Charlotte Kirby: The Friendly Face Behind Your Cambridge Angels Application

If you’ve ever submitted an application to Cambridge Angels, chances are your pitch deck has passed through the expert and ever-curious hands of Charlotte, our Deal Applications and Events Manager. Here she chats about how the process really works – and to hear a bit more about what goes on behind the scenes at one of the UK’s most respected angel groups.

Charlotte’s Background

Charlotte didn’t start in the world of angel investing. In fact, her early career saw her orchestrating events for a materials software company in Cambridge. After that company was acquired, she eventually found her way to Cambridge Angels in 2019. While events were her initial focus, Charlotte’s role has since expanded to encompass that vital early stage of the Cambridge Angel deal flow process.

The Cambridge Angels Application Process

If you’re an entrepreneur applying to Cambridge Angels, here’s how it works:

“We ask people to email their deck to our info@cambridgeangels.net email,” Charlotte explains. “Emmi, my colleague, moves it into our CRM, and then I go through them. Usually in order… unless I spot something that really catches my eye!”

First stop in Charlotte’s review process? “Are they based in the UK? You’d be amazed how many aren’t. That’s always an immediate ‘no’.”

Assuming you’re in the right geography, Charlotte then dives into your pitch deck.

Timing wise, the Cambridge Angels team aims to respond within 21 days. “Sometimes we get it down to ten,” Charlotte says, “but things like our January AGM can really slow us down. If there’s a big backlog, we prioritise the most promising-looking ones. However, we always try to give some feedback even to those decks we unfortunately have to say no to”

The Breakfast Club

If a deck looks promising, then Charlotte passes it on to “the Breakfast Club” for review. No, it’s not just coffee and croissants – it is a weekly Friday meeting where a rotating group of Cambridge Angels reviews these potential deals from Charlotte. If they approve it then it goes to ‘informals’; an online meeting every fortnight where the entrepreneur gets their first chance to pitch to a group of the Cambridge Angels live.

So what makes Charlotte decide to put your company in front of the Friday crew?

“If you’re raising under £2 million, your valuation seems reasonable, you’ve got an MVP, you’re not a sole founder, you’ve got IP – that’s a big one – you’re in an industry area that appeals to many of our members, such as science and engineering-based technology or healthcare”

And yes, plenty of deals make it to Breakfast Club, but the bar is rising. “We’ve been trying to be stricter because it was getting too crowded. Informal pitches were backed up over a month, which doesn’t work for fast-moving startups.”

What Makes a Great Pitch Deck?

“I just want to know what you do,” Charlotte says. “Honestly, if I open a pitch deck and I can’t work out what the company does in the first slide or two, it’s a problem.”

Keep it short. Keep it clear. And please don’t send a novella.

She offers a couple of pro tips:

• Use Canva if design isn’t your strong suit. “There’s no excuse for poorly designed decks anymore.”

• Include the key info up front – what the product is, what problem it solves, who your customers are, how much you’re raising.

• If you change something, like reducing your raise or changing the business model, “put it in the deck. I can’t send a pitch to Breakfast Club with an email attached saying, ‘they might be doing this differently.’ The group have a lot to review so the info has to be in the material.”

And yes, if your deck shows promise but needs tidying up, Charlotte will give you feedback before it’s presented. “We had one with over 30 slides – we said, come back when you’ve cut it down. It sounds harsh, but it matters.”

Cambridge Angel Events

Charlotte doesn’t just review pitch decks. She also curates the events that glue the Cambridge Angels community together – from early-stage office hours for founders not quite ready to pitch, to classic pitching events, to portfolio company panels, to the annual summer party.

“That’s my favourite,” she grins. “It’s stressful to organise, but once it’s happening, it’s such a joy. Everyone’s happy. My husband and son have come along. It’s the one time I feel I can properly relax and enjoy it.”

She also plays a part in making Cambridge Angels more inclusive.

“I remember asking in my interview, ‘How many women do you have in the group?’ Emmi just went, ‘Tick!’” she laughs. “We’re too often seen as the pale, stale, male crowd, but I really want to help change that.”

And the Best Bit?

“It’s the people,” Charlotte says. “You meet someone who founded Alexa or built a billion-dollar company… and they’re just normal, kind people. I’ve seen them take time to give advice to my husband on his own business (EngineLab - builds cloud technology and AI solutions that helps creative studios work more efficiently) – completely outside their remit. It’s such a generous, thoughtful group.”

So, if you’re thinking of applying to Cambridge Angels, now you know: your pitch isn’t going into a black hole. It’s going to Charlotte – the warm, straight-talking, super-organised engine behind our application process. Keep it clear, keep it concise, and who knows? You might just find the perfect Cambridge Angel to back your business.

The Quiet Force in Cambridge’s Start-Up Scene: A Conversation with Simon Blakey

With a career that spans biochemistry, property development, and more than two decades of startup investing, Simon Blakey defies the typical investor mould. A founding figure in the UK’s angel scene and now a board member of Cambridge Angels, Simon has quietly built a reputation as both a thoughtful backer of deep tech and an advocate for greater inclusivity in the investment world. We sat down with Simon to talk about his unusual path into angel investing, what’s changed in the ecosystem since the early 2000s, and why being both an angel and a VC gives him a unique perspective on startup growth.

Can you give us a bit of background on yourself?

I studied Biochemistry at Birmingham University but was probably too impatient for science and research back then, so joined Sainsburys in the mid ‘90s to train as management accountant, latterly helping with Sainsbury’s Bank, Afterwards I moved to Arthur Andersen, focusing on retail financial services.

On the side I ventured into property development in west London in the late 1990s which introduced me to the start-up world. I started angel investing in 2000 at the tail end of the dotcom boom – unaware at the time that being a full-time angel investor in your 20s was almost unheard of. To be taken seriously, on occasion I even pretended I was an analyst working for a fund called ‘Avonmore Developments’ ….

I fortunately had beginner’s luck with an early investment I made; 18 months in and out, which made me think that angel investing was easy (wrong…!) but it set me on a journey. Over the last 25 years I have invested in over 100 individual funding rounds and currently have a personal portfolio of >35 companies. I also wear a VC hat as I chair the investment committee at Playfair, currently investing out of its £50M Fund III and am on the investment committee of the Angel CoFund, both now corporate partners of Cambridge Angels. My focus areas are B2B SaaS and deep tech.

What made you apply to join Cambridge Angels originally and then join our board last year?

By 2015, I had noticed that good early-stage SaaS deals were increasingly being snapped up by top-tier VCs, making it harder for individual angels like me to access the best opportunities. However, deeper tech deals were still underappreciated, which coincided with Peter Cowley inviting me to join Cambridge Angels.

I had been part of several Angel groups and already knew that Cambridge Angels had become the centre of excellence for deep tech, with members much cleverer than me to learn from and partner with, so this was fortunate timing.

I joined the Cambridge Angel board in 2023 and took on the task of improving our social media presence; in the ever more competitive early-stage funding market, the board recognised that CA was not pulling its weight in this area. I’m also passionate about promoting diversity in an industry historically dominated by a specific demographic. As an openly gay investor and with Pam as our chair, I see room to foster even greater inclusivity.

Can you share a couple of exciting investments from your portfolio?

Xampla is a Cambridge Angel-back company deal creating plant-based alternatives to single use plastics. I initially invested in 2019, followed by 2021 and will invest again. Their 2023 licensing deal with 2M is a game-changer and they have a very impressive commercial pipeline.

