December 2023 - a year in Review

Hey there

It’s been an amazing year for us at Manchester Angels; we’ve grown our membership, we’ve matured our processes but far more importantly - we’ve done some deals (more on that later!).

What's inside

• A year of deals

• Deal champions

• Membership news

• Next Dinner

• Network chair

• Portfolio

• Useful Links

We established Manchester Angels with a single vision; to invest in early-stage businesses in the region.

I’m delighted that in the last year we’ve invested in 7 deals with £165k across 10 angels as our single biggest ticket into HACE.

Actual deal numbers as follows:

• Submitted 161.

• Rejected 114 (for being out of geography, lifesciences, questions on scalability, too early etc).

• Pitched 25.

• Invested 7.

Whilst we’re extremely proud of this progress and the impact we are having on the eco-system, we’re not resting on our laurels.

Recently, our angel steering board of Jenny Parker, Chris Cheney, Richard Fallon and myself were joined by special guest star Tony Bolland to discuss and tighten up our requirements to ensure that we had the appropriate thesis in place and that we could articulate that on the website so that startups know what those are when applying.

We have two set of requirements: our front door requirements for cold submissions on the website (see first FAQ here) and back door requirements for any warm deals one of our member angels wishes to bring to the group; in effect we’ll look at most things tech even out of region and B2C.

So feel free to refer any companies you meet to our website - but if there’s an opportunity you’re looking at yourself please just speak directly to me!

We’ve welcomed 11 new angels over the past 12 months (to a total of 42) and only one decided not to renew. Particularly thrilled to welcome angels who have joined very recently:

• Kevin Flood

• Suzanne Oliver

• Jeremy Gidlow

• Mike Wardell

• Mark Dearden

All bring their own set of experiences, investment theses and skillsets to the group; particularly pleased that Mark Dearden is highly-experienced in life sciences which is an area that has been closed to us due to the lack of knowledge amongst the group.

One of the highlights of being involved Manchester Angels is our quarterly dinner with great pitches, great (and robust!) discussion and some incredible food and wine.

We’re tentatively scheduling January 24th 2024 for our next dinner at Tattu restaurant in Manchester. Please keep an eye out for calendar invites.

Since our inception Simon Wilkinson has been our chair and has led the group from a small core of angels to the 42 members we have today. Due to other commitments, Simon has indicated his desire to step down.

I’d like to express my personal thanks to Simon for his support, advice and guidance as we setup this network and look forward to his continued sage wisdom as an ordinary, garden-variety member of Manchester Angels.

We’re now looking for expressions of interest in being the new Manchester Angels Chair. The role of the chair is to:

• Ensure the smooth running of the organisation from an executive perspective.

• Chair virtual pitch calls and dinner pitch conversations.

• Set goals and hold resources accountable.

If you are interested and wish to discuss what the role entails please email or call me 07875538735.

We have a number of links worth bookmarking or referring to from this email including:

🌐 Website

❓ New angel FAQ section

💰 Deal flow

📅 Event Calendar

🖇️ LinkedIn Group

If you or one of your portfolio businesses are planning a tech event please check out www.manchestertechevents.com.