Have you ever considered how global investing can reshape the entrepreneurial landscape and open new doors for startups? In this episode, host Marcia Dawood explores this intriguing concept with guest Cintia Mano, a Lisbon-based former corporate strategist turned angel investor. Cintia's journey from founding a startup to supporting other entrepreneurs globally provides a rich tapestry of insights into the world of early-stage capital and mentorship. Cintia reveals how her initial foray into entrepreneurship helped her understand the critical role of angel investors. This episode dives into her pivot from a traditional career to nurturing startups through COREangels, a unique collective that pools resources and expertise across borders to make impactful investments. This episode is a must-listen for anyone intrigued by global investing and its potential to accelerate startup growth, providing valuable insights into building diversified portfolios and fostering international collaboration for maximal impact.
Have you ever considered how global investing can reshape the entrepreneurial landscape and open new doors for startups? In this episode, host Marcia Dawood explores this intriguing concept with guest Cintia Mano, a Lisbon-based former corporate strategist turned angel investor. Cintia's journey from founding a startup to supporting other entrepreneurs globally provides a rich tapestry of insights into the world of early-stage capital and mentorship.
Cintia reveals how her initial foray into entrepreneurship helped her understand the critical role of angel investors. This episode dives into her pivot from a traditional career to nurturing startups through COREangels, a unique collective that pools resources and expertise across borders to make impactful investments.
This episode is a must-listen for anyone intrigued by global investing and its potential to accelerate startup growth, providing valuable insights into building diversified portfolios and fostering international collaboration for maximal impact.
To get the latest from Cintia Mano, you can follow her below!
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/cintiamano/
- A webinar about the contribution of angels on the returns of startups: ROI (coreangels.com)
- COREangels site: www.coreangels.com
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Marcia Dawood:
Hi, Cynthia, welcome to the show.
Cintia Manos:
Hi, Marcia. Thank you. Thank you so much for having me here. Really delighted to be here in the show.
Marcia Dawood:
And you're coming to us all the way from Lisbon. And so I'm interested to hear all about your angel journey, how you became an angel investor and all about core angels. So why don't you start by telling us a little about your background?
Cintia Manos:
Sure, sure. I think that many people have a similar story like mine, like listening, talking. Sorry. Hearing about angel investing almost by accident, but in my case it was by accident, but a little later on was as a founder of a startup. So my background is I have worked in corporate for many years and then I decided to leave the corporate world. So I used to work for mining industry strategy firms, consulting firms, and I decided to leave this corporate world and to start a company. So I became a founder, a co founder of a start. And when it happened a long time ago, and I heard about the figure of angel investor and this role of angel investor, when I heard about it, it sounded like something really hard to find, because by that time, it would be someone that would have money to invest in my company, that would know about the industry I was working for, that would believe in the team we were building, and that would be available to invest this money, but not only this money and support us.
Cintia Manos:
Okay. So when I heard about this image, this archetype, I thought, this is almost like Prince Charming, impossible to find. So I thought, this is where should I find someone like this? And by that time, our startup was fundraising, but talking to VC funds. Talking to. And by that time, not only VC funds, but people were. There were so many people trying to understand what startups were and that were willing to invest in startups, but not knowing
exactly how or in which stage and what their thesis. So it was crazy. So I got this and I been through all the ups and downs of being a startup founder.
Cintia Manos:
And I started mentoring other startups and mentoring other startups through acceleration programs or through incubators mentorships. I learned that there was so many amazing ideas serving very big markets and led by great team of founders, but they were lacking capital in the very beginning. And as a founder and also talking to these founders, I learned also that they were trying to fundraise from the most prominent vehicles they knew from VC funds. This is what was all in the media, right? Started be fundraised with this VC fund and they raised tens of millions. And then those people who were in the very beginning trying to make their business and still testing validating product market, et cetera. They were looking at this and thinking, oh my God, but what should I do until I get to this stage that I have this metrics that I can make this type of revenue and then be fundraised by a big fund. And so I felt the drama of lack of capital in the early stage as a founder and as a mentor. And I decided to start, that maybe I could start contributing to the startups, not only being mentoring them, but also with capital.
