Angel Insights and Innovations: Navigating Startups with Morgan Barrett [Ep 35]

This episode dives into the unique strategies and experiences of angel investing with Morgan Barrett, alongside discussions on tech innovation and startup culture.

Embracing Unconventional Investments: Morgan Barrett focuses on startups that are unique and entertaining, highlighting the importance of novelty in investment choices.Integration of Professional and Investment Roles: Barrett combines his expertise as a lawyer with his passion for angel investing to support startups from formation to acquisition.Impact of Networking Events: The Tech Breakfast Club, founded by Barrett, is instrumental in connecting entrepreneurs and investors, fostering significant business relationships.Strategic Value Addition: Barrett discusses how adding value in unconventional ways can secure positions in competitive investment rounds.Personal Satisfaction in Career Choices: Emphasizing fun and fulfillment in professional endeavors is crucial, as demonstrated by Barrett’s career and investment strategies.

1. Introduction to Sidecar and Angel Investing

Barrett and the hosts discuss the utility of Sidecar in managing venture funds and the appeal of engaging with innovative products and startups.

2. Tech Breakfast Club and Its Impact

Barrett explains the conception and success of the Tech Breakfast Club, which brings together tech enthusiasts for productive networking.

3. Rainmaker: A Unique Investment

Discussion on Rainmaker, a company that innovates in weather manipulation, illustrating Barrett's preference for unique business ideas.

4. Integrating Professional Life with Angel Investing

Barrett shares how his legal expertise complements his angel investing, providing a seamless support system for startups.

5. Philosophies and Strategies in Angel Investing

Barrett reveals his investment philosophy, focusing on the weird and wonderful, and discusses the personal backstory influencing his career choices.

1. Explore Unusual Investment Opportunities: Don’t shy away from unconventional ideas; they might offer unexpected potential.
2. Value Personal Satisfaction: Choose career paths and investments that bring joy and fulfillment.
3. Network Strategically: Engage in events like the Tech Breakfast Club to meet potential collaborators or investors.
4. Add Unique Value: Find creative ways to add value to secure investment opportunities.
5. Leverage Professional Skills: Use your professional skills to support your investment activities.

Thank you to Sydecar for sponsoring today’s episode! Read more about the SPV product that both Harry and Colin use for their investments below.

In this episode, Harry and Colin speak with Morgan Barrett, a lawyer, angel investor and founder of Tech Breakfast Club, a monthly meetup for founders, VCs, and operators. Morgan brings his unique blend of legal expertise and entrepreneurial spirit to the venture capital world, focusing on early-stage investments.

Wannabe Angels, begin your venture capital career with Sydecar--the go-to platform for those new to managing SPVs and funds. Sydecar is on a mission to make private markets more accessible, transparent, and liquid by standardizing how investment vehicles are created and executed.

To learn more, visit Sydecar's Wannabe Angels page: https://www.sydecar.io/wannabeangels

Morgan has garnered attention for his unconventional approach to angel investing, often choosing companies that entertain and intrigue him, rather than following traditional investment theses. His investment portfolio includes a range of startups, from legal tech to novel platforms that challenge conventional business models.

Throughout the discussion, Morgan shares his insights on building successful networks, the value of community in business, and the importance of personal connections in fostering startup growth. He also provides advice for those looking to start their angel investing journey and discusses how his experiences have shaped his investment strategies.

People

Morgan Barrett, Harry Campbell, Colin Gardiner

Companies

Sidecar, Rainmaker

Books

None

Guest Name(s):

Morgan Barrett

Content Warnings:

None

Harry Campbell
Colin, how are you doing today? I'm doing great, as Elon would say. What'd you get done this week? A sick kid? Not much.

So you didn't close any new investments or deals, is that what you're saying? Not this week. I. Last week, though. Yes, I do have a spv shaping up this week with Sidecar, which, well.

That was the point. You're supposed to close an investment this week so I could talk about Sidecar because they're sponsoring right now and, you know, I got to tell all our want be angels that they can begin their venture capital career with Sidecar. They are the go to platform for those new to managing spvs and funds. Uh, apparently Colin closed a deal with Sidecar last week. He uses them to manage their fun.

I actually use their syndicate product for every single investment that I make out of my fund. And to learn more, you can visit Sidecars wannabe Angels page, Sidecar IO forward slash wannabeangels, and of course we'll have a link in the show notes. What do you think? You're up. What do I think of sidecar?

