Hot Takeaways From an AMA Session with Deepali Nangia — UKBAA Angel Angel Investor of the Year
These insights were compiled and written by Included VC Fellows Constanza Díaz, Georgina Nwabueze and Kadi-Ingrid Lilles.
Deepali Nangia is a seasoned Angel Investor and mentor for early-stage startups in tech with a focus on female founders. We were lucky to meet her in an Ask-Me-Anything (AMA) session earlier this year as part of Included VC’s fellowship — one of the highlights for many of us.
Deepali co-founded Alma Angels in 2019, a community in support of female founders, and she is part of the Atomico Angel Programme. She was recently chosen as the UKBAA Angel Investor of the Year and has joined Speedinvest as a Venture Partner.
She started her career in investment banking at Salomon Smith Barney in NYC and then in private equity at GE Equity, before moving to the UK in 2012. She also has experience in corporate operational roles, having held senior positions at Aon and Marsh & McLennan. Originally from India, Deepali completed a BA in Economics and MBA from the University of Rochester.
With a strong focus on digital health and femtech, Deepali has invested in numerous companies. Some of these are: LiveBetterWith (health), PensionBee (fintech), Planera (femtech), Juno Bio (femtech), and Bia.care (health).
However, these two sectors are not the only sectors that excite her. The pandemic has fast-forwarded adoption of the Future of Work and Ed-tech solutions. In her own words, Deepali sees Ed-tech, which has traditionally been tough as having witnessed a turnaround as organisations have been forced to deploy remote solutions and with the growth in tech, many will be required to reskill. Other sectors continue to be underrated and underserved, such as women’s health with a huge data gap.
Origin of Alma Angels 😇
While Deepali had been advising female founders on their fundraising for many years and had grown a network of handful of angel investors to recommend, she realised that there weren’t many female angel investors among them. This frustrating realisation led to the creation of Alma Angels over a coffee with her now co-founder Ella Goldner in late 2019, soon joined by David Fogel and Kristin Cardwell. The first pilot for the community was a small breakfast networking event with some female founders and investors in August 2019, followed by an official launch event in December 2019.
However, the world being turned upside down due to the COVID pandemic in March 2019, the community needed to pivot to online. It took the form of a WhatsApp group, allowing for a more free flowing approach to dealflow sharing other than the more typical structure of angel collaboration including syndicates, quarterly demo days, and more.
As Deepali proudly mentioned to us, in its first 11 months of operating, the community had invested $3M into female founders, and grown to be more than a 250 members strong diverse set of value-adding angel investors from backgrounds ranging from entrepreneurship to medicine.
From Angel to Venture Partner 🚀
Managing several different hats has been an aspect of Deepali’s job multiple times, from being an investor to a mentor, and from running Alma and being part of Atomico’s programme. This year, she added to this list working as a Venture Partner at Speedinvest, focusing on female founders. Some may think there is a lot of overlap between her Angel efforts and her work as a Venture Partner, however there are some distinct differences.
First of all, the stages at which you would start investing are different. As an Angel, you would generally start investing at a company at the pre-pre-seed stage. Sometimes Angels would get involved at a Seed round but extremely rarely in a Series A round.
Secondly, as an Angel (depending on cheque size) you can’t really control the valuation and you’re a price taker rather than price setter. Venture multiples are currently at a high level on historical measures so you need to develop a strong conviction in the startups you decide to back. Additionally, due to the smaller cheque size of angel investments, you’re not looking to exercise control over, or heavily influence, the direction of the company.
On the other hand, as a Venture Partner at an early-stage fund like Speedinvest you would normally start investing at the pre-seed stage. At this stage, you start assessing in more detail the cap table and early traction of the company. In addition, as these investments are part of a particular fund and not your own personal portfolio, they need to meet certain requirements (e.g. in terms of sector, size, and return-risk profile). Investors need to have a robust valuation discipline and consider key aspects of the investment structure, such as the ticket size and ownership.
How to secure VC funding 💸
As an investor, Deepali has a strong bias for investing in female founders, especially through Alma Angels and as a Venture Partner. Here are her top tips on what it takes to create a winning pitch and secure VC funding:
- 🔨 Nail your MVP: In the context of pitching, for her, an MVP means your mission, vision and passion. You have to show all three elements in both your pitch deck and investor meetings. Combine this with an exciting market opportunity and you’re probably on to a winner. You need to leave investors feeling energised and passionate about your idea. Your passion and enthusiasm needs to be consistent at every meeting.
