An Angel's Perspective: Waverly Deutsch

Hi 👋 Welcome to the Angel Insights newsletter from VITALIZE.

Once or twice a month, we’ll be featuring angel investor interviews to give you unique perspectives, tips, and strategies on early stage angel investing. Feel free to share with a friend who may want to subscribe.

This edition features Waverly Deutsch - a seasoned angel investor backing startups for over 20 years. She does a couple deals per year. Waverly invests in technology, healthcare, consumer, and services at the startup stage.

How did you become an angel investor?

I started by investing in my goddaughter's dad's company many years ago. We created the largest digital database of off-copyright books in the world, and the company failed. It was the 1990s. There were no e-readers. Laptops weighed 15 lbs. No one wanted to read on a computer. We were WAY ahead of the market. I primarily invest in people. People I believe in and want to see have a shot at bringing their vision to life. I have to buy into the opportunity but I don't get excited by ideas - I get excited about entrepreneurs.

What is your favorite thing about being an angel investor?

Working with the entrepreneurs and seeing them grow.

Any advice you would give to a new angel investor?

Don't invest in startups solely to make money. Have other motivations - learning, supporting people, giving back... That way you will always get an ROI.

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

I look hard at what the entrepreneur has accomplished to date. I believe execution is the most important part of entrepreneurship. I have seen lots of teams with great vision and innovative ideas that I knew would never actually be able to get a company started. I look for scrappiness, persistence, experimentation, and an ability to learn from failures and pivots. Then I assess coachability. I want to back people I want to work with.

Waverly Deutsch

Any adjustments you've made after angel investing for awhile that made a difference?

I typically invest with other people now, like with VITALIZE Angels. In the very early days, I would be the first or only check in a deal. I don't do that anymore. I want other smart people looking at and believing in the founder and the company.

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

Historically 5% of the population has given/lent/invested money to someone other than themselves to help start a business - that is one in twenty people. I think this will rise with the advent of crowdfunding, the popularity of entrepreneurship in the media and online, and the ability for people to put smaller amounts into companies. Whenever a big new pool of money becomes available to entrepreneurs, like when pension funds were allowed to invest in venture capital funds in the 1990s, a lot of people lose money before it settles out and folks learn some lessons. That's one reason I recommend that if you want to start angel investing you find a group to learn with.

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

Peace, love, and angel checks,
Gale