Ventrata, in the b2b ticketing space, is also an interesting one as it raised just £800k in angel funding in 2016 but had a £1.25bn GMV in 2024, more than 100 staff and is profitable, showing that not all high growth companies need VC funding.

Slightly unusually you’re both an angel investor and a VC, can you give a difference between the approaches?

VCs sometimes can be tempted to prioritize quick returns and aggressive funding cycles for their most successful portfolio companies; this, in the absence of exits, is a good way to demonstrate success to their LPs (and their likelihood of raising another VC fund). Care must be taken though as pushing for fast growth might not always align with longer-term stability for the business.

In contrast, Angels are generally more capital constrained and have longer time horizons. Some successful angel investments don’t involve VC-type valuations but are into companies that have not needed multiple rounds and have reached profitability quickly. I have found that Angels and VCs can collaborate perfectly effectively, although tensions can arise when strategies diverge.

What have you learnt about being an Angel investor since you started?

Back in 2020 I wrote an article “20 lessons from 20 years of angel investing” – it is long overdue an update, but here are a few:

• “Lemons ripen fastest” – investment failures typically manifest themselves before the successes become apparent.

• The relationship between an investor and entrepreneur can last longer than many marriages - is this a person you want to be dealing with for the next 10+ years?!

• Similarly, given the timescales and high-risk nature, it is important to enjoy the journey and the challenges of growing a business as much as the financial returns for your investment, which may be few and far between.

• Always be responsive with advice when an entrepreneur requests it, but also respect their time and that it is their company. Being on whatsapp is probably more helpful that formal board positions, which I now tend to avoid.

Playfair X Cambridge Angels

In the VC world, relationships and networks play a pivotal role in supporting startups from inception to scale. With this in mind, Playfair, one of the UK’s top pre-seed investors, has just joined Cambridge Angels as a corporate member. 

In this interview Playfair Partner Henrik Wetter Sanchez gives a bit about his background, what sets Playfair apart, and why joining Cambridge Angels aligns so well with their mission

Can you tell us about your background?

My journey into venture capital started with my own entrepreneurial experience. While studying at Cambridge University, I founded a social navigation app. Although I ultimately chose not to raise funding for it, the experience gave me a real appreciation of the challenges founders face.

I then moved into angel investing, making around 40 investments through crowdfunding platforms. Two of those investments, Monzo and Revolut, became significant fintech successes. After spending two years in investment banking, I joined Playfair six years ago, as the firm was starting its second fund. I became a Partner two years ago as we launched our £50M Fund 3.

What makes Playfair different?

Playfair takes a unique approach to early-stage investing. Unlike many pre-seed investors that operate high-volume strategies, we pride ourselves on our low-volume, high-conviction model, not dissimilar to many angels. We make up to six new investments per year and this allows us to devote significant time and resources to each portfolio company. The proof that this approach works is in our stats; a 75% graduation rate from pre-seed to Series A, far exceeding all industry benchmarks.

We also have a unique structure. Unlike most funds, which have multiple limited partners (LPs), we just have one - our founder Fede - who originally started as an angel himself. This structure allows us to combine the best elements of angel investing, namely personalised support and agility, with the advantages of a structured venture fund, including access to significant follow-on funding and a dedicated investment team to support founders.

Can you share some examples of Playfair’s recent investments?

Of course! Our portfolio reflects our thesis as a generalist investor with focus where technology is at an inflection point for an underserved industry combined with a clear commercial insight. Here are a few recent examples:

- Astral Systems: we co-led their pre-seed in 2024 alongside several Cambridge Angels and Speedinvest. Astral is leveraging modular nuclear fusion technology to produce radioisotopes for pharmaceutical applications, including cancer treatment. While nuclear fusion is often associated with energy generation, Astral’s approach taps into an underserved market with high-impact potential.

- Protex AI: This company integrates AI-powered computer vision with existing CCTV systems to proactively enhance workplace health and safety. We backed Protex AI in 2021, recognising that computer vision technology had matured sufficiently to support a scalable B2B SaaS business. They have just announced their $36M Series B.

- Qureight: Another co-investment with Cambridge Angels, Qureight accelerates drug development by analysing medical images. We backed the company’s co-founder early in his transition from academia to entrepreneurship and supported him in translating deep technical expertise into a commercial venture.

Why has Playfair joined Cambridge Angels as a corporate member?

We’re so pleased to be developing our relationship with Cambridge Angels (CA). As mentioned, our founder, Fede, started as an angel and Simon, Chair of our Investment Committee, is already a board member of the group. We have already co-invested with several CA members so we have seen the strengths of the CA network and its diligence process and we share a deep connection to angel investing.

Cambridge remains one of Europe’s premier technology hubs, and we see immense value in engaging with its network of experienced angel investors. Furthermore, the longer time horizon that many Cambridge Angels members adopt to investing also aligns well with our patient approach to company-building.

But we want the benefit to run both ways; as we aim to maintain relationships with >90% of investors in the European venture landscape we hope this can offer a compelling benefit for Cambridge Angels and their portfolio companies. As startups progress beyond the early stages, our relationships at the Seed, Series A, and later stages can facilitate introductions and follow-on funding, providing a critical bridge to growth capital.

Final thoughts

Joining CA as a corporate member is a natural fit for us. We bridge the gap between angel investing and institutional VC, offering not just capital but deep engagement and strategic support. 

We also believe in being accessible. Anyone should be able to reach us, whether through our website or in-person meetings in Cambridge. Between myself and team members Sheff and Felix, we’ll be in Cambridge regularly, and we love meeting founders over coffee or a call. Personally, I studied in Cambridge, so it’s always great to be back!

Fueling the Future: Insights on Fusion, Genomics, and Angel Investing

In this interview, Simon Blakey chats with a visionary leader who’s been at the heart of some of the biggest breakthroughs in DNA sequencing, nuclear fusion, and biotech. From his early work at MIT on laser tech for nuclear fusion to leading the game-changing merger of Solexa with Illumina, John West has always been ahead of the curve. Now John is focused on angel investing in cutting-edge fields like fusion energy and biotech. With homes in both the US and the UK, he shares his journey from building billion-dollar companies to helping startups scale and succeed globally.

Can you give us a bit of background about yourself?

It’s great to speak with you. I’m originally from Michigan and am now based in Cupertino, California. I retired two years ago and now split my time between there and Cambridge, UK, where my wife and I purchased a second home. In Cambridge I have become a Bye Fellow at Christ’s College.

I graduated from MIT in 1978 following a thesis on laser instrumentation for controlled nuclear fusion. In 1982, I leveraged that optical instrumentation background to begin work in DNA sequencing automation and in 2001 I became VP of DNA sequencing at the then market leading ($700M/year) Applied Biosystems.

In 2004, I became CEO of Solexa Ltd, a VC-backed spin-out from the University of Cambridge specializing in groundbreaking DNA sequencing technology. Solexa Ltd became Nasdaq-listed Solexa, Inc. in 2005 through the all-stock acquisition of Lynx Therapeutics in San Francisco, an acquisition in which we retained 80% ownership and control. With that new California base, Nasdaq listing, and technical progress, we were able to raise almost $100M in 2005. We then merged a second time in January 2007, that time with Illumina. Illumina has since grown into the world's leading DNA sequencing company, generating revenues exceeding $4 billion / year.

In 2011, after I had left Illumina, I founded Personalis, Inc., which uses DNA sequencing for cancer diagnostics. That has included work since 2016 with Moderna, on the development of personal cancer vaccines. I took Personalis public in a $150M Nasdaq IPO in 2019, completed two further financings each over $100M, and retired at the end of 2022.