2. 💬 Tell a Good Story: Storytelling is an important skill but the art of a good story starts with your pitch deck. Deepali’s advice to founders is to always remember that investors see so many decks which they have to scan quickly. At this stage the goal of your pitch deck is to catch the investor’s attention and entice them to dig deeper. You can only do this by telling a good story in your deck.
At the pre-seed stage, she once heard that storytelling is like putting together a play- all the best plays have great props. It is important for founders to see their pitch deck, LOIs, MVPs, customer references and traction as props that add to their play. The more props you have the stronger your play and your pitch has a better chance of standing out.
As with all good stories, the pitch also has to be inspiring, exciting and most importantly authentic. Never try to be something other than yourself.
3. 🌟 Develop your Conviction: For every investment Deepali has made, the most common trait amongst all the successful founders has been their conviction.
When investing in Pension Bee at a $20million valuation it was barely a startup, yet the founder had a strong level of conviction around her valuation. Her pitch was clear and precise, but what stood out was her self-confidence and conviction. This was key to securing Deepali’s investment.
Unfortunately, strong conviction is not a common trait Deepali has seen amongst many female founders compared to male founders. Conviction, confidence, and consistency are key to a successful pitch and it’s something that she would encourage female founders to develop when pitching.
4. 👀 Mind Your Cap Table: The state of your cap table is a major factor for VC investment and it is often overlooked, especially by female founders. Deepali has seen too many female founders adversely affected by their cap table. Usually this is because they have given up too much too soon at the pre-seed stage either to angels or accelerators at low valuations.
As a founder, you always have to remember that VCs are looking for home runs. A clean cap table is an important consideration to ensure they can achieve the level of ownership they need to justify their investment. So, be mindful of your cap table and valuations at the pre-seed stage.
5. 👋 Master the Art of Following Up: You are going to face a lot of rejection and the most powerful tool you have against this is the ability to follow-up. Deepali once again sees this trait in the most successful founders. A recent example that she shared was a founder who had just pitched to her, and although she decided not to invest, the founder asked if they could put her on their follow-up list. She happily agreed.
When fundraising, it is important to appreciate that everything changes; startups evolve rapidly, the founders will change, and the circumstances of investors can also change. So, with this in mind, always follow up and maintain the connection with investors by keeping them up-to-date.
Dealing with Biases and Imposter Syndrome 💭
In her talk, Deepali also touched on how to deal with unconscious biases and the imposter syndrome. These are major hurdles for many female founders to overcome in their journey.
She admits that unconscious bias is something that the VC community has but it is also an issue that they are trying to tackle head on. There are lots of training and initiatives, such as Included VC.
However, Deepali is keen to ensure that founders understand that this is a marathon not a sprint. It is going to take a long time to change these biases and it will not change overnight. Male VCs often prefer to invest in individuals that appear aggressive and determined. They are unlikely to admit this, but often these traits are what many assume you need to get through the tough journey of being a founder.
Now, it doesn’t mean you cannot be successful without it — it’s just that the pattern of successful founders seems to indicate these traits have a high correlation of success. Perhaps as more female founders gain success and break the pattern, they will show that there are alternative leadership styles and methods for building successful startups. This will hopefully help to change the expectations and biases in the VC community.
Dealing with imposter syndrome is also a common issue for female founders. Deepali is quick to highlight that it is something that men also face. They, many times, have just found ways to overcome and manage it better. When fundraising, your job as the founder is to convince investors that you are the right person to execute. That you are capable of managing their funds wisely and that you are able to make the right decisions. You cannot begin to convince people if you do not believe in yourself first — that is where conviction comes into play.
Tips for aspiring Angels and VC Investors 🤯
Finally, having experience as an angel and a venture partner, Deepali also had some great insights for aspiring angel and VC investors.
She recommends joining communities and investing groups early on. Building your network and learning from others is essential to becoming a successful investor. Try to build relationships with founders, by becoming an advisor, using your expertise and knowledge to help them.
You can also try to set up a crowdfunding club, investing lower amounts, but do it with a diverse set of Angel-wannabes to learn from. This way you can create an environment where you can learn from others and leverage their expertise. It is a great option, particularly, if you’re interested in products.
Don’t forget that as an investor you have to develop the skill of picking strong founders and huge opportunities. You can only learn this skill by getting out there and learning from others. Read a lot, listen to founders stories, and attend demo days.
