10 Due Diligence and Do Diligence

Several months ago I met with a group of younger angel investors, and I explained how I try to confirm some of the things in the pitches I hear. They looked at me with amazement and said, “Oh, you’re one of the old-style angels.”

Frankly, I couldn’t believe my ears. “What do you mean?”

“Oh, we roll in a new way,” they said. “We think due diligence is a waste of time. We’re good judges of these things. If we like the idea and like the team, we give them money.”

Since then I’ve met many angels who share this point of view. Why bother verifying a lot of stuff on résumés or who owns what intellectual property, when the real issue is the idea and the intelligence of the team, details that can be validated just by ...

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