As part of angel investing, I get to meet many interesting entrepreneurs. My general investment mantra is that I need to understand the line of work, I need to have some sort of experience in it and the founders that I’m investing in offer talent which is miles ahead of our own team, of course.
If they have shown the ability to execute that business before and failed for whatever circumstances, that’s even better. I try to help them avoid the circumstances and let them execute the business again. I have had some sort of success with this strategy so far and I have been able to meet my investment goals with it.
In addition, one important quality that all founders should have is integrity. Lack of integrity, even if only outside the work, is a stage set for disaster. As a general rule, I would avoid investment in a team with lack of integrity even if they fit all other investing criteria making integrity a more attractive attribute over intellect.