Angel Insights Blog

By: Marianne Hudson, ACA Executive Director

You have probably heard by now that ACA is moving forward with our initiative to be the premier source of angel investment data.  Our first step was releasing the inaugural Angel Funders Report with data from 26 angel groups and 432 investment rounds in 2017, and we will be releasing new reports soon that will eventually improve our member groups’ investments.  So, why is data important to early-stage investing and why should your group join the ACA’s data initiative?  There are so many reasons!  Data insights provide the knowledge to make smarter decisions giving you and your angel group a step up when making portfolio assessments and increasing your chance for success.  Read on for some of our top reasons why joining the ACA data analytics initiative and the Angel Funders Report can make everyone better angel investors:

1. You will have the ability to collect traits on start-up investments that are more prevalent in successful start-ups and use this information when making decisions about your own portfolio
2. Better understand investing trends by geography i.e. industries, investing instruments, valuations, etc.
3. Learn differences and similarities on angel investing trends and data over a long-term basis i.e. years
4. Review the key metrics/volumes of follow-on investing versus initial seed-stage investing and companies that receive no follow-on investing
5. Assess the key metrics/volumes of start-up funding receiving VC funding versus start-ups not receiving VC funding
6. Discover and understand key attributes of deal structures i.e. valuations, funding amounts, investing instruments, etc.
7. Determine characteristics/attributes of entrepreneurs that can assist investors to determine more successful outcomes, i.e. first-time CEO versus experienced CEO, gender, etc.
8. Recognize attributes of syndication of deals versus those that are not syndicated
9. Understand industry verticals/sectors and the importance of diversification in successful angel investing
10. Create data to utilize to support comments that early-stage investing can be profitable to angel investors
11. Use real-time data to assist angel organizations to recruit new members and retain existing members
12. Make the value proposition for angel organizations more compelling with access to this data and platform
13. Have the ability to do “what-if” analysis based on assimilating different data elements available
14. Understand attributes of initial rounds, versus A rounds, versus B rounds of investing
15. Identify the importance of angel Board involvement toward the notion of successful outcomes for start-ups
16. Embed actual data on investing and outcomes into education opportunities for angel groups to their members
17. Ability to interact with your data within the database for search and comparative purposes
18. You retain your privacy - data is not shared with third party organizations unless you ask for that service.

We can go on and on!  As you can see, there are so many benefits you receive by participating in the ACA Data Initiative and Angel Funders Report.  Signing up is easy, simply complete the sign-up form and we will provide you with next steps to input your data on the Hockeystick platform (check out this instructional video on how to easily upload your data).  If you are an active angel investor, you don’t want to miss this opportunity to access robust data which will provide you with greater insight into the factors that impact your returns.