WBAF 2019 – World Congress of Angel Investors will host 6 excellent workshops for angel investors and startups. These workshops are free of charge if you are attending WBAF 2019. They will be run by 6 globally-renowned names in the early-stage equity markets. Callum Laing from Singapore, Ian Sosso from Monaco, Patrick Kedziora from the United States, Michael O’Connor from Ireland, Wayne Clark from the UK, and Marcel Dridje from France will share their experiences and valuable insights in interactive sessions where specific issues will treated in depth.
It is the position of the WBAF Academy that when investors have had the advantage of training in the best practices of negotiating deals for early-stage investment, they are in a better position to ensure good returns on their investment. The same is true for startups and scaleups.
The WBAF Academy serves not just business angels; all types of stakeholders are welcome, from entrepreneurs and SMEs to banks and stock exchanges to incubation and acceleration centres. The ultimate goal is to contribute to the development of skills and expertise and to foster the kind of creative thinking that leads to innovation and eventually success in the ever-changing market environment of the 21st century.
With this in mind, as an affiliated partner of the G20 Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI), the World Business Angels Investment Forum offers a wide variety of training programmes using a range of input (case studies, panel discussions, and presentations, to name a few), all of which encourage active participation and interaction on the part of those attending.
WBAF administers the world’s only proficiency test for angel investors after an intensive executive programme for investors (QBAC+). The next session of the QBAC+ will be in Istanbul on 20–22 February, immediately after the World Congress of Angel Investors 2019. If you are planning to attend WBAF 2019, consider adding the QBAC+ course to your itinerary; the venue is, conveniently, the same as for the Congress – Swissotel The Bosphorus. Click here to learn more about the course:
Please note that WBAF 2019 will host 6 excellent workshops for angel investors and startups. These workshops are free of charge if you are attending WBAF 2019. They will be run by 6 globally-renowned names in the early-stage equity markets. Callum Laing from Singapore, Ian Sosso from Monaco, Patrick Kedziora from the United States, Michael O’Connor from Ireland, Wayne Clark from the UK, and Marcel Dridje from France will share their experiences and valuable insights in interactive sessions where specific issues will treated in depth.
Here you can to review the topics and a summary of each workshop:
WBAF Workshop 1
Making big returns investing in small businesses: An entrepreneurial approach to investing
by Callum Laing, partner in Unity Group Private Equity
Investors complain there are not enough good deals. Entrepreneurs complain that there is not enough money. The current investment structures are keeping the two parties apart.
50% of the Worlds GDP comes from small to medium enterprises, yet most of it is off limits to sophisticated investors. Learn how adopting an entrepreneurial approach with a fixation on liquidity can allow all investors to make big returns investing in small business.
WBAF Workshop 2
Combining the best of angel investing and venture capital
by Ian Sosso, Founder of Monte Carlo Capital, EBAN Board Member
According to the latest EBAN figures, the average investment for an angel investor in a single business in 2017 was EUR 25,000, and EUR 182,000 for an angel network. At the same time, venture capital investment starts with significantly larger numbers. Businesses looking to raise $500K to $2M often struggle. It’s the valley of death.
Ian explains how, by leading investment rounds from $500K to $2M, and increasingly leading follow-ons, whilst bringing a global ecosystem of advisors and relationships usually available only at large VCs, an angel investor can combine the best of what angel investors and venture capital can offer.
WBAF Workshop 3
Growth and excellence from startup to scaleup to exit: How to maximise your people investments on your entrepreneurial journey
by Wayne Clarke, Founding Partner, The Global Growth Institute, UK
There’s a lot of information (and misinformation) about world-class people engagement, from governments to tech start-ups, leaders talk about the operational and strategic advantages for companies who seek to better engage their people. The benefits, from improvements in productivity to quality to safety to profitability are clear. How to achieve these benefits is also clear. However, we know that many organisations struggle to realise and sustain these benefits.
We know that the quality of management and leadership is the key ‘input’ to achieve these ‘outputs’, as is a sustained and rigorous focus on positively impacting the ‘experience’ of being at work, day to day, for our people. None of the factors that propel companies to the top of ‘best employer’ lists are rocket science. It’s always the culmination of small practical changes in the way that leaders, managers and everyone interacts with each other, it’s the result of people ‘feeling’ more cared for, valued, listened to etc., and it’s the result of the key functions of the business that enable every team to be at their best.
In this workshop, Wayne will look at three key areas: what startups and scaleups are getting right, what managers are getting right and what we need to get right, as leaders and investors, to realise these important operational and strategic benefits for our organisations.
WBAF Workshop 4
How to steal like Steve Jobs – Learn to create the next unicorn – Learn how to think like a great artist, inventor, creator and innovator.
by Patrick Kedziora, WBAF High Commissioner – France
This workshop will show you how the great artists, scientists, musicians, movie makers, innovators and business creators all have one thing in common – THEY STEAL! You’ll learn how others create, how to develop your own creative mindset, how to learn from others and how to create like the best. You’ll learn the tools you need to start thinking like Picasso and Steve Jobs. Creating and innovating isn’t just for geniuses – it’s something that can be learned. And, once you’ve learned how to ‘Steal like Steve Jobs’, you’ll be on your way to creating something spectacular. Even if you don’t create the next unicorn, you’ll learn how to come up with winning products, services and designs that give you a competitive edge.
Whether you’re an investor, a corporate innovator or an entrepreneur, this master-class will teach you something that you can use every day.
WBAF Workshop 5
7 steps to scale your start-up. How to invest early and add value to smart teams to get great returns
by Michael O’Connor, CEO CorkBIC, Ireland, EBAN Board Member and founder of the International Security Accelerator & Fund
An interactive session for (1) Start-ups through Series A/B, (2) angel investors to evaluate and select scalability and (3) corporate partners seeking to work with and support great scale-ups
Great teams are built with a shared vision and an ability to execute it. Testing the team is the primary go/no-go decision for any investor or partner. How to do this will be explored in the workshop. There is a close linkage between the mindsets of great sporting teams and great start-up and scaling teams. Scaling is little understood and is often mixed up with the start-up process. Team selection by psychological methods and a focus on key step(s) are critical for scaling. This forces team restructuring, role definition and sometimes early failure to create pivots. Customer and channel commitment via partnerships and leveraging data will be explored alongside RoT (return on time) and lifetime gross margin by customer, channel, product and R&D phases. Investors can, by early application of these techniques, identify great investments via funds, accelerators and business angel syndicates. Corporations can, through partnering and proof of concept or pilot funding, get a first look at new technology or disruptive products or processes.
WBAF Workshop 6
Converting yourself to an angel investor: What should you know to be a qualified angel investor
by Marcel Dridje, President Sophia Business Angels France, EBAN Board Member
For anyone new to angel investing, this is an invaluable workshop that covers the most important topics of investing as an angel and tips on how to avoid the many pitfalls new angel investors often encounter. Marcel Dridje will outline of basic milestones of becoming a qualified angel investor. In this workshop, you will have an idea of what skills you should develop to be a startup-friendly angel investor.
This workshop is for corporate executives that manage innovation and corporate ventures, early-stage capital fund managers, M&A and business development executives, family office investment managers, entrepreneurs who are raising capital or planning exit strategies, successful entrepreneurs interested in becoming an investor or advisor, members of boards of directors, policymakers wishing to encourage the creation of clusters of innovation in their region, and service providers: attorneys, accountants, and consultants.
Full Programme is available here:
www.wbaf2019.istanbul