In the 1990’s, prior to Applied Biosystems, I led Princeton Instruments, a company specializing in highly sensitive cameras for use in scientific instrument systems, including fluorescence microscopy of living cells and early DNA sequencing systems (Solexa was a customer).

Throughout my career, I’ve been deeply involved in entrepreneurship. These days however I focus more on investing and advising and I also mentor at the Judge Business School.

What has been your experience with angel investing?

I’m relatively new to angel investing, having started in late 2021. To date, I’ve invested in six companies across the UK and the US. My investment focus aligns with my background, primarily in nuclear fusion, advanced biotechnology, and optical semiconductors.

Joining Cambridge Angels was an easy decision as I spend a significant amount of time in Cambridge, which offers a rich pipeline of opportunities in areas that align with my interests. Additionally, being part of Cambridge Angels has provided me the chance to learn from a remarkable group of experienced investors, many of whom are also exited entrepreneurs.

Can you tell us a bit more about your investments in Nuclear Fusion Technologies?

I have a particular interest in nuclear fusion technologies and have already invested in four companies within this space, two in the UK. The first in the UK is Tokamak Energy near Oxford, which has raised over £200 million and has been predominantly angel-funded for 15 years. My more recent investment is in Astral Neutronics, based in Bristol, which focuses on the production of radioisotopes and is expected to generate revenue in the near future.

Nuclear fusion is currently undergoing a renaissance. As this sector isn’t well represented within the current Cambridge Angels portfolio, I’ve recently established a special interest group within the network to explore opportunities in this space. There are approximately 45 start-up companies worldwide focused on nuclear fusion. While some have moved up to large rounds with institutional shareholders, many others continue to focus on angel and early stage VC funding.

What is your perspective on operating between the US and the UK?

Each company operates under unique circumstances, but the UK does face certain challenges, particularly regarding the scale of financing of startups, even in dynamic ecosystems like Cambridge. Companies often struggle to secure later-stage funding, not necessarily due to a lack of capital available, but because the companies may lack the management teams and strategic business plans that appeal to large-scale investors. Startups need to focus beyond product development, placing greater emphasis on building management teams with business experience, and adopting an international outlook, both commercially and for financing.

These are areas where I believe I can add significant value, particularly in enhancing the visibility of UK startups to international investors and customers, especially those based in the US.

Your exit from Solexa was quite notable. Can you tell us more about it?

At Solexa, we made a pivotal decision to turn down a $600 million cash offer from Illumina. We had no revenue, but weren’t seeking an exit. Instead, we pursued an all-stock deal, which ultimately proved transformative. The stock price rose from $20 per share to $550 per share, increasing the deal’s value from $600 million to $15 billion.

The key takeaway from this experience is that strategic M&A doesn’t have to be solely about providing an exit for shareholders. It can be a powerful tool to accelerate company growth, leapfrogging several stages of development and ultimately delivering greater returns for original shareholders.

Barbara Domayne-Hayman: A Chemist's Journey to Angel Investing and Entrepreneurial Success

Barbara Domayne-Hayman’s career journey is nothing short of inspiring. With a foundation in chemistry from Oxford, she transitioned from lab research to global marketing roles in agrochemicals before discovering her true passion: building and scaling biotech businesses. Now an angel investor, Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the Francis Crick Institute, and Chair of KQ Labs, Barbara shares how her scientific background, commercial acumen, and love for entrepreneurship have shaped her success in life sciences and health tech. In this interview, she reflects on her path, the importance of people in startup success, and the unique opportunities offered by the Cambridge Angels community.

Can you give a bit of background about yourself?

My initial training was in chemistry at Oxford. But after my doctorate I decided that I was not suited to a career in lab based research, and decided to go into marketing – albeit with a company focused on life sciences. I worked for 11 years at ICI / Zeneca / AstraZeneca in the Agrochemicals division, working internationally in sales and marketing and business strategy, including building the business in Central and Eastern Europe and as Marketing Director in France. I realised that Agrochemicals was entering a period of consolidation and cost cutting, and since I enjoyed building and growing businesses, it was time to leave.

An early mid-life crisis followed, while I figured out what to do next - and during my time at London Business School on the Sloan Fellowship programme, I stumbled on the world of entrepreneurship where in a ‘lightbulb moment’, I realised I could use my scientific background, my commercial experience and build businesses, which is what I love doing, if went into biotech. I have spent the last 20 years+ working in range of biotech companies - therapeutics and platform focused. For the last ten years I have been doing a ‘portfolio career’ – still having an operational role as Chief Business Officer of a biotech company, Autifony Therapeutics, while also working as Entrepreneur-in-residence at the Francis Crick Institute, where I co-founded and now chair KQ Labs, a leading accelerator for data driven health start-ups – we select ten companies per year from across the UK and now have an alumni portfolio of 60 companies, with Cohort #7 about to kick off! I have also been involved with Cambridge Enterprise Ventures as a member of their investment committee for many years, and on LifeArc Ventures investment committee.

How long have you been angel investing? What made you apply to join Cambridge Angels and what do you think makes it different?

I started angel investing when I became Chair of Puridify, a UCL spin-out, back in 2014, and I was very fortunate that this company, which had a brilliant pair of founders, was acquired by GE (now Cytiva) in 2017. I became increasingly interested in these early stage opportunities as I saw them through my role on the Cambridge Enterprise Seed Fund investment committee, and dipped my toes into EIS investments through ParkWalk funds. When I was asked if I would like to join CA in 2019, I jumped at the opportunity, even though living in London and having a very busy portfolio career, I wasn’t sure I would be able to get involved as much as I would like. In fact, during the pandemic, the activities and opportunities for engagement online were very creatively organised (some of which continue online today). and I felt increasingly part of the CA community.

Can you give a couple of examples of Cambridge Angels deals you've invested in that you're currently excited about?

The first investment I led for CA was into MFX (previously Microfluidx), a very exciting company which is accelerating development and manufacture for cell and gene therapies - manufacturability is a major obstacle for these treatments. Another company is Spirea, on whose board I represent CA investors. Spirea is in the super-hot area of antibody drug conjugates, and their next generation linker technology will expand the potential for ADCs, also into areas beyond cancer.

Do you have any sector focus and if you do, why?

Yes, I am very much focused on life sciences and health tech, my areas of personal expertise and the vast majority of my investments are in those areas. However, I have been seduced into investing into one music tech company (music being my other great passion) and also one space tech!

How do you tend to get involved with your investments?

I try to provide as much support as I can with introductions to relevant experts in the sector, or investors for the next funding round, or major pharma corporates where I have a strong network.

What have you learnt about being an Angel investor since you've started?

The knowledge in the CA community is incredible – if one person asks a question, within a couple of hours, there are multiple insightful and supportive answers and comments, and often a fascinating email discussion ensues. CA members are generally very willing to share their experiences, both positive ones and less so. It’s a fantastic network with such depth of experience.

What is an investment exit that you are most proud of?

The investment exit I am most proud of is still Puridify, where I met the founders before they had even incorporated the company. I joined their board as soon as the first serious investment came in, and I was Chair until the acquisition by GE (now Cytiva). But that success was all down to the amazing co-founders, their focus and determination to execute well. It’s always about the people!

Bridging Engineering, Commerce, and Angel Investment: An Interview with John Yeomans

John Yeomans’ journey from engineering to becoming a leading figure in angel investment is nothing short of inspiring. With a foundation in engineering from Cambridge University, John seamlessly transitioned into product sales, marketing, and eventually, investment banking during the dot-com boom. His early entrepreneurial experiences, coupled with a passion for supporting start-ups, laid the groundwork for his impactful role as a Cambridge Angel. In this candid interview, John delves into his multifaceted career, his approach to hands-on investment, and the lessons he’s learned from fostering innovative businesses across diverse sectors.

