The Faculty of Accountancy and Management (FAM) and Unovate Centre jointly organised a talk titled “Deciphering the investment perspective and logic of angel investors” on 16 July 2018 at Sungai Long Campus.
Prof Xiao sharing her personal experience with the participants
Invited to deliver the talk was Prof Xiao Jing, the CEO of Tusstar Incubator Centre (启迪之星创业咨询服务有限公司) in Tianjin, China. In her talk, Prof Xiao gave explanation about angel investment and how it is different from other forms such as Venture Capital (VC) and Private Equity (PE). By presenting the figure of startup financing cycle, she said, “Angel investors generally focus on seed-stage and early-stage of the business; while VC firms are more unwilling to invest in start-ups unless they show really compelling growth potential.”
She also talked about the investment criteria and explained that business is not only about the business idea or the advancement of technology, but also very much about the people behind them. “The management team is the biggest consideration for investing. An experienced and cohesive team that is geared toward supporting and implementing the vision is key to success, and something savvy angels look at closely.” She added, “Conflicts occur frequently and commonly in any team, but the most important thing is how they are able to cope with these problems.”
Moreover, she shared some case studies with the audience, with the aim of providing them a clearer picture in understanding the angel investment in a more practical way. She also analysed the success keys of the businesses and provided some guidelines on how to select a business to invest in.
“It is tough to start a business while you’re still at university. However, it is not a bad thing if you want to learn and gain some experiences,” advised Prof Xiao. According to her, doing a business can actually help students to hone their business skills, improve their understanding of how a business operates as well as how to make optimum use of the business resources.
The talk then ended with an interactive Q&A session, followed by a presentation of souvenir from FAM Head of MBA/MBA (Corporate Governance) Programme Dr Pok Wei Fong to Prof Xiao.
Dr Pok (right) presenting a token of appreciation to Prof Xiao
Prof Xiao (front row, fourth from right) with the participants
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