Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Christina Brodbeck, Silicon Valley (Part 3)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Irina: What do you look for in the people? I see you’re very young yourself.  What kind of experience do you look for in the people?

Christina: For two of the companies I’ve invested in, the founders have been very young. I think both of them were around 19. For me, there is no set age range. They just really have to be passionate about what they’re doing. Sometimes you meet founders and they have this “it” quality about them. And if I feel or sense that, there’s probably a really good chance that I’m going to invest.

Irina: So, they don’t have to have previous business experience?

Christina: It definitely helps. I think that’s one of the things you use to analyze or get a sense of is this a good founder, is this a good team? But if they have other skills, like if they’re really quick, you know, both quick intellectually; and if they’re quick to iterate and build a product; if they just seem to know what they’re doing and they’re really passionate about it, they don’t have to have a huge amount of professional experience.

Irina: What do you do with the companies you don’t invest in?

Christina: Some of them I still keep in touch with, and some of them I’ve offered, and have done user interface  reviews and helped them with their user experience because that’s my background.

Irina: Do you refer them to somebody else?

Christina: Yes. If it’s a company that I’m just not personally interested in, but I do think that they could be successful, or if I know another angel investor who might be interested in that area or is really passionate about it, then I’ll refer them.

Irina: What is your sector preference?

Christina: I like to invest in things that are fun. Fun for me is something that keeps you visually engaged or could be addictive or viral. Something that you’d like to waste or potentially spend lots of hours on. I particularly like mobile, and I really like social gaming and entertainment-focused startups.

Irina: So, you predominantly invest in online businesses? Do you invest in anything else?

Christina: I haven’t invested in anything else besides the Internet.

Irina: Do you invest in e-commerce?

Christina: I did recently invest in a company, it’s not necessarily e-commerce. It’s more related to SMS text messaging and deals, not necessarily ecommerce in the traditional sense.

Irina: Do you think about exit strategies when you invest?

Christina: When I’m going to invest in a company, I do ask myself, what are the potential exit routes for this? But those aren’t necessarily deciding factors for me on if I’m going to invest.

Irina: What is your best performing company?

Christina: They’re actually all doing really well.

Irina: Does any of them have an interesting story?

Christina: Greplin is very interesting in that they were a Y Combinator company. Daniel Gross is the founder, and I think he is 19 years old. He’s one of those people who has that “it” factor. I think what he’s doing is incredible, interesting, and definitely could be very big.

Irina: What is the focus of the company?

Christina: The company allows you to search all of your cloud-based data. It’s kind of like Google search but for your personal data.

Irina: What are the most important things angels can do to increase their chances of success?

Christina: There are several things. A lot of times, angel investors get asked to participate by the founders of the companies they invest in and one of those things is connections, a lot of times, introductions. I think angel investors can aid a lot with that.

And the second thing is whatever your area of expertise is – for instance, I do user experience (UE)  and user interface (UI), so a lot of the companies I invest in will ask me to sit down with them if they’re going to launch a new feature, and I’ll go through the UI with them and give them feedback on it.

So, I think if you’re an entrepreneur and you’re a founder and you’re looking for an angel investor, it’s definitely helpful and important and it could be a valuable asset to find investors who could also serve as advisors, in the sense that they could give you feedback on an area of the product.

This segment is part 3 in the series : Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Christina Brodbeck, Silicon Valley
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