Can you give a bit of background about yourself?
I studied engineering at Cambridge. I moved from engineering to product sales and marketing before ending in finance, all in the telecom sector. Then I ran a dot com boom telecom investment banking team, taking it from nowhere into bulge bracket deal position. So engineering, commercialisation and finance is what I do.

When I was 24 I was also a cofounder of an office tech company – I did ok from it and had a small exit, but I also realised that there was zero entrepreneurial eco-system in those days. There were only about 4 early-stage VCs in the UK market and they judged by all the wrong criteria (minimal risk) so I vowed to come back to support the eco-system and I did; first through finance raising for growth companies and then, for the last 15 years, as an angel.

What made you apply to join Cambridge Angels?
I originally started investing in London. However my penchant was for deeper tech investing. A Cambridge Angel friend invited me along and I joined the group as I appreciated CA’s philosophy:

• Helping entrepreneurs

• Making returns

• Social aspect (valuable for both knowing the relevant experts to go to and building trust between investors).

CA is a fantastic membership organisation and I did my stint as chair of it between 2013 and 2016.

Can you give a couple of examples of CA deals you've invested in that you're currently excited about?
One of the first was Wazoku, in innovation management. I led the first round; it’s still growing and I’m chair. Most recently I led a round in plinth (formerly Time to Spare). This is an AI SaaS platform for the very uncomputerised but massive (£68bn) charity sector. Although the superficial investor view is that budgets are stretched in not-for-profits, in fact donors are very happy to pay for installing this software as it provides fantastic impact management and administration support and thereby increases the efficacy of their overall funding. It has grown 10x in revenue but only 3x in staffing since I led the seed investment round 18 months ago, and is actually profitable.

Another one is Beam (formerly Rovco), a tech-enabled service business. It uses proprietary AI, imaging, undersea survey and autonomous offshore vehicles in offshore wind farm planning and maintenance, aiming to transform the sector’s gross margins. It expects £30M+ turnover this year, has a forward order book already twice as big, and has grown from a seed round 6 years ago to over 200 employees.

Do you have any sector focus and if you do, why?
I believe that every angel needs to work out not just their sector focus but also their approach to investing, which for me is quite hands-on. My focus is around software/tech and telecoms and I am open to hardware investing. However, I avoid life sciences and extremely deep tech due to their high-risk, arguably more from the big preference waterfalls that come with multiple rounds of investing than from the tech.

As with many investors I seek innovative, game-changing businesses, but not necessarily £1Bn markets.

How do you tend to get involved with your investments?
My background was tech, moving to commercialisation and raising finance. That’s exactly the path that most start-ups progress through, and I try to help them as best I can, often through active board involvement.

I am also unusual as an angel in that I tend to stay on the board of my investments beyond the angel rounds. I think this is important as many VCs don’t have the risk tolerance that fast-growing companies require. Often there are gaps in the management team at the early stages – I can help fill those gaps until they can be recruited for and I also help get the corporate governance right from the start; you’d be surprised how often small mistakes e.g. around share issuance, can really trip up a company later on.

What have you learnt about being an Angel investor since you've started?
DON’T DO IT (unless you are really committed and sure). There are a load of hygiene factors that have to be right such as the pitch deck, plan and business model, but most important is the management team; their adaptability, drive, vision and openness to challenge.

Also as investors we need to recognise that the role of a founder is a lonely one. They are expected within say 5 years to acquire the range of skills that most people struggle to acquire in a lifetime: we need to help them and they need to be open to it.

I therefore look for cohesive teams with complementary skills and a shared history, and realised that the best investments often come when angels are involved and provide active management and coaching.

On the funding side there are still major limitations in UK venture financing from series A onwards, with too much herd instinct, too much short-termism and too little technological understanding. We could do with a few more multistage, mature VC funds of the kind you see in the States. By staying on boards I span the lifecycle, which gives insight into what needs to be put in place in the early stages.

I’ve also learnt never to be surprised, particularly by human nature. On a more positive note, investing and interacting with younger founders has helped me remain positive, and for an increasingly cynical guy in his 60s, that’s so important too.

Openness and transparency: an interview with Peter Cowley

Recently, Peter Cowley, the former Chair of Cambridge Angels, learned that he was entering the final stages of his battle with cancer. Peter, who has been a huge advocate of openness and transparency with his investing, his battles with addiction, loss and now this disease, wanted to have a final conversation with his fellow Cambridge Angel, Simon Blakey.

Peter, thank you for wanting to do this interview given you recent prognosis. Could you give a bit of your background to those who don’t know you?

Of course. I originally did a degree in software and engineering and worked in the software industry. I had always been exposed to the entrepreneurial lifestyle through my parents and I launched my first business in Bavaria in 1981; I have basically been unemployable since then! Over time I have set up a dozen businesses, with varying degrees of success, but the longest-running one is now 41 years old.

I was the financial cofounder of EPT Computing, where we achieved a 17x return in 3 years. After this success I was invited to join Cambridge Angels in 2009.

What has your experience been like with Cambridge Angels?

In short, life changing because there is such a vast amount of experience in the group and the senior people very much taught the then juniors, such as myself. I quickly worked out how to shadow the more experienced angels, such as Paul Anson, on deals, as well as working out which members I wanted to do deals with. Members such as Rajat Malhotra and Robert Sansom (amongst many others) have since become very close friends.

What have been the key drivers for your angel investing?

It has always been about the people…both my co-investors and the people I have invested in. As an angel there is a constant opportunity to learn, absorb fresh insights, and stay energised. Like entrepreneurship itself, you must enjoy the journey, not just the destination. Financial returns were never my main goal; there are far less stressful and less risky ways to make money!

And what have you got wrong or would have done differently?

I think it is worthwhile being aware that Angel investing is a drug…you can get addicted to it and I admit that, at some points I have spent (although a better term may be invested) way too much time (and probably money) on it to the detriment to loved ones.

With hindsight though what I couldn’t have sped up is the learning process; It is easy to put money into a business but the learning cycles are long and you need experience of failures in order to have an understanding of how to be a true value-add investor.

Given my technical background I have always been drawn to understanding core technology and routes to market. I was also prepared to embrace hardware but have realised that high-value hardware is a bit of a no-no for angel investors given the amount of funding that you often require to bring a product to market.

What have you learnt about both exit and failures?

I have served on 40 boards and attended over 1,300 board meetings. Around 85% of my failures have been due to companies struggling to find product-market fit before the investors give up. Down rounds are ok. Likewise, only one of my 20+ exits has been based on an EBITDA multiple; acquisitions mostly happen for strategic reason beyond simple financial metrics. Also, exits take time to prepare for…they don’t just happen.

As an investor you also need to know when to exit yourself. On boards my strength has been at the initial stages until the company has reached 30-40 people - then it is time for others to take over. Likewise, my returns have been massively enhanced by taking secondary sales when offered, allowing me to recycle the cash into other early-stage ventures. I am around 2.5x up cash on cash with a portfolio of unrealised investments but it took me 10.5 years to get to a cash-flow breakeven position. Interestingly, even with these stats, my median Enterprise Value on exit has only been $25-30M i.e. the exits don’t need to be huge to make a return if you get in at the right price.

What are your views on the size of an early-stage portfolio?

