An Angel's Perspective: Ellie Daw

Hi 👋 Welcome to the Angel Insights newsletter from VITALIZE.

Each month, we feature angel investor interviews to give you unique perspectives, tips, and strategies on early-stage angel investing. Share with a friend who may want to subscribe and learn about angel investing. ✨

This edition features Ellie Daw, who has been an angel investor for close to four years, doing 5-6 deals each year. She primarily writes small checks to B2B SaaS companies, especially those in technical niches like platforms, security, and developer tools.

How did you become an angel investor?

I've always loved being an enabler of good folks and interesting projects, and I had been looking for opportunities to start backing founding teams. I saw one of Gale's tweets back in 2021 about her new angel community which would not only back passionate founders but also make angel investing more accessible.

For me, it was a bit of a slow start before I felt confident writing checks, but I'm thankful that Gale was on Twitter sharing about her mission...the rest is history!

What type of deals do you like to do?

I write small checks primarily in B2B SaaS, especially in interesting technical spaces like platforms, security, and developer tools.

What is your favorite thing about being an angel investor?

Getting to learn about the niches and problems that these fantastic founders are passionate about.

What is one lesson you've learned as an angel?

Coming from the engineering/technology side, I was always a bit intimidated by investors, assuming they'd always meet companies with judgment. The reality is that the majority of investors want founders to be successful and are more than willing to be helpful.

What is the most important part of your diligence process and why?

Understanding the company's current traction. This is the most important part to me because it gives a sense of how the founders think about both market validation (Who are the early customers? How did the team acquire them? What were the results?) and use-case validation (What pain points did they focus on? How do they think about an MVP? What did they learn and how do they think about what's next?) I believe successful teams are thinking and learning about both dimensions!

What is one change or adjustment you've made after angel investing for a while that made a difference?

Making sure the answer to "why this team?" is taken into consideration. Foundations are good, but startups don't just happen. Someone has to make them happen. Why is this team positioned best to do that?

What do you think the future of angel investing will look like?

Most people already have personal and career-based missions. My hope is that we get to the point where the education about and availability of angel investing opportunities is as widespread as those missions. Most of us already buy things made by brands that align with our values, so backing founders we align with should be available in an easy way too.

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Thanks for reading, and I hope you’ve been inspired today! 🙂

Peace, love, and angel checks,
GaleforceVC