Cintia Manos:
So I had some money to invest. I was investing in other types of assets, so much more conservative, but also some risky assets. And I thought, so maybe I could get some part of this risky part of my wallet, why not? This is something that makes me extremely happy. I love being a mentor. I love engaging with the founders. And so this is how I thought of becoming an angel investor. But between thinking of becoming an angel investor and actually becoming one, it took me a long time. I felt I had my own questions, my own doubts of how to do that, how to start.
Cintia Manos:
So I understand very well people who are right now, like, looking at what's happening, looking at what's going on. I think I would like to do that. I can see myself in this role, but how do I start? This was a very big question.
Marcia Dawood:
And so how long did it take you before you started?
Cintia Manos:
Two years.
Marcia Dawood:
And what is it that pushed you over the edge?
Cintia Manos:
Yes. The thing, I had some concerns in my mind when I thought of investing in startups. The first one was that I was very used to stock exchange market and this sort of assets. So I thought, I'm not going to invest in one startup because it's a very risky asset. I really have to build a portfolio to, I really need to invest in more startups because the chances of losing everything are big, right. Especially in the very early stage. And I thought, I have money to invest into startups, maybe three, but not much. The other thing that concerned me was I'm going to find good deals.
Cintia Manos:
I think it will take a lot of time or relationship building to find good startups. Do I have to go to all the events? Do I have to go to all the demo days? Or should I apply for membership of all the angel clubs that exist? I started thinking that it will be a very big learning curve, so I will have to spend a lot of time and trying to find good deals learning about it. And I thought I was always postponing. Oh yeah, I've been to some demo days or to some meetings with angel syndicates, and I was always looking, analyzing the pictures, getting to know people. But I felt in the end, if I'm doing this, I'm doing this by my own. It's an individual decision, it's an individual movement. Also, after making the investment, establishing the relationship with the startup will be just by my own. And then I thought, it's too complicated.
Cintia Manos:
Maybe I don't have enough time right now to stop my life and start learning about all these things alone by myself. So I was postponed. And then I met a group of angels that were
doing something different. And so they were getting together to build a portfolio themselves, not to. It was not that each one of them was building a portfolio along ten years. They were pulling the capital together, and they were thinking like, okay, let's get the next five years to invest in 20 startups. That was the plan. And in this group also, there were two leaders that they were the ones responsible for connecting with incubators, accelerators, and bringing the deals to the group.
Cintia Manos:
They were not deciding, but they were curating the deal flow. And we, the angels, we were deciding on the investments. And when I learned about this model, I thought it makes a lot of sense, because this would reduce my risk investing in portfolio. This was one of my objectives, the deal flow thing would be addressed. And also the paperwork like this is something that I was worried about. Also, I have to understand all the clauses, what is in the term sheet of, you know, the fast food contract. And there is something that I see many people also concern is, what are the consequences? What kind of responsibility do I have as a startup investor? Is there any, what kind of instrument? So I thought maybe I should try it. And then I tried, and then I joined this group, and I saw that it made a lot of sense, but not only because of this factors that I mentioned, but also because of other stuff, because investing together means also accelerating your learning curve.
Cintia Manos:
When you are discussing a pitch with a group of other angels, and they are coming from diverse backgrounds, it's so rich, it's so much better than doing it just by yourself or just reading reports. And it's very common that we go to an investment committee, that is a meeting where we analyze the pitches, and I start thinking in a way about the startup. But in the end, after all the questions, or after the discussions, I think differently. I changed my mind. So this is why I think the model was super rich. So this is how I started.
Marcia Dawood:
And so did the group then pool all their money together, like in a special purpose vehicle or SPV. We've talked about those on the podcast before, or was it like in a fund, or did everybody go individually?
Cintia Manos:
No. In fact, the structure that this group operated was we opened a limited company and all the angels were shareholders of that company. And this company would be investing in the startups. Okay, I see. So we open a limited company, everyone adheres as a shareholder. The leaders, they have some responsibilities and authorization to make some decisions. But we are all deciding on the investment. We transfer the money to this limited company, and this limited company invests in startups as we are angel funds and invest in the early stage.