To be frank, I believe a portfolio should have at least 25 investments to balance the high-risk nature of early stage ventures . For a new starter this means that you need to do 5 investments per year over 5 years but you also need to be prepared to follow on; on average I have invested 2.26 times into each business I’ve backed. If you think that a £25k investment is the minimum you should invest to get a meaningful exit potential, the overall commitment over a few rounds could exceed £500k.

Finally, what has driven you to be so open when angel investing?

I wanted to be entrepreneurial and build a legacy to help others navigate this, often challenging, space. This drive became even stronger in 2022 with the death of my son Alan. With guidance from people like David Cleevely I decided to share my insights through books (“the Invested Investor”, “Public Success, Private Grief”, “Founder to Founder”) and podcasts (https://www.investedinvestor.com). I have since sold 4,500 books and the podcast has been listened to over 45,000 people to date.

I stopped investing into new businesses in 2020 (my 65th birthday year) and stopped investing completely in 2021 with my stage 4 cancer diagnosis. However, I am so happy that the work I have done has, and can, help educate the next generation of both investors and entrepreneurs.

Banking on Innovation - The Evolution from M&A to Angel Investor

In this piece, learn more about Cambridge Angels member James Viggers who shares his path to angel investing, and some of the lessons he has learned along the way. James is one of leading experts in the Cambridge Angels group on how companies should prepare for exit and has led talks for the Cambridge Angels portfolio companies on this topic.

Can you give a bit of background about yourself?
I’m in the relative minority at Cambridge Angels in that I have a background in finance rather than as an entrepreneur. I had what I tend to describe as a short, lucky career as an M&A banker in London and New York. An exit in 2012 gave me the freedom to take the skills I had learned and go back to my first intellectual passion, which was engineering. I wanted to find a way to work with high quality people on interesting projects in a flexible way – my wife and I love to travel and our old lifestyle of 80+ hour work weeks got in the way rather. Angel investing fit the bill perfectly.

What made you apply to join CA and what do you think makes it different?
I wish I could say that me applying to join CA was deeply strategic and thoughtful, but it wasn’t! Serendipity brought me to the door, then I was basically just hugely impressed by the membership.
There are many things that make CA unique, but at their core angel networks do three things: they find high quality investor members, they find high quality entrepreneurs looking for capital, and they bring them together in supportive, stimulating and hopefully entertaining ways. Other than a small error of judgement in letting me join, Cambridge Angels does all these things extremely well.

Can you give a couple of examples of CA deals you've invested in that you're currently excited about?
Don’t get me started – I could enthuse about my portfolio all day! I hugely enjoy seeing smart teams working with new technologies. On the basis that these are the latest two cheques I am writing:
• Silveray – high sensitivity flexible X-ray detectors built with innovative bismuth oxide nanoparticle technology. A great team headed up by Dan Cathie, looking to disrupt multiple markets and so far executing really well.
• Radiant Matter – very early stage. A blend of fashion and photonics. Mimics natural iridescence (think beetles’ wings) initially to make biodegradable sequins. The plan is to expand into to coatings, cosmetics etc. – anywhere people want shiny without damaging the environment.

Do you have any sector focus and if you do, why?
My personal investing preference is for early stage companies with strong and defensible IP at the more engineering end of technology – robotics, manufacturing, medical devices, materials science. On the positive side, these are areas I feel I understand fairly well with my engineering background. I believe it’s important when investing to stick to what you know (or think you know!). On the negative side, this does point me at relatively capital-intensive businesses. Raising large amounts of capital in cyclical markets with large investors taking preference shares is not without risks for an early stage angel investor!

How do you tend to get involved with your investments?
It very much depends. With Heartfelt Technologies I have taken the Chairman role. With others I send congratulations when I receive shareholder updates. Most are somewhere in between. I probably spend a third of my investing time doing favours for portfolio companies, both mine and others’. One thing I do like to do is help companies think through their long term exit planning – basically I have a wish list of what I would have wanted my old M&A clients to have done well before they hired me. There are a few relatively easy things that can help smooth the path to exit if done a couple of years in advance.

What have you learnt about being an Angel investor since you've started?
Oh, where to start? People have been so generous with their time and advice since I joined Cambridge Angels. I won’t repeat the excellent advice of Andy Phillipps in his interview but there are a couple of additional things to add to the list:
• Pace yourself at the start. It’s tempting to try to outperform at the beginning by reading all the business plans and rushing into all the investments. Really good ones don’t come along every day and even the best investments sometimes require multiple rounds of funding. Plus, you learn so much from watching the portfolio and the management teams develop at every stage, all of which feeds back over the years to make you a (hopefully) better investor.
• Celebrate the successes. The brutal truth of angel investing is that the majority of the companies we invest in are likely to fail. With those numbers in mind, it’s important to celebrate progress and success as much as you rue delay and failure, otherwise this game might make you unhappy!

Is there an investment exit you are most proud of?
I have had one great early exit that returned the portfolio and more, but it was a special situation and not really a classic angel investment so to me it didn’t prove the model.
So, an actual early stage start up that I invested in that has positively exited within the eight years that I have been doing this? Not one. I think there is a lesson here: I personally believe that as an angel you should be prepared to invest for 10 years before maybe seeing some returns. It is critical to invest with enough patience and hold back enough capital to do this. Otherwise you can time yourself out – bad for the individual and for the group as all that investing experience can be lost.
In the interim, everything is looking very strong on paper. However, a lesson I learned in my M&A days is that until the cash is in the bank it isn’t real. Let’s wait and see!

From antibodies to angel investments - the entrepreneur to investor path of Cambridge Angel, Jim Warwick

Jim Warwick, an active Cambridge Angels investor, shared his path from Computer Science grad to technology investor, via a successful career at Abcam. Read more about Jim's journey in this interview.

Can you give a bit of background about yourself?
I’m originally from the South Coast near Portsmouth, and came to Cambridge to do a Computer Science degree in 1983 when that was still a novelty for the University (not viewed as a “proper” subject back then). After graduating, I spent the initial part of my career in a telecoms consultancy before getting involved in a start-up that was sourcing and selling antibodies for life sciences research. That company, Abcam, did very well and I exited it at the end of 2016 to get back to working with smaller companies, ultimately as an angel investor.
I’m married - I met my wife at university and she is now an academic at the Institute of Criminology here in Cambridge where we have lived for the past 30 years, and we have two grown up “kids”.

How long have you been angel investing? What made you apply to join CA and what do you think makes it different?
I joined Cambridge Angels in early 2018, which is when I became serious about making angel investments. It was always the start-up phases of companies that I found exciting; the journey of transforming a (hopefully) brilliant idea into a (hopefully) world-beating business is fascinating. Cambridge Angels is great, being a relatively small group of investors (which helps, because you can realistically know each angel individually) but having a large proportion of exited entrepreneurs who’ve been along this path before and are able to offer more than just seed capital to a start-up business.

Can you give a couple of examples of CA deals you've invested in that you're currently excited about?
Because of my Abcam background, I’ve stayed involved in the life sciences research sector; the complexities of the processes that go on at a cellular level to enable us all to stay alive never ceases to amaze me. One of my current investments is Qkine – which works on creating growth factor proteins. All the cells within our body contain a complete genome for expressing any tissue type or cellular function and come originally from what is termed (pluri-potent) stem cells. The process by which stem cells develop is controlled by a cocktail of signalling proteins (growth factors) which, depending on order and timing, govern this process. Being able to control this in the lab, enables us to grow samples of tissue and indeed mini-organs (organoids) which are a window into disease development and treatment. It’s also a cornerstone for new industries such as cultivated meat. It’s an extraordinary thing!

