How I angel invest
Write personal checks. Stay close. Optimize for decades, not quarters.
Angel investing, for me, is personal capital with a long clock. I am not managing other people’s money on a fixed deployment schedule. That single fact changes almost every decision.
I can wait. I can concentrate. I can pass on deals that only work if someone else needs an exit story in three years.
The filter
- Do I trust the founder with hard years, not just good slides?
- Is there a real customer loop — or only a narrative about one?
- Would I still want this ownership if liquidity stayed distant?
If the answer needs a fundraising calendar to feel good, it is usually not for me.
What “close” means
I prefer being useful over being loud. Introductions, clarity on the numbers, and honesty when something is off. Portfolio companies are not line items. They are people shipping under constraint.
The portfolio is the scoreboard. This blog is the reasoning.