. Most women have not had conversations around wealth and finances in their professional career, so talk about it. My dear friend, Amy Chang and I, when we had portfolios of single digits, would speak about the founders, our collective ROI of all of our startups, what the time to exit would be, what would an exit look like, and how to better help our founders thrive. It's about 1 coffee meeting at a time to build trust and sharing of deal flow. For aspiring angel investors, just the act of speaking "startup" helps them get into the flow of investing and then they can capture the larger education from ACA or other local groups.

7_ Create structured and unstructured meetups to build confidence.?This has been a learning curve for me, that there needs to be a blend and balance between structured education and unstructured meetups. I learned the community building from Felena Hanson at Hera Hub , who became my portfolio company, and from building Stella for entrepreneurs to connect alongside out signature events, the Women's Venture Summit and Women's Fast Pitch. Structure needed to be built to provide rigor and confidence to the process of applications, pitching, due diligence and SPVs, but the squishy, relational part of equally as important to build trust, the unstructured moments of connections in the hallways or the zoom room networking rooms. Women want to learn from each other, in unstructured conversations and sharing of deal flow or bing involved in the due diligence process. They want to be the bakers at the kitchen of angel investing sourcing and investing in the best innovative startups.

8_ Sit next to each other to increase empathy & connections. This is something we say a ton at Stella Foundation Foundation. Don't sit across from someone, sit NEXT to them to see their heart, their fears, experience their happiness, and grow empathy to their journey. Connect through clear communications. Every investor has a unique journey that is absolutely beautiful and powerful, because, honestly, we are building massive wealth for women for generations to come with our generation of stepping into our power as women investors. So, sit next to your angel investor colleague, sit next to each other as a group to learn more about each other and collectively raise up a community of ecosystem builders who sit next to entrepreneurs to build their startups WITH THEM because angel investors invest primarily in pre-seed- and seed-stage companies that need the advisory, expertise and network of a group of women investors.

9_ Provide educational opportunities to build confidence. Education provides women with the skills to make themselves capable of serving, investing and building. I learned the awesome educational programs through taking everything myself and then bringing them to our members, from having experts travel to San Diego, Like Susan Preston from ARI, having a cohort of San Diego women angels go to San Francisco for Pipeline Angels led by Natalia Oberti Noguera , encouraging women to join Rising Tide Fund, which became Portfolia and Next Wave Impact (where we had 2 annual meetings in person in San Diego) and then many of the workshops by Angela Lee from 37 Angels . I wanted more education and I knew from reading The Confidence Code, that education and equipping women breaks the cycle of lack of confidence, so created more education. Most women like to learn more

10_ Ask all the questions. To be a good angel investor, curiosity is key, and asking all of the questions you can is essential for picking and researching the right investment opportunity. As an angel group and network, having an inclusive culture that promotes speaking up, all voices being heard, and all questions being accepted, listened to, debated and encouraged, will ensure for better deal flow, better deals being evaluated and better return on investment & impact. The Angel Capital Association recommends a minimum of 40 hours of due diligence per deal (company) to do the work properly.

11_Mentor other angels. Make it a calling to mentor other angel investors. Set the table for learning and growing together, even if each of the angels in the network are learning one step at a time; the collective knowledge is power, so share it and then re-share with others. Aspiring angels are always welcome! Invite colleagues & be patient with activating their capital. It took me over 3 years to activate one (1) angel's capital and it was joyous when she write that first check. She was there at the meetup, always enthusiastic to learn more. I've also mentored existing angels as they are starting their own angel groups, like Rose Bowlus of Rose Bowlus Law when she started Angels in the Law . It has been over a year that we started meeting weekly to build that angel group that focuses on lawyers investing in LegalTech. When Amy Duncan became Fund Manager for San Diego Angel Conference Fund III (I was blessed to be Fund I manager), I made it a point to meet with her for coffee to just listen and provide insight as she managed leading a group of more than 75 angels, reviewing over 100 applications and all the process of an angel conference. Angela Lee of 37 Angels has been my mentor for growing Stella Foundation Angels.

12_ Amplify each other’s wins. Create opportunities to amplify each other's voices, like sharing openly the successes of others during meetings and meetups, sharing Linked In wins by commenting or liking a post, including their announcements in your newsletters or emails, and pausing and congratulating their wins. An angel network lives and breaths because of the collective wins and actions of a large group of women leaders and investors who are trying to make an impact on the world, albeit in a local, regional or national level.

13_ Deeply understand that representation matters. Every woman in the network stands on the shoulders of women who came before them in the investment space. This space has been historically only 1-2 women in the room. I remember when I was starting off in 2010, there were syndication meetings that I was the only woman in the room or had to ask for a packet for the pitches because everyone was handed one except me. I always saw it as an opportunity to change patterns and concepts of leadership within the investment world. So, as a a network, claim that seat at the table, it's yours, and hers and ours. When there is an opportunity to be involved in a due diligence team, take it because there is a network of women who will assist you in every question you might have, we have our backs.

14_ Provide each other with warm introductions. Deal flow is queen from great innovations and talented founders and teams, but also pipelines are jeweled queens. Connecting investors with co-investors before, during and after their investment is critical to startup and portfolio success. So the more you create a web of influence, creating jungle gyms of support, the stronger the trust becomes and the network grows stronger.?

15_ Create micro-moments of connection. Connect on new education, new connections you made, dance recitals, sharing a *good* book, a dream, a sunset that inspired you. Micro-moments that dig into the soul of humans make for stronger bonds and thus, connections. I was also reminded of the silly things that connect us through two women at the Holiday meetup last week who wore shirts that embodied their personalities. Michelle Youngers wore a great shirt of 3 different wine glasses that said, "Diversified Portfolio" and Mysty Rusk has a grinch t-shirt under a stylish jacket. I will always remember the joy they had when showing off their personalities.

Community-building is essential for capital to be activated, cultivated by great deal flow, shepherded by educational experiences, and amplified by all the voices at the table. This list of 15 efforts that women investors can do to support each other as the network grows is just a small list in ALL of the tactical pieces to start an angel network or group.

To formally start an angel network, these softer insights and considerations are where you can start, like customer discovery season for startup founders. Then, I would highly recommend the ACA for next steps, from membership?agreements to due diligence checklists, ACA has it all.?AND ... this link is where you can actually start an angel group: Start & Manage an Angel Group | ACA .