Another business I’m invested in and excited about is Nova Pangaea which has a process that converts woody/agricultural plant waste into sustainable biochemicals and potentially biofuels – they’re now part of a project with British Airways to scale up their process for sustainable aviation fuel production; aviation being a high-profile area we need to address for the climate emergency. They’re not the whole solution here, but nor is anything else. I believe the answer here has to come from many projects like this all making their contribution; it’s important stuff.

Do you have any sector focus and if you do, why?
Because of my background I’m pretty sector agnostic and I remain a sucker for really neat pieces of technology, which is not always a good indicator of what will make a good business (!). Recently I’ve been more interested in climate change and net-zero oriented investments. That’s partly because it’s a really important problem that we need to solve, and partly because it is an area ripe for innovation and disruption – ideal for the right start-ups. There are issues with the sector, not the least because of the capital intensive nature of some of the endeavours, but these are being addressed and in the meantime there are some really exciting technologies being developed.

How do you tend to get involved with your investments?
Mostly I’m a hands-off investor after the due diligence stages, but I do sit on the boards of two of my start-up investments. Part of the Cambridge Angels ethos is to help and advise entrepreneurs, so hopefully some of that informal feedback via CA helps here.

What have you learnt about being an Angel investor since you've started?
It takes longer than you think to get an exit.

Is there an investment exit you are most proud of and/or an investment horror story you would be prepared to share?
Actually not too many horror stories, mostly the companies that have failed I feel sad about – the founders have generally remained engaged and enthusiastic up until the end and it’s a painful experience for them to realise their company is doomed. I’ve only had one deal where the directors were (in my opinion) crooks - bleeding funds from the company to line their own pockets, whilst re-assigning the company IP to other companies they owned. This was an investment that was made more at arms-length; I now take much more care over where the company has come from and who knows the founders. This is another important benefit of working with a group like Cambridge Angels.

A Ford between Oxford and Cambridge. An interview with David Ford...

In this interview, Oxford-based angel investor David Ford speaks about his biochemistry background, his path to angel investing and the importance of functional management teams as a key criterion for success.

Can you give a bit of background about yourself?

I’m Oxford-based, as my Cambridge-based fellow members never let me forget, and an active private investor. I studied biochemistry at university before starting in the City, initially as a public equities analyst covering pan-European biotech stocks, before moving into the private capital space (via a stint in San Francisco in the early 2000s). I spent the majority of my career with Intermediate Capital Group where I headed up their investment research group as well as looking at strategic growth opportunities, including expanding into the US and Australia. I started dabbling in angel investing, in a small way, but I found it incredibly rewarding and I met so many good people along the way. This gave me the confidence to take a leap and focus full time on early-stage investing.

How long have you been angel investing? What made you apply to join CA and what do you think makes it different?

I have been an active angel investor since 2015, with a full-time focus from 2017. I joined CA in 2018 having previously attended a dinner as a guest of Andy Richards. The one thing that struck me in the first dinner discussion was the level of knowledge and experience across the room, all of which was focused on making good investment decisions and helping companies to succeed. This focus, coupled with the entrepreneurial background of the majority of the members (not me sadly!), really does differentiate CA as an angel group. Taking in money from investors is actually the easy bit – making a success of your venture is far harder still and having experienced investors behind you can definitely help.

Can you give a couple of examples of CA deals you've invested in that you're currently excited about?

I’m currently Chair of ViaNautis Bio (formerly SomaServe), which raised capital from CA in 2019, 2021 and again in 2023, where a good number of members participated in their larger Series A financing. I originally lead their 2019 financing round when they were spun out of UCL. The company has a proprietary nanoparticle delivery technology for delivery of genetic medicines, specifically across the blood brain barrier. This platform tech and an internal pipeline of drug programmes enabled them to attract the interest of blue-chip VCs and we raised $25m in 2023, in what was a tough fundraising environment. The whole area of RNA delivery is exciting and gaining a lot of attention across the industry.

Do you have any sector focus and if you do, why?

I’m solely focused on the life sciences / healthcare sector. Given my biochemistry background it’s an obvious area of intellectual interest for me, but it’s also a sector with very attractive investment fundamentals driven by acute societal need and new technologies developing at breakneck speed. It really does feel like a privilege to be able to interact with smart entrepreneurs looking to do something genuinely innovative and exciting.

How do you tend to get involved with your investments?

I’ve made around 25 investments to-date and I’m on the Board of a small number. I tend to get involved with my investments if I think I can add some value, usually around putting in place a governance framework, helping with investor discussions, etc. I don’t feel the need for a formal role, but I do always want to stay close to my investments, at least initially – partially because I’m interested in what they’re doing, but more importantly because there will likely be future financing needs or strategic questions that need to be answered. I want to help wherever I can, although there is also a balance to be struck where you need to give the founder(s) time and space to develop themselves and their ideas.

What have you learnt about being an Angel investor since you've started?

This one’s quite easy to answer – it takes far longer, and probably costs more, than I originally thought to see evidence of progress in my portfolio! Diversification is also very important and I think it’s important to spread your capital across a decent number of investments.

Is there an investment exit you are most proud of and/or an investment horror story you would be prepared to share?

I’ll focus on the failures as I strongly believe this is where you learn the most as an investor…..rather than one specific horror story, of which there are some(!), the unifying theme of my most disappointing investments to-date has been management team dysfunctionality. This has largely been due to personality clashes, unwillingness to be coached, etc, and is very definitely the reason I spend a lot of time during due diligence before completing an investment getting to know the management team and their respective personalities. The most frustrating thing of all is seeing an investment fail not because the idea or technology didn’t work, but because of poor execution. That’s a failure of management and disappoints me far more than if an idea fails because the science doesn’t work (that’s the kind of risk as angel investors we do take).

Tracing the path of a founder turned investor - An interview with Anna Kissin

It may seem that not a lot could link Manchester United, the world of publishing, digital marketing, and advanced fuels, but that’s only because you might not yet have met Cambridge Angels member, Anna Kissin.  In this brief interview with Anna, she talks about her own entrepreneurial journey, how she found her way into angel investing, and her excitement about Cambridge Angels portfolio company, Nova Pangaea

Could you give us a bit about your background?

My initial career path was a traditional one of Wharton MBA followed by consultancy at Oliver Wyman in New York. However, I was itching for a change so in 1993 my husband and I started a publishing company, where I was responsible for finance and operations. Initially we won the contract to do the Manchester United Magazine (as no other traditional publisher would take it on) which became a huge success. This catapulted us into other publishing opportunities for the likes of Chelsea football club and even the Spice Girls as well as more traditional book publishing. When Manchester United won the treble in 1999 I knew this was the ideal time to sell and we exited just a couple of months later to Future Publishing.

After this sale we then set up a digital marketing business, Zone, when digital marketing was still very much in its infancy. In retrospect we were probably about six years too early! We definitely lived hand-to-mouth at times but over 17 years grew the business organically and through several national and international acquisitions, helped by private equity cash, to a company employing 250 people and over £25M turnover – at the time the largest digital marketing consultancy in the UK – before we sold to Cognizant in 2017.

Tell us about your angel investing?

I started angel investing about 15 years ago, but I didn’t have a lot of cash back then and my focus was really on Zone. Initial investment successes included Moonpig.com. I then started to spend more time on angel investing once we exited back in 2017, which is also when I joined CA. I now have a portfolio of 15-odd companies and some, such as ScreenCloud, are doing very well, but it all takes time!