Cintia Manos:
We are not a big fund. This is something easy to manage. So this was the way that this vehicle was built. But in call angels, we have vehicles in different countries, and so the laws are different and we need to comply with them. And so in some countries we use mechanisms that are similar to spvs. In some countries we also have some regulated funds. So they are the LP's, let's put this way, they are the angels, but they have this special rule that the angels make the decisions. It's not only the fund managers.
Marcia Dawood:
So then if people came into this company in order to invest, did you then have to cut it off? Like you, you only allowed so many people. And then that money that was in the company that was investing, or did you let people come in?
Cintia Manos:
No, we let people come in. Yes, it's like a rolling fund. So we don't fundraise all at once and then start investing. We do a first fundraising to have the first group of angels, but then we can accept new members. Then every six months we do the capital increase in the limited company, and then we invest in startups.
Marcia Dawood:
Yeah, that sounds similar to what angel groups are doing here. They have like either we call it sometimes an annual fund or a sidecar fund, and it's like a way that we can pool money
together and then invest it through, through that vehicle into the actual startup. Yeah, but you can let more people come in depending on when it is.
we could invest in 20 startups. We had some startups that invested twenty k, fifty k, one hundred k, so different sizes, and usually, and sometimes also pairing with incentives from the government. So this is how we, because then we can leverage a little bit more of the capital that you can invest in this data. But right now. So this first vehicle that I mentioned, this first group that I joined, was the inspiration to start couragel. So this was a different group. We were investing together.
Cintia Manos:
Some people in this group started thinking, but I would like to build a group like this, but with a specific investment thesis. So one of our investors, one of our angels in this group, thought of bringing this to Madrid, because the group was based here in Portugal. Another one came from Brazil and wanted to have investment thesis that would bring brazilian companies to Europe using Portugal as a gateway. And so people started thinking of creating their own funds. So they were so happy with the experience of having this collective learning, decision making, et cetera, that they were thinking of particular investment thesis that they would care about and that they would know people that would be also caring about and willing to invest. So they decided to the proposal. They were interested in launching similar models in their countries, or even here in Portugal also. This is how corning tools started.
Cintia Manos:
So when we started seeing this happening, we thought, let's build a framework, let's build a model that can be replicated, of course, that as we are, we have different countries, so different business environment, legal frameworks, we need to make some adjustments when we go to some different countries. I started working for couragels with this purpose. Make a let's build a model, let's build a way of replicating this, guaranteeing that the main, the core values of core angels, so the main pillars of our model are used in all these angel funds, but also allowing the adjustments that are needed for each environment.
Marcia Dawood:
And then how much are you investing outside of Portugal and do you invest in the US?
Cintia Manos:
Yes, yes. Right now we have eleven angel funds. The goal of them, these eleven angel funds, the plan, the target is to reach €40 million with them. Yes. So like 4 million each, three point something each. They are right now close to twelve. They are still in the very. We have very recent funds indeed.
Cintia Manos:
The majority of them are in Europe, but we also have one fund in the US dedicated to health equity and mental wellbeing. It's a very recent angel fund, two in South America, so one in Brazil dedicated to edutech, so education startups, and another one based in Chile that is covering the ring of higher region that we call. They are invested in Latin America and Southeast Asia startups and helping them move from one market to the other. And we have also one also recent fund launched last year covering the Middle east region. They are based in Egypt, Middle east and north of Africa. These are the right now this is the blueprint. And we are preparing five more funds to be launched this year. Some of the funds, they are like geographic funds, so they are industry agnostic.
Cintia Manos:
But supporting that local ecosystem, like Lisbon, Corangels, Madrid, Barcelona. But we also have vertical funds, so current, for instance, it's based, the leaders are based in Italy, but the majority of the investors, the startups are based in Europe, across Europe, and investors in Europe as well. So we have some vertical funds and also what we call the cross border funds. So as I explained this first one, that was Atlantic, bringing brazilian companies to Europe, and also Pacific working on the South America companies to Southeast Asia. So cross border funds are also interesting, because you can get, you can support the startup with angels from one market, the origin market, and the target market as well. So this movement of market expansion can be supported by different angels.
Marcia Dawood:
And how's that handled as far as paperwork and all that type of stuff, with all the cross border things?
