MICHELE EVANS ‒ NYA MEMBER SPOTLIGHT
Michele Evans joined New York Angels in 2022, and she has been one of the most active new members in NYA meetings. As the founder & CEO of NxtWaves, Michele focuses on helping accomplished professionals figure out their next phase of their life and work. Michele has developed a reputation for being a world class coach to hundreds of high performing executives and professionals. Michele developed the NxtWaves Your Life Intentionally Mastermind program for current or former executives, to design their work and life with intentionality.
Prior to NxtWaves, Michele was Meta (Facebook) Head of Human Resources for the Global Sales Group. She also spent 16 years at Microsoft where she held a variety of HR Leadership roles in Online Advertising, Sales and Marketing, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Executive Compensation. Under her leadership at both Meta and Microsoft, she led teams focused on organizational growth and effectiveness, compensation, DEI, M&A and People Analytics/Program Management. In these roles, Michele was instrumental in growing high performing organizations and teams as an expert in scaling high growth organizations.
How did you meet New York Angels? Why did you choose NYA?
I knew I wanted to focus on my business when I left Meta, but I also wanted to ensure I kept close to the business environment and trends. In my past roles at Meta and Microsoft, especially in Online Advertising, I loved that I had an umbrella view of what was happening in business. Leaving the corporate world, I worried that I might lose my edge when it came to business acumen, and I wanted to stay sharp and keep learning.
During my exploration, I met someone involved in angel investing. It sounded interesting, and I definitely wanted to learn more. I did a search on “New York Angel Investing,” and New York Angels appeared as one of the top results. After a little research, it was clear that New York Angels was the best angel investment group to join, so I applied on their website.
Shortly after, New York Angels invited me to attend a few hours of early stage company pitches. I was hooked. The companies and founders were fascinating. I found myself rooting for the companies, but I was also interested in the questions that NYA members were asking. I thought I could learn a lot from these people. I continued the application process, including interviewing and shadowing another forum session. Now with several months of membership, I am very grateful to be able to join New York Angels.
What have you learned as a relatively new member to NYA and angel investing?
1) Join a group of investors. In angel investing, joining a group has tremendous benefits versus individual investing. I cannot imagine investing on your own, especially if you are new to early-stage investing because a lot of the startups that pitch to investors have a technical aspect to their business. If you are in a group like NYA, someone in the room is going to understand that specific aspect. Someone will be able to say, “I've actually seen this 10 times, and it unfortunately doesn't work,” or they might say, “This is a real gap in the market, and I think that this company is onto something.” With a group of 100+ active members with diverse backgrounds, you have confidence when you make an investment.
2) Support your founders. Especially after coming from corporate America, the tone that New York Angels members have with founders is powerful. NYA members are cheering for their founders; they are kind; and they are supportive. I really enjoy this way of working. It was probably one of the most immediate things that struck me when I joined the organization. NYA members mean it when they say they joined NYA to mentor and support companies. NYA members have a deep belief in founders and early-stage companies that is really impressive.
3) Don’t hesitate to contribute. NYA members frequently discuss what makes a great founder. This was an area where I felt like I could contribute because I have years of experience in executive talent assessment. While I've hired hundreds of executives over the years, I did not have the same level of experience with entrepreneurs, but I frequently found there's a high level of overlap in talent assessment between the two, e.g., seeing around corners, being a magnet for good talent, learner mindset, proven track record.
Why did you choose to go into angel investing?
1) Learning. I wanted to learn and be on a learning curve. I wanted to exercise my brain. I'm not the sort of person to go back to school, as I was never a huge classroom learner. I learn by doing. I learn by life experience. I learn through others. Angel investing is like earning a Masters in early-stage investing. In every New York Angels meeting, I am learning new terms and acronyms. I am learning investment strategies across a variety of industries, and I am learning patterns.
2) Community. During the pandemic people left New York City, and I found my social circle was shrinking somewhat. I really enjoy sitting around talking about business, which a lot of people prefer spending their time discussing other things. I wanted to meet people who are interested in business and live in New York.
3) Mentorship. I feel like I may be early, but I am getting close to the point where I’m ready to invest and mentor a company that I am excited about. It sounds very interesting to me to be able to support an early-stage founder or leadership team through both investment and mentorship.
What advice would you give to someone new to angel investing?
The advice that I received when I started angel investing was good, so I want to repeat the same advice I received:
First of all, listen to the advice.
Secondly, don't fall in love with a company too early. You know that you're too new, and you also know that you don't know what you don't know. I gave myself six months to learn prior to investing, and there were a couple of times that I was tempted to invest before that timing. There was one company that everybody was excited about and they all invested, but I held firm since I had not yet fulfilled my six-month learning period.
Attend and participate as frequently as possible. I have been attending Discovery and Due Diligence meetings for industries that I know nothing about, e.g., med tech companies. I join these meetings to listen. What kind of questions are NYA members asking? How are the founders responding to these questions? I always look for patterns. For example, I have started to realize the cost of marketing is one red flag that some NYA members have, but to get to that point where I recognized that pattern, I had to see many different companies and many angels react to the issue.
Share your expertise. Don’t be shy about sharing your strengths and expertise. From the moment I started angel investing, I have been very clear there's a lot I do not know, but there is a lot I do know about talent assessment. I quickly learned this is an area where I had something to contribute to the NYA, whereas I could have easily shied away from sharing that for a long time. I started carefully paying attention to the founders. I found that my assessments of the founders were similar to those from tenured NYA members, who have tons of experience in angel investing, and they valued my perspectives on the founders.
What advice would you give founders who are starting to fundraise?
Now that I'm involved in New York Angels, people on LinkedIn are frequently asking me if they can pitch their company to me. I direct them to the New York Angels website. There is a ton of information on the website, including guidance on developing the pitch deck. I advise all applicants to start with our website.
Founders also need to determine whether they really need to fundraise or not. Often founders should not fundraise because they prefer to have a lifestyle business. They want to be able to live the life they want to live by bringing in a good salary and being independent. On the other hand, founders who are applying for early-stage investment need to show a path that will lead to a viable exit. Founders need to understand the differences between early-stage investing and lifestyle businesses. Sometimes there may be societal pressures to build a company or to have an exit, but maybe that’s not what the founder actually wants.
One other common situation that I’ve seen is where a company comes in and there is something about their business that everyone in the room is scratching their head thinking, “What about this?” But the founder doesn't address it during the pitch. During Q&A, hands go up, and everyone has the same question. Then, the founder says, “I knew you were going to ask that, and here’s my answer…” The founder should have been upfront and put it in their deck. Don’t wait because investors begin to wonder: what else are you not telling me? Every company has a competitor; every company has headwinds, especially if you are early-stage; and nobody expects you to be perfect. Address those issues and your risk mitigation plan early to build a good relationship with your investors.
If someone is interested in angel investing, how do you recommend they get started?
There's a lot of people out there right now who have been impacted by layoffs, especially in the tech industry. There are a lot of people trying to figure out what to do next. If you’re interested in angel investing, go through the NYA process. Reach out to me, and I’m happy to add your name to shadow one of the New York Angels meetings. Angel investing is interesting work because you are exposed to a live view of what is happening in real-time in business and the companies that are leading the newest innovations. It is a very interesting way to keep your brain active, have fun, and maybe make some money (eventually). It does take time to make money, so you have to go into early-stage investing for other reasons. I would encourage people to consider angel investing and consider New York Angels because it's a truly rewarding experience.