I don’t have a particular focus in my angel investing. I tend to avoid biotech because I am completely unqualified to judge the technology but am open to just about everything else. I do have a particular soft spot for unsexy industrial sectors overlooked by other investors.

How do you get involved with your investments?

Like many of my fellow CA members, during my career I’ve accumulated a lot of knowledge useful to start-ups. I tend to get involved with investee companies where I have previously worked with the founders. In such cases, I like to get my hands dirty and take on quasi-operational roles, sometime for periods of a few years, but I am clear that I now never want to go into an office on a day-to-day basis.

What do you like about CA?

Most obviously, the potential deal flow; I have been extremely impressed with the range, quality and number of the pitches that comes into the CA network and reviewing each one is a learning experience in itself.

Closely following this is the benefit I gain from the combined experience that other angels bring to bear during the informal and formal pitch sessions; the breadth of knowledge shown in the Q&As at these sessions can be quite a thing to behold! And of course, other angels are a fantastic and generous source of advice if it’s ever needed.

Which of your CA portfolio companies particularly excites you at the moment?

My personal favourite is Nova Pangaea Technologies, which has been going from strength to strength, most recently winning a huge £9 million in funding from the government’s Advanced Fuels Fund in partnership with British Airways and LanzaJet. I met the company at my introductory informal pitch with CA six years ago and was so impressed with the experience of the team and the product offering that I committed on the spot. They haven’t disappointed and I expect great things from them in the future.

The path to a Double Dragon - an interview with John Snyder

We are delighted to publish a short interview with John Snyder. John is an original founding member of Cambridge Angels and a 2x exited entrepreneur, the latter being a ‘double dragon’ for its backer IQ Capital.

Can you give us a bit about your background?

I have spent my whole career in the field of information retrieval and search keyword technology. My first company was Muscat, a Cambridge University spin out, which was in the initial wave of search engine technology and which I sold in 1997 aged 31 to MAID plc. This made my sole VC investor a 10x return, and angel investor Hermann Hauser 3x within six months. MAID was London & Nasdaq listed, and I used Muscat to build a new internet search engine (twice the size of Alta Vista and at the same time as newco Google was just starting out). Despite arranging $35m to spin out the business unit, the CEO blocked the deal, so I then had my first and only ‘proper job’ employed by Cambridge University, my former alma mater. Here I helped the Cambridge Entrepreneurship Centre from 2001 to 2003 in preparing University spinout entrepreneurs by surrounding deeply technical founders with experienced mentors, such as Robert Sansom, Andy Richards, Sherry Coutu and more. Several of these eventually became founder members of Cambridge Angels back in 2001.

David Cummings, Martin Bloom and I worked on raising a new venture fund with an accelerator, but I also itched to get back to being an entrepreneur again and my second company was Grapeshot, a contextual intelligence platform, which we sold to Oracle Corporation in 2018 and which created a ‘double dragon’ return for our backer, IQ Capital, with an average x15 return for all our investors. Both companies were founded with Dr Martin Porter, one of the most cited academics in IR search algorithms.

What do you see as one of your key skills in the business creation process?

Martin Porter was definitely the academic brains in both companies. My studies had been in Maths, Physics and Geography before studying Anthropology and from this I see my role as taking a piece of deep, core, technology and finding its place in the market. Rather than try to sell to many companies and deliver high revenues early, which lots of VCs encourage because of fund dynamics; with both start-ups I deliberately selected one or two multinational organizations and then went deep with them, often with minimal revenues to begin with, to really understand how they worked, their decision-making processes and their common pain points and to then craft our product around this. Reuters was the guineapig for Muscat and IBM played this role for Grapeshot. Both Reuters and IBM eventually became key early accounts for us, providing brand credibility and giving us what I call the “peacock effect” (looking bigger and more attractive than we might have been).

It sounds as though you deliberately went slow in finding product-market fit but how did this then fit with obtaining external funding?

Grapeshot raised a total of $22M but actually raised this in little $1-2m chunks, and often, but only when required. For us capital efficiency (and accurate forecasting) was key. Often entrepreneurs are advised to ‘raise as much as you can’ but there is a lot of vanity attached to a large raise with little point in having money sitting around, unused, in the bank. We raised when we needed to off the back of a positive growth story, and this gave us flexibility; we were able to turn down one $10M investment offer and another from Reid Hoffman when the terms were not right. It was tough though, as when we started

Grapeshot I took out a huge mortgage to fund it and then borrowed more to enable me to lead a further funding round. Here it really helped having some supporting/contributing fellow Cambridge Angels around me at the outset, so we could be the ‘term makers’ rather than the ‘term takers’ in one of the early rounds. Cambridge Angels who invested early in Grapeshot include David Cummings, John Taysom and Sherry Coutu.

You regularly talk about the importance of a corporate culture. Can you expand on this?

I was once in a very high-powered dinner with the Dean of Cambridge University’s MBA Judge Business School with the co-founders of ARM, Abcam and other notable Cambridge entrepreneurs around the table. The Dean professed that the ‘numbers’ were more important than ‘culture’ in their business MBA case-studies, and he was immediately rounded upon by all the dinner participants for being absolutely wrong! Your culture is the backbone on which a business is built and inspires employees to believe in its mission. When we were building Grapeshot we did an early internal staff and external customers audit and the three things that came back were ‘Simplicity’ (i.e. no acronyms), ‘Transparency’ (i.e. say when doing well, or badly) and ‘Faith in People (i.e. go and make mistakes, we trust you). Culture became a particular focus as we rapidly scaled Grapeshot from a 100 to 200-person company; every new hire had to spend a week in Cambridge and when we opened an office in a new geography we initially prioritized exporting home-grown talent who understood our business and culture into those locations, alongside hiring local experience. In New York our initial team was plucked from our most junior ranks of London staff, prior to hiring a US Sales Director, and scaling with that culture transposed. Some young staff in New York would later swap with London staff, not just their job location, but also their apartment digs. I believe that this focus on one culture was fundamental in contributing to our growth success.

Your learnings from the last 20 years of angel investing with Cambridge Angels are worthy of another post, but could you give us a couple of companies currently in you CA portfolio that you are particularly excited about and why?

A ‘standard’ CA deal is where entrepreneurs come in and pitch their company to a group of angel investors who then go away and discuss it as a group, often over a dinner at one of the Cambridge colleges. There are plenty of rigorous questions from the array of angels who are exited entrepreneurs with deep operational experience, but we like to be a bit more considerate than seen on Dragon’s Den! One of my CA portfolio deals is Qureight who curate large volumes of medical data alongside AI-powered decision making, with a focus on lung and heart disease. I like the CEO and his team and have been very impressed with the commercial traction they have already had. It is a race to get the best data and the best algorithms at work to fast-track key decisions at pharmaceutical companies, contract research organisations and hospitals and they are currently raising their Series A.

A Cambridge Angels ‘Halo’ deal is where two or more Cambridge Angels invest in a company which might not even reach a formal pitch. I became the first investor into Vitrue Health which provides a tech-driven, fully managed service to reduce musculoskeletal problems like back and neck pain in desk workers. All while making you DSE compliant for remote, office and hybrid teams. Vitrue has subsequently raised institutional funds and growing rapidly. Why I like it? Health and safety at work, including home workers, is highly regulated now. A compliance agenda coupled with making sure your staff are not absent off work due to pain and ancillary conditions or illness, becomes a double benefit to employers, who are already obliged to comply each year with health audits, support for staff and compliance paperwork.

5 questions...An interview with Cambridge Angels member, Andy Phillipps

What does the founder of ActiveBooking.com (that eventually became Booking.com) and Chair of Toptable.com (that became Opentable Europe) have to say about angel investing?