Cintia Manos:
Okay. Yes. Usually when you have the cross border investment, it's done, the investment is done, it's made in the target country. So Atlantic, for instance, in Atlantic, we invest in brazilian startups, but the fund is incorporated in Portugal. So the startup will be incorporated in Portugal, we'll receive the money in Portugal. And the angels also, the company is here, so the angels invest in the vehicle here in Portugal. So we usually define the target market as where the company will be incorporated and where the startups needs to open a company here to receive investment.
Marcia Dawood:
I see.
Cintia Manos:
So even. Sorry. And this way we also accelerate their movement, because you already corporate, you already start looking for lawyers, accounting, etcetera, until you start building your basis here.
Marcia Dawood:
So even if you have a company that's located in a different country, they can put presence in Portugal, using your example, and get funding from there. But do they actually have to move to Portugal then?
Cintia Manos:
Usually what happens is, if they are doing this market expansion plan, usually one founder comes to the country, or sometimes also they don't come, but they hire local people to start the biz dev work. In the majority of the cases, I think that most of the cases, one founder comes and then they stay for a while, they build a team, they may come back or stay, but this, usually the first effort is the sales, commercial effort. And then if things happen as they wish, they will bring more people, they will build a team, they'll start thinking, is it better to have a developing team here or in the original market or somewhere
else? Because the truth is that when the startup leaves its home country, then they see that the world is full of possibilities. This is something interesting, because once they make this movement, I start thinking, maybe we are having our local team doing this, but maybe if we could hire someone somewhere else. What is the best place to have this part of the company? And then we start thinking strategic like this. This is a very interesting phenomenon. Then it's good to follow up with the founders. Yeah.
Marcia Dawood:
So core Angels is really their objective is to be global, then our objective.
Cintia Manos:
Is to be global. We truly believe that. And after Covid, this changed a lot, because before COVID we were always thinking about investing startups that were close to us, right. They can drive at least maximum 2 hours and go there and visit the founders and see what's going on, see the operations. But when Covid happened, the truth was that we were all here at Zoom, and we were building business in Zoom, and signing contracts and investment agreements. So people start thinking like, yeah, so I don't need to be limited to only my country or only my city, only the ecosystem that I very close to. Also, because the conferences also went all in line, and all of a sudden you were meeting people from different countries without living in your own country. What we see is that having this international community is interesting, because not only because we can learn from different perspectives of the angels, and each ecosystem is completely different from the other, but also we have the possibility of more people engaging and supporting our startups.
Cintia Manos:
And today what's happening is that some of our funds are already sharing deal flow. We have some of our companies and cor angels, we've invested in 92 startups until now.
Marcia Dawood:
Wow.
Cintia Manos:
And some of them, they were invested by two or three groups, two or three different funds, because it made sense for that business. So we have one that started in Spain, it was invested by Coringos Madrid and Coringos Barcelona. And later on, when they started expanding to other places of Europe, Corinthians Lisbon analyzed their pitch, and the angels decided that they should be investing in the company. And so this way, the company is not counting only on the capital of three angel funds, but also imagine you can count on the expertise, knowledge and background and network of all the angels involved. So this is extremely rich. So if you think that you can raise your hand and say, as a founder, and say, look, we are looking for someone in this company, and what's been hard to enter, does anyone know anyone else here? And then the angels can support. So this is a true. I think it adds a lot of value to the startups as well.
Cintia Manos:
We truly believe in the international community. Of course, it's not easy. We are also different from each other, we have different ways of working, but it's absolutely delightful to see how we can cooperate how can we collaborate when we are all aligned in the same purpose? We are here to invest in the future leaders, in the future companies, and ways of doing better what we're doing right now. So it's really good to see when we're all together. It's really, really amazing.
Marcia Dawood:
Yeah. And you and I met a while ago because we are aligned in the same mission. We want to get more people to understand that this is an asset class that they can participate in. The more you do it with other people, the better, because you get to learn from their expertise and pool your knowledge and pool the resources to be able to diversify, like you said, and have a bigger portfolio of companies, but also find the expertise that these companies really need in order to grow and scale. So talk a little bit more about that.
