The way Huang sees it, angel investors should be more like “cheerleaders”. She recalls how she and seven other angel investors helped a demoralised start-up founder get back on his feet after his start-up failed. “All eight of us were trying our best to make sure the founder didn’t feel so depressed,” she says. “You have to sing the same tune.”
SINGAPORE (Apr 29): Entrepreneurs motivated by what they see as the next big thing are not the only driving force of a thriving start-up ecosystem. It is the growing ranks of angel investors, in giving start-ups early financial support, who help complete the virtuous circle.
Just as not all start-ups come with exceptional nor sustainable business ideas, angel investors come in different stripes and creeds. Some, instead of helping, are a hindrance with their dominance; others, instead of being “angels”, are better described as “angels of hell”. Instead of helping to take the start-ups to the next level, these “angels” take them to court. “You invest $50,000 to $100,000 in a start-up, but you spend $60,000 on legal fees. The logic is not right,” Huang Shao-Ning, “chief angel” and partner at AngelCentral, tells The Edge Singapore.