In this amazingly insightful interview, Cambridge Angel member, Andy Phillipps, talks about the lessons he has learnt from 80+ early-stage investments along with why he’s excited about ThoughtMachine, Paragaf and Nyobott – 3 companies in his Cambridge Angels portfolio.

Can you give a bit of a background about yourself?

I did my undergrad and PhD in Materials Science at Cambridge and then worked in industrial research in the semi-conductor, steel and ceramics industries in the US and Europe, before (slightly incongruously) co-founding a hotel booking company; ActiveBooking.com. We grew that to become the largest online hotel booking company in Europe before sale to Priceline and a subsequent merger with Bookings.org to form what is now Booking.com. After leaving as CEO, I joined Toptable.com as chairman. We also sold that to Priceline (and it became the basis for Opentable Europe). Since then I’ve split my time between teaching (LBS, INSEAD and guest lecturer at Stanford), angel investing and working with high growth businesses. I have made approx. 80 early-stage investments with a focus on market places, deep tech and clean tech.

What made you apply to join CA and what do you think makes it different?

John Bates, an LBS professor and angel investor, once described a successful angel investor as “someone who hasn’t quite lost all their money before they’ve learned how it works”. And with investments often taking over a decade to exit (positively or negatively) it can be very hard to learn from your own experience, meaning it makes a lot of sense to find experienced fellow angels. Members of Cambridge Angels have made well over a thousand angel deals in total, meaning there’s an incredible depth of expertise. It particularly appealed because of the preponderance of exited entrepreneurs and their work to help the UK tech ecosystem more broadly.

Can you give a couple of examples of deals you’ve invested in that you’re particularly excited about at the moment?

In the context of Cambridge Angels, Thought Machine, Paragraf and Nyobolt spring to mind. Thought Machine was founded by a former member of Cambridge Angels, Paul Taylor. It provides core banking and payments technology built natively for the cloud, with a wealth of tier 1 banking clients around the world. Paul’s vision for the company is incredibly ambitious and exciting. Paragraf is one of the first companies in the world to produce graphene electronic devices at scale, with the ultimate vision to realise order of magnitude improvements in transistor processing speeds. Nyobolt has developed ultra-rapid charging technology. They recently demonstrated a sports car based on the Lotus Elise which can fully charge in just 6 minutes. Whilst there’s a long way to go, all of them have the potential to be significant UK success stories (and have also been backed by iQ Capital, a corporate member of Cambridge Angels).

What have you learnt about being an Angel investor since you’ve started?

Rather depressingly, I’ve re-discovered most of the stuff I was told in the first place. It would have saved me a lot of money to listen more carefully. I’ve repeated them below in case I can save someone else some money:

Teams: Everyone says that they invest in fantastic teams (and it certainly seems better than the alternative of investing in crap teams?). Being a bit more specific about it, I look for evidence that the individuals have achieved exceptional things previously, that they have a high clock speed and that they have the intellectual horsepower to learn and adapt.

Long tail and Babe Ruth effect: this is documented to death but it took me a long time to even begin to understand it (thanks Simon Murdoch and John Taysom). Unlike the bell curve distribution in public markets, early-stage investments have a very long tail, which means that nearly all your portfolio value is often accounted for by a very few investments. For example, from over 2500 Y-Combinator investments, over 50% of the value was in 3 companies (according to work by Jared Heyman in 2021). Good investors often don’t have fewer losses, but do have bigger winners. It means that unless you’re exceptionally selfconfident(?!), you need to build a portfolio, plus you’re looking for companies that can generate out-sized returns.

Thinking in bets: (with thanks to Annie Duke). There’s a very human instinct to look at investments (bets) that go right and wrong and conclude that it was good or bad investment. However, if I bet on the ace of spades being the next card and win, that doesn’t mean it was a sensible long-term strategy. It needs many data points to work that out, which most individual angels don’t have on their own. For me, that means I have to proactively engage with many people who have relevant experience to fleece them for advice and knowledge. Or be very, very lucky.

Follow ons: Most VCs will advise that you should “back your winners” (and it certainly sounds better than “back your losers”?). As an angel, I can have trouble doing this. Winners are often not clear, and if they are, they get great term sheets, are over-subscribed and the original investors can often be squeezed out. This means that as an angel, my share of a successful company is mainly determined by my share in the first round. If I can subsequently invest significantly, it may be a sign that it’s not a winner. I have early data that my follow-on investments are significantly less successful (my returns drop significantly after the second round) and my tentative conclusion is that I should commit more of my capital early on, but would be very keen to learn from others here.

5 questions… An Interview with the current chair of Cambridge Angels, Pam Garside

Our wonderful Chair, Pam Garside has been a member of Cambridge Angels for 6 years and took on the chair role in 2021. In this brief interview, we asked Pam 5 questions to learn a bit more about her and her angel investing journey.

Q. Can you give a bit of a background about yourself?

A. I originally did a Zoology degree at Durham and then joined the NHS graduate training Scheme, and after working at St Thomas’s went to graduate school in the US. I became a management consultant in the health sector and this is where my whole career has focused;  helping private sector companies understand the UK and US health systems and also to ‘sell’ into them. I fell into angel investing after a couple of companies started paying me in equity about 15 years ago when digital health was really taking off. I have taught at the Judge Business School for 25 years and am on the Cambridge Enterprise Seed Funds Investment Committee. I also co-chair the Cambridge Health Network (Senior people in Health in the UK), and sit on a variety of boards.  

Q. What made you apply to join CA and what do you think makes it different?

A. This is an interesting one! I didn’t apply but was actively sought out by Simon Thorpe (former Cambridge Angels chair) back in 2016 who realised the membership was too male/pale/stale and needed to be reinvigorated to stay relevant. I took a bit of persuading as I am not an exited entrepreneur which most Angels are, but am now so pleased that I did. One of my goals as chair is to continue to reinvigorate and diversify our membership.

As far as the Cambridge Angels’ difference goes, I am very clear on this. Three quarters of members are exited entrepreneurs and so the depth of experience start up founders can call on is second to none. Also, because the group is small (60 max) and we hold multiple types of events, we tend to get to know and trust each other, share deal flow and be quite collegiate in respect of due diligence, which is great as otherwise angel investing can be quite a lonely business. 

Q. Can you give a couple of examples of deals you’ve invested in that you’re particularly excited about at the moment

A. Of course. Unlikely AI is one of them, founded by another Cambridge Angel member William Tunstall-Pedoe (who built and launched Amazon’s Alexa) and has since raised a $18M series A. Unlikely AI is still in stealth and I don’t claim to understand the details, but it provides a very credible alternative to current LLMs. Here Cambridge Angels membership gave me access to a deal I would have otherwise not have had a chance to either look at or understand.

Another one is Kalium Health which is closer to my medtech experience as it is creating a simple test of kidney function via measurement of blood electrolyte levels, so patients don’t have to visit hospital as they do currently. It has great social worth and potentially very valuable to the health system.

Q. What have you learnt about being an Angel investor since you’ve started?

A. So much. Alongside the ‘regular’ things such as Term Sheets and deal structuring, talking to fellow Angels has reinforced that I should go with my gut about the founder’s ability being one of the most important predictors of success. I have also learnt from painful experience that choosing the right co-investors can be critical and to ensure that all investors are all on the same page on the plans for the company…

Q. What is the one piece of advice you would give to an aspiring heathtech founder?

A. Make sure you are solving a big problem, that your solution is scalable and that you really do understand the health market you are selling into!