Cintia Manos:
Yeah. We see that when a founder decides to start a business or two founders together, they are very excited about the idea, they know at least the first steps, but they don't see all that it's coming and it's a lot, and it's a lot in different layers because the challenges will be
changing when they are progressing. I think the first years, the challenge is much more focused in finding customers, testing the product, validating the market. Then after you reach some of these goals, then you start having other issues, like conflicts between partners, leadership issues, and then it changes a lot. So the founders, they have to change. And to learn so fast, it's really demanding. And what we see in our practice is that the different expertise that we can bring to founders and to startups, it's really valuable because a startup, they cannot, it's a company that is so small, they can't like, hire someone, hire an external consultant to help them in sales. And then I'm going, there's no resources for this.
Cintia Manos:
There are no resources for this. So it's extremely important for them if they can count on some people that have been there. One of the roles that we have in power angels, is what we call the archangel. This is a person that is close to a specific company of the. And the role of the archangel is not to solve the issues of the startup, but is to be aware of what's going on and then bring to the other angels and say, look, guys, we've been seeing reports here, okay, these are the metrics, these are the KPI's, okay? But some things happening behind, behind the scenes, in the backstage, that explains why the revenue was decreasing or why they are having issues on that. And I want to share this with you. And so the archangel can bring these topics to the rest of the angels to detect. Is there anyone here that can help on this particular issue? And then they can.
Cintia Manos:
Okay, I raised my hand, yes, I can help them on that. And this topics, they can be so different. They can be, like I was saying, conflicts, leadership, they can be financial planning, they can be. Well, they will be fundraising again. Is there anyone that could help them somehow in building a good financial plan or at least understanding how to put everything together to pitch well, because it's a different stage in their journey. So it's not anymore talking about MPV and well, MPP's and other first traction, it's different metrics now. So it's very interesting how we can support them differently according to the stage they are and according to the issues that might be coming up so much cheaper. In fact, we are investing and bringing also expertise.
Cintia Manos:
So I think it's the best resource they can count on. And for them, in this very first steps, the return that we have, or the lesson, the feedback that we have from them is really amazing because they feel like it's not. I cannot afford hiring people to solve everything that in my startup, counting on the angels is really important to them in this space.
Marcia Dawood:
Yeah, I love that. The Archangel. What a great name. That's so perfect. So before I let you go, tell us about a company that you've seen recently that is doing something totally amazing and that you're really excited about.
Cintia Manos:
We have many, but let me get one. We just invested in coringulous climate in a company that's really interesting. It's named strongbyform. They have a different material for building houses, offices, apartments. That is impact is really low, it's very sustainable and they are getting a lot of traction. This is material. A company. This is more a bricks and mortar company, let's put this way.
Cintia Manos:
But we also have many other stuff coming out. It's a portuguese company, it's a boxing with artificial intelligence. It's a new way of fitness. And they are expanding really fast in many countries. And we also. Oh, there is another one very interesting also. Journey. They are solving the housing problems, especially for the young, for the youth, they are in UK, but also they have very interesting system of buying real estate and providing a service.
Cintia Manos:
We are not putting young people to buy their houses, but also to, but rather to like rent, but in a different way. So this is just some examples of what we've been seeing. But there are many things happening. Health also impact, food. There is lots of amazing things coming in. The food industry agri food. We are preparing a new fund just based on this. It's spoiler alert here.
Cintia Manos:
And I think we are just, we are still in the beginning, I believe we've seen so many things going on that sometimes we think, oh, is there anything else? Yes, there's a lot more to come, especially when we see the convergence of technology, like when we see all these things getting together, there is very huge potential of things to happen. And I think that is our role as people already with some gray hair and with some experience to, to give more than just our money, but also to be there for them and to help them avoid some headaches and help them build things faster and with more impact to the world. So I think this is the purpose of angels, and this is why I would like to see many more people in this role.
Marcia Dawood:
Yes, that's perfect. I'm always amazed by what entrepreneurs are coming up with, and I learn something new every single day. Cynthia, thank you so much for coming on the show and being here with us today.
Cintia Manos:
Thank you so much, Marcia. My pleasure.