The accidental angel making it easier for others to angel invest
Cheryl Mack shares what makes an investment exciting to her and how she fell into angel investing.
In 2021 Cheryl Mack co-founded Aussie Angels, a platform that helps investors launch syndicates, after struggling to find a way to easily invest with others. She chatted with Capital Brief about her accidental path to angel investing and why she was inspired to make the investment process easier for others.
How did you get involved in angel investing?
Yeah, so I kind of stumbled into it, really. I never actually planned to write cheques or be the one deploying capital. Initially, my goal was to help founders find capital and to help investors connect with founders. I ran a company called StartCon, which hosted the largest startup conference in Australia. Because of that, I was well-connected with a lot of startups and investors.
Due to the success of the conference, a couple of founders approached me and said, "hey, you're really great at marketing. Would you come and do some marketing for us? We can't pay you in cash, but we can offer you equity." I thought, "Yeah, that makes sense. It's not really investing; it's just contributing time, which I've got plenty of."
Then one day, while having drinks with one of these founders, he mentioned he was trying to close his investment round. I asked, "How much do you have left to raise?" He said, "20 grand." I was surprised. I'd always thought you needed hundreds of thousands of dollars to be an angel investor. So, I thought, "If it's just 20 grand, I can do that. It'll help you get back to running the company, and it's all good."
