Intro to Tech for Angel Investors (Workshop)

Investing in tech start-ups can be exciting and lucrative. If you invested $5,000 in Uber’s angel round, you would have earned $24, 827,400 at IPO.

But, most start-ups fail, and sometimes the technology investors get pitched can’t actually get built (hello Elizabeth Holmes!).

To be a smart angel investor, not only do you need a good network to get deal flow, you also need to know what questions to ask when a deal comes your way.

If you don’t have a technical background, you might be able to assess the business opportunity, but can you tell if the product can get built? How long will it take to build it? How much it will cost?

Knowing the answers will not only make you a better investor, it will also turn you into “smart money.” After all, to founders, dollars are a commodity product, knowledgeable investors are not.

In this workshop, you will learn the top mistakes angel investors without technical backgrounds make when investing in tech companies and how to avoid them.

You will learn:

• How apps, sites & algorithms get built
• Who does what on a product team
• How to translate product goals to business outcomes
• How to estimate product costs (and see if the founder’s pitch is realistic)
• Which costs founders don’t know to include in their projections (but which can cripple the company)

This session is taught by Sophia Matveeva, tech entrepreneur & Chicago Booth MBA. Sophia teaches workshops at Oxford University, London Business School and was recently lead instructor at the Blackstone x Techstars Launchpad accelerator at UTEP.

This session will be held online, via Zoom. Places are limited to 15 people to make sure you can all get individual attention.

You will get:

• A two-hour virtual workshop on Zoom
• Recording of the workshop to keep
• Checklist of product development questions to ask founders
• Summary of key concepts to keep
• Recommended reading and podcast list for angel investors

Student testimonials:

Ali Jetha, Angel Investor & Chicago Booth MBA

"As an angel investor in technology, I find Sophia’s insights and advice very useful, as well as time-saving, helping filter the relevant aspects. Thank you!"

Juan Pablo Regidor, Head of Innovation, Head Of Innovation at Soluciones Integrales Administrativas y Técnicas

"Sophia 's knowledge is outstanding and I can encourage anyone to seek out her advice."

About your instructor

Sophia Matveeva is the founder of Tech For Non-Techies, a learning community and consultancy. Sophia has contributed to the Financial Times, The Guardian and Forbes on entrepreneurship and technology, and hosts the top rated Tech for Non-Techies podcast.

She has also guest lectured at the University of Chicago, London Business School, and Oxford University, and led the Blackstone x Techstars accelerator at the University of Texas at El Paso.

As a non-technical founder, she has co-created apps and algorithms that have been used by thousands, won App of the Day by Mashable, and were featured by Inc, the BBC and more.

Sophia loves helping entrepreneurs and has advised Chicago Booth’s New Venture Challenge and Microsoft x London College of Fashion incubator.

She holds an MBA from Chicago Booth, and a BSc (Hons) in Politics from Bristol. She speaks English, Russian and French.