Peter Cowley About Angel Investing, Operating Companies And Exits

In this episode, meet Peter Cowley - serial entrepreneur and angel investor, board member of the Global Business Angel Network (GBAN) and President Emeritus of the European Business Angel Network (EBAN) - as he walks us through the lessons he learned while founding and running 14 businesses in technology, property and publishing, over the last 40+ years, and while building a portfolio of 76 angel investments over the last decade - 11 positive exits (one of which at 107X, paying back all invested cash), 14 failures, 51 still living.
Peter explains his investment criteria (The Team and the CAC CLV Ratio, The Product and The Finances) and talks about the importance of trust and chemistry not only between investors, but also between investors and the investees. He also describes what a good relationship between founders looks like and points out the reasons why investors leave.
In addition, Peter gives us his honest point of view about the advantages and disadvantages of university spin-outs, the implications of not having enough financial knowledge as an entrepreneur or about his energy and drive resources, that help him push his limits and do so many things in life.
“I really enjoy learning. And particularly, I enjoy spending time with people of all sorts of age or younger. The Millennials, I just absorb so much from them”, Peter says.
Listen to this episode to learn more about:
🌐 How did he get to his investment criteria and why are they so important for him? (04:45)
🌐 The second criterion - The Product (10:15)
🌐 The third criterion - The Finances (14:00)
🌐 Reasons for failure that he discovered through his portfolio (20:00)
🌐 Why do investors give up founding a team (26:15)
🌐 His favorite company or investment (29:00)
🌐 What makes for him a good relationship between founders? (32:00)
🌐 The main differences between university spin-outs and non-university spin-outs (34:30)
🌐 How does one become better at business? (41:30)
🌐 Peter as a book author (48:30)
🌐 Where does he take the energy and drive to push his limits and do so many things? (57:00)
Follow Peter Cowley on his:
🌐 Website - https://www.petercowley.org
🌐 LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/plcowley
🌐 Twitter - https://bit.ly/3vNF0kR
You are invited to read Peter Cowley’s:
🌐 A letter to my 29 year old self - https://www.petercowley.org/a-letter-to-my-29-year-old-self
🌐 The Invested Investor: The New Rules For Start-ups, Scale-ups and Angel Investing - https://www.investedinvestor.com/book
🌐 Founder to Founder: Tips and Tales From 100 Entrepreneurs and Investors - https://www.investedinvestor.com/founder-to-founder
Listen to this podcast episode on your favorite podcasting platform and SUBSCRIBE (https://open.spotify.com/show/4S3WUWw5Z7LsYM5Uyit5RH?si=2638c1326c534e4f) in order not to miss any new one!

In this episode, meet Peter Cowley - serial entrepreneur and angel investor, board member of the Global Business Angel Network (GBAN) and President Emeritus of the European Business Angel Network (EBAN) - as he walks us through the lessons he learned while founding and running 14 businesses in technology, property and publishing, over the last 40+ years, and while building a portfolio of 76 angel investments over the last decade - 11 positive exits (one of which at 107X, paying back all invested cash), 14 failures, 51 still living.

Peter explains his investment criteria (The Team and the CAC CLV Ratio, The Product and The Finances) and talks about the importance of trust and chemistry not only between investors, but also between investors and the investees. He also describes what a good relationship between founders looks like and points out the reasons why investors leave.

In addition, Peter gives us his honest point of view about the advantages and disadvantages of university spin-outs, the implications of not having enough financial knowledge as an entrepreneur or about his energy and drive resources, that help him push his limits and do so many things in life.

“I really enjoy learning. And particularly, I enjoy spending time with people of all sorts of age or younger. The Millennials, I just absorb so much from them”, Peter says.

Listen to this episode to learn more about:

🌐 How did he get to his investment criteria and why are they so important for him? (04:45)

🌐 The second criterion - The Product (10:15)

🌐 The third criterion - The Finances (14:00)

🌐 Reasons for failure that he discovered through his portfolio (20:00)

🌐 Why do investors give up founding a team (26:15)

🌐 His favorite company or investment (29:00)

🌐 What makes for him a good relationship between founders? (32:00)

🌐 The main differences between university spin-outs and non-university spin-outs (34:30)

🌐 How does one become better at business? (41:30)

🌐 Peter as a book author (48:30)

🌐 Where does he take the energy and drive to push his limits and do so many things? (57:00)

Follow Peter Cowley on his:

🌐 Website - https://www.petercowley.org

🌐 LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/plcowley

🌐 Twitter - https://bit.ly/3vNF0kR

You are invited to read Peter Cowley’s:

🌐 A letter to my 29 year old self - https://www.petercowley.org/a-letter-to-my-29-year-old-self

🌐 The Invested Investor: The New Rules For Start-ups, Scale-ups and Angel Investing - https://www.investedinvestor.com/book

🌐 Founder to Founder: Tips and Tales From 100 Entrepreneurs and Investors - https://www.investedinvestor.com/founder-to-founder

Listen to this podcast episode on your favorite podcasting platform and SUBSCRIBE in order not to miss any new one!