Meeting recap
Iratel Ventures Breakfast Series #22
We hosted a gathering of local and global entrepreneurs, investors and active ecosystem players at Iratel Ventures Breakfast Series event last Thursday. In this session we returned to the Lean Coffee format and opened the discussions with the theme of Angel Investing.
Four topics were suggested:
- Financial and non-financial motivations of Angel investors
- Investor-startup fit
- Training and mentoring for Angel investors, not only entrepreneurs
- What factors do Angels use when assessing startups?
The topic that got the most votes was investor-startup fit. This partially covered the first topic, of motivations behind Angel investing and also touched on the assessment factors. The Angel investors who were present, did mention the important of their industry experience as well as their desire to be up to date with the latest technology and work with the younger generation. Some of the entrepreneurs raised concerns that Angels should have long-term outlooks and just because they want to work with younger generation, should not work with startups.
As usual, the issue of weakness of the legal infrastructure in our ecosystem was raised. However, many agreed that the stage at which Angel investors start working with entrepreneurs is when there isn’t much tangible assessment factors to work with and both sides should work primarily from a position of full trust and transparency. This is easier said than done.
Next event
The next event will be held on Thursday 25th January 2018. We have now moved these Breakfast Series to iLab — our innovation centre located on the 7th floor of Iratel tower.
We believe the more open the dialogue, the better it will allow innovation and bringing different disciplines including investors together. These series were started to increase the dialogue opportunities among ecosystem players and especially to bridge the gap between those who are willing to know more about Iranian startup environment and meet up with other ecosystem players. This will increase openness and transparency.
Finally, if you’d like to be added to the breakfast mailing list, please sign up or follow us on LinkedIn.
This is the twenty second in a series of posts about Iratel Ventures Events. We’d love to hear from teams with crazy (but commercial) startups. Get in touch or attend our breakfast series. Finally, don’t forget to get your IV Score to prepare for your next VC meeting.
