MAURI ROSENTHAL ‒ NYA MEMBER SPOTLIGHT
Mauri Rosenthal joined New York Angels in 2019 and brings an incredible level of passion and experience to the organization. Prior to NYA, Mauri spent 15 years in business planning and development in specialty medical devices and 15 years in pharmaceuticals at Pfizer. As an angel investor, he leverages these experiences to bring a focus on innovation and the customer. Mauri shares his advice on why it’s important to celebrate closings, how founders appreciate NYA’s efficient process, and why founders need a strong part-time CFO.
How did you meet New York Angels, and why did you decide to join?
I started angel investing in 2018 with another group in New York. Over time, I noticed that many of the most engaged and insightful people were also members of New York Angels. I connected well with NYA members, and they invited me to attend a few NYA meetings. It was clear to me that New York Angels brought a high level of competence, professionalism, and experience to angel investing. The strong deal flow and capability of its members were very attractive, and I believed I could both learn from and contribute to the group.
Part of NYA’s strength lies in managing the membership process to ensure that people joining already have a strong grasp of early stage investing dynamics. From my own perspective I also took some time to weigh whether I wanted to take on the additional intensity and time commitment for NYA. After working on deals with several NYA colleagues I officially joined New York Angels in mid-2019. I’ve both benefited and enjoyed being an NYA Member over the past five years.
What has been your most memorable experience as a New York Angel?
Exits are always memorable because they are very rare, and they tend to be good moments, but I think it’s also important to celebrate the smaller milestones along the way, like FDA approvals, press releases, or revenue milestones, e.g., when a company reaches $1 million in sales. These milestones show real progress, and they’re exciting. I enjoy sharing those moments with my colleagues.
Additionally, I often lead deals, which can involve weeks or months of diligence. I like to celebrate the closings on the day we finalize the signing and wiring. Closing is the culmination of a sometimes lengthy process where we have a group of angel investors, who have each come to their individual conclusions that they like the company’s story. I most commonly invest in medical device companies, and with those, it is an incredible feeling that we are going to be part of their story contributing to products that will culminate with improved lives of patients, career satisfaction for the venture team, and a nice financial return for ourselves.
What do you look for when you are investing in a company?
I tend to invest in medical devices and healthcare innovation because of my career experiences, but more importantly, these industries have an important impact on people's lives. Medical devices and healthcare ventures often need to navigate a ladder of risks: technical, clinical, regulatory, and market development. We evaluate where they are in that ladder and whether the team has the capability to progress. A company’s valuation also has to match where they stand on that ladder. I’ve also learned as an angel – the hard way – to be alert for signs of dissonance between Founders and their Boards. There are so many other risks which need to be managed, leadership dysfunction does not need to be an additional issue for the business.
I am particularly drawn to companies that have great answers to questions about: “What is the invention here? Why are we seeing it now?” Exceptional answers often highlight how new enabling technologies – such as machine learning or advanced materials science – are being applied to longstanding challenges. My focus is largely on assessing the feasibility of these innovations, informed by my experience in evaluating what should be relatively simple or more challenging to achieve. There’s a sweet spot for “easy enough to get across the goal line” and “difficult enough to create extraordinary value” plus defensibility. While this evaluation is inherently subjective, our due diligence process with knowledgeable NYA Members can help shift the odds in our favor.
What do founders appreciate most about working with you?
I bring a lot of process skills from my previous career in strategic planning in a major publicly traded company. I try to ensure that we are efficient and respectful of a founder’s time. Founders have often told me that New York Angels are some of the easiest investment groups to deal with. I think founders have been sincere when they have thanked us for running our process with more efficiency, transparency, insight, and overall professionalism than other groups they have encountered. In many cases, even when NYA Members decide not to invest, we provide feedback in a clear and helpful way for the venture.
What differentiates companies that you see at Screening versus those who make it through to Due Diligence?
If a medical venture is invited to Screening we expect the pitch to inform what progress they have made resolving the ladder of risks – technical, clinical, regulatory, market development – and show that their valuation is consistent with this progress. We are all aware the horrors and societal costs of Alzheimer’s, the opioid crisis, teen suicide, obesity, heart disease, cancer and other well characterized areas of unmet medical need. We look for companies that not only seek to address unmet medical needs but also have the capability to execute their plans. They need to convince us that they can deliver something new and impactful within the constraints of the capital available, usually around $20 million or less. If the value proposition is clear, the team appears to be well equipped to deliver, and the valuation matches their development status we’ll want to take a closer look in Discovery.
What advice would you give founders who are starting to fundraise?
One key piece of advice is to bring in a strong financial manager early on. A part-time CFO can be crucial for an early-stage venture. Startups don’t need full time Finance managers, but they do need access to people who are fluent in the steps of running a pre-Seed or Seed type of funding round. Founders, especially technical ones, might not have the best grasp of cap table math or the fundraising process.
NYA Members have walked away from technology that we liked because of a lack of confidence in the venture’s ability to triangulate between previous investors, our present round, and the next round of funding. When we participate in a Note or a SAFE, we are of course interested in the cost of the equity we’ll be holding after conversion.
Teaming up with someone who understands the financials and can respond well to investor questions is critical. Many solid corporate finance folks are not efficient or accurate in dealing with seed level issues, so it is important to look for the right type of support. A strong angel group like NYA often can help founders network to find the right people.
When you look at your past investments, what do you think is most critical for founders to be able to deliver a successful exit?
Successful companies progress through the ladder of risks – technical, clinical, regulatory, and commercialization – in a linear way. They meet the milestones they set during their pitch and due diligence. Consistency in executing the plan is key. Companies that have recaps or pivots can still succeed, but the ones that deliver the most predictable progress tend to have the best exits.
While I love the energy and creativity of young, first-time entrepreneurs, they need to be paired with people who have experience. The team needs to have someone who knows how to navigate the complexities of product development, regulatory approval, and commercialization. That balance between youthful creativity and seasoned experience is critical to success. My most successful exits have come from the teams that had the strongest collections of “we’ve done this before” players.
Any final thoughts or advice for potential angel investors?
Understanding the technical risks and operational challenges that ventures face is key. Angel investing is hard work, but when it works, it’s incredibly rewarding.
