Alden Zecha is the Managing Director at SideCar Angels and serves on the Board of the Angel Capital Association. He has invested in over 80 startups, two of which have become unicorns valued at over $1 billion.
Alden has founded multiple enterprises and previously worked in various roles in government, academia, and private industry. He has spoken at the White House on entrepreneurship, serves as a Senior Fellow at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business, and is NACD Director Certified. Alden also serves on multiple corporate boards including chairing an audit committee and focuses on international expansion with an eye toward social impact.
During our conversation, he discusses:
Aligning perspectives when reviewing diligence materials
His extensive experience in entrepreneurship and angel investing
Evolution of investment strategy towards smaller, diversified bets
SideCar Angels' model for aggregating investments and member participation
Benefits of SideCar's approach including low legal fees and fast decision-making
Challenges such as potential missed opportunities due to deal lead barriers
Importance of thorough evaluation of investment memos and diligence reports
Key factors in evaluating investment opportunities and VCs’ diligence
Highlights of successful investments in ezCater and Wasabi
Trends in AI investments and the need for educating new angel investors
Listen now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube.
What We Cover:
00:00 Introduction
02:51 Alden's Journey into Angel Investing
03:51 Building a Diverse Portfolio
06:09 Evolving Investment Strategies
08:23 The SideCar Angels Model
23:26 Key Elements of Written Materials
24:59 Evaluating Team and Competitors
27:04 Questions for Angel Investors
30:32 Unicorn Success Stories
36:02 Trends in Angel Investing
39:13 Connecting with Alden and SideCar
Connect with Alden
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aldenzecha/
Website: https://sidecarangels.com/
Connect with Andrew
Newsletter: https://thediligentobserver.substack.com
Website: https://pitchfact.com/
Stuff We Reference
ezCater: https://www.ezcater.com/
Wasabi: https://wasabi.com/
Angel Capital Association: https://angelcapitalassociation.org/
All opinions expressed are personal and may not reflect the views of the individual’s organization or of The Diligent Observer. Not investment advice.
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