How to Be an Angel Investor
http://www.paulgraham.com/angelinvesting.html

When we sold our startup in 1998 I thought one day I'd do some angel investing. Seven years later I still hadn't started. I put it off because it seemed mysterious and complicated. It turns out to be easier than I expected, and also more interesting. The part I thought was hard, the mechanics of investing, really isn't. You give a startup money and they give you stock. You'll probably get either preferred stock, which means stock with extra rights like getting your money back first in a sale, or convertible debt, which means (on paper) you're lending the company money, and the debt converts to stock at the next sufficiently big funding round.

nor tactical advantages to using one or the other. The paperwork for convertible debt is simpler. But really it doesn't matter much which you use. Don't spend much time worrying about the details of deal terms, especially when you first start angel investing. That's not how you win at this game. When you hear people talking about a successful angel investor, they're not saying "He got a 4x liquidation preference." They're saying "He invested in Google."

How to Be an Angel Investor

Notes from Paul Graham on angel investing. Actually pretty interesting. The key, as he describes it, is to pick the right companies... the terms you get when investing don't matter much and can even hurt your chances of success if you're strict enough.

Interesting

A collection of high-level tips for startup investor pitches, including Guy Kawasaki's 10 slides / in 20 minutes / with 30pt font rule.

How to Pitch to a VC or Angel

I've written up the following directions to help you get there efficiently. Don't do it all in one sitting because you want your mind to digest the concepts over time. I suggest doing it over the course one week, setting aside a half an hour each day to go through this stuff.

Great walk-through of term sheets for startups

Great resource page for all founders interested in dealterms

I've written up the following directions to help you get there efficiently. Don't do it all in one sitting because you want your mind to digest the concepts over time. I suggest doing it over the course one week, setting aside a half an hour each day to go through this stuff.

Great walk-through of term sheets for startups

Great resource page for all founders interested in dealterms