RICHARD REISMAN ‒ NYA MEMBER SPOTLIGHT
Since joining New York Angels in 2017, Richard Reisman has been a key member and deal lead on several investments by bringing in his expertise on innovative revenue models. Richard is also the President and founder of Teleshuttle Corporation, and has managed and consulted for businesses of all sizes, developed pioneering online services, and holds over 50 media-tech patents licensed by over 200 companies to serve billions of users.
How did you meet New York Angels? Why did you choose NYA?
I was on the Board of the MIT Enterprise Forum for 17 years, which introduced me to the startup ecosystem in New York. Mark Schneider, who is now the Chairman of New York Angels, had been an observer on our board. I met Mark and learned about NYA. After attending two meetings, I joined New York Angels. I was attracted to the collegiality and collective intelligence of the group. I found the investment and domain expertise among the members to be unparalleled. The many members have diverse perspectives, experience and knowledge. NYA held a high level of professional discipline in the investment process including deal structure expertise and providing legal support in deals. Overall, the chemistry of NYA members was very good ̶ a combination of enthusiasm, tempered by realism and experience.
What has been your most memorable experience as a New York Angel?
There are two types of experiences that have stood out to me over the years: 1) Deal Lead: I led several deals when they were related to my personal interests, such as the work I have been doing on innovative revenue models. I enjoyed working closely with both members and founders, and it was fun to bring together a group of brilliant people who shared similar interests with me. 2) Company Exit: I have had one good exit, where I experienced a 4x return in only 13 months. It was a healthcare deal, which is not my expertise, but it seemed promising. I joined the deal because of the confidence of the other NYA members, who had healthcare expertise and had studied the deal closely.
What do you look for when you are investing in a company?
I want to be excited by the opportunity combined with a number of other factors: personal interest, an interesting concept in an important market, the founder and team, the product, the business plan and the deal terms. The founder and team need to be coachable. I consider whether the product has growth, leverage and defensibility. The business plan, especially product market-fit, is there a serious go-to-market plan, addressing risk and demonstrating capital efficiency in reaching revenue and milestones. There ultimately needs to be an upside to investing in the company. I had read an article by Geoffrey Moore about quantum risks in investing. Moore broke it down into product, risk, market, team, financing, system and execution risk, and each tends to go with the stage of the company. As an investor, you consider which of those factors have already been derisked, and which ones continue to have risk, to decide whether it’s a company in which you want to invest.
What do founders like most about working with you?
I have open and clear communication about how New York Angels processes work, what we expect, and what we do and do not like. If we do not decide to go with a deal, I share the reasoning and provide clear feedback. While none of the deals that I have led have gone to investment, I have maintained relationships with founders because we developed a good rapport and we both learned a lot from the process.
What differentiates companies that you see at Screening versus those who make it through Investment?
The details vary between companies successfully moving onto Due Diligence, but the general trend is that it is a weeding out process. The ones who make it are generally much stronger in the key components of the founder, product, planning and traction. In terms of the founder, it’s a combination of being savvy, having grit and a good mix of pragmatism plus vision. They also need to understand how to sell both to customers and investors.
What advice would you give founders who are starting to fundraise?
Founders need to understand fundraising. There are two books that are quite good to understand the perspectives of both founders and investors during the process. Angel Investing and What Every Angel Investor Wants You to Know are good compliments to each other. Other networking groups are very useful to see other founders pitching deals and meet VCs and learn what they are looking for when investing in companies. Betaworks, Grand Central Tech, Data Driven all have great events throughout the year, and there are many other groups depending on the founder/s industry and other needs.
When you look at your past investments, what do you think is most critical for founders to be able to deliver a successful exit?
Founders need to be driven by vision. They also need to be pragmatic, adaptable and coachable, so they can sense when to push through the difficulties and stick with their vision and when to pivot. Great founders also demonstrate capital efficiency: they are good at using their capital wisely and can raise more if and when more is needed.