Colin Gardiner
I think it's great.

I mean, it's really awesome. They also just had a product release come out like yesterday, which I'm really excited. Yeah, it's really exciting for syndicate people like ourselves. It's now like all contact management for all the people that were previously in your syndicate. So now you can see what they invested in, what they've looked at.

Just handle basically a CRM for your all your potential LP's. So I'm really excited about that. Should really just make things a lot more efficient. Yeah. I have been impressed with how I really like a lot of these companies that iterate on the product quickly.

Harry Campbell
Like, I always joke, I love Tesla because it's like, if anything doesn't work, like, you know, they're going to fix it with a software update sometime soon. And it's like, literally, it's crazy the amount of software updates that they send. And I feel like Sidecar is similar in that, you know, I remember when I was sending out, they used to have to send a link to all the investors and then they changed it recently and now people can one click and see the deals a little bit more easily. And so it was just cool to see. Literally I did a deal, there was something that I didn't love about it, and then less than a month later they had updated and that changed it.

And that's kind of what's cool about working with startups and young and hungry and up and coming companies, Clay. No, totally. And I think they've reached out in the past and I've gotten to work directly with their product manager to give them feedback on like this product and kind of the pain points that we've had. So that is like the best part of working with startups is like, velocity. Sent them a loom video.

Oh, I just big on loom right now. I hate receiving loom videos, but I love sending them. You got to watch them on like two or three x speed. Well, that's loom, another great product. You know, they've got two x.

I think they have 2.5 x now. Wow, getting aggressive. So very cool. Well, I'm looking forward to hearing more about, maybe we'll do an episode talking about some of our recent investments that you and I have both been making. And as mentioned, you know, you use Sidecar to manage your fund and I use them for each of my investments, which I syndicate with my LP and GP commit.

So we might have to talk about in the future. So big thanks to Sidecar for sponsoring today's show. You can head over to Sidecar IO forward slash wannabeangels. And I'm ready to chat with Morgan. What about you?

Colin Gardiner
I'm excited for it. Well, don't you have something to do? We'll see you in two minutes. Yeah. Oh, doorbell's ringing.

Harry Campbell
All right, hold on. Let's go. Probably Rainmaker is the weirdest company that I've invested in. If you're on Twitter, you've probably seen Augustus running around. Berkeley dropout has had a successful startup before and his like next big thing is changing the weather.

Wait, so what do they do? They change the weather? Yeah, they make rain. Yeah, they literally make rain. Rainmaker makes it rain.

Morgan Barrett
So fly a plane into a cloud and spray silver iodide. You could, you know, make it rain over a general area. Make it rain over maybe like a ski resort.

Harry Campbell
So Morgan Barrett is the founder of the Tech Breakfast Club, a group of founders, VC's and operators that meet monthly in New York City, Los Angeles and San Francisco for breakfast. When he's not busy hosting tech Breakfast Club, he works with founders from formation to acquisition as a lawyer at Optimal counsel. He went to the University of Virginia for undergrad and then Columbia for law school. While in law school, he began angel investing. He doesn't really have a thesis, he just wants to be entertained, as they would say in Gladiator.

That means he loves weird companies and even weirder founders. So if you're a founder building something cool. Or a VC investing in early stage startups. That and this part is crucial. You must enjoy breakfast.

You should join Tech Breakfast Club by signing up for the newsletter at Techbreakfastclub dot beehive.com slash subscribe. No one's probably going to type that in, so I'm going to leave a link in the show notes and people can click that. How does that sound, Morgan? Yeah, that works. That works.

Morgan Barrett
Thanks for having me on. Yeah, I'm excited to chat with you today and I will say I feel I'm a little disappointed in myself because I did register for one of your breakfast tech events here in LA and then I think I had a very important golf match that took priority so I wasn't able to make it. But it is at the top of my to do list to make your next one in LA. That's the most respectful excuse that I've heard. But yeah, come out.

Next one's El Segundo co hosting with Riot. Yeah, going to get a bunch of hard tech founders together. I will say I am really impressed with how prolific and diligent you are about the tech breakfast events. I feel like you're in New York hosting one and then the next week you're in LA and back and forth. And so I kind of like that, that cadence.

Harry Campbell
You're definitely becoming known as the Tech Breakfast Club and I feel like it also just kind of stands out. It's like something different. Yeah, of course, like the one thing that you have no expectations for in life is the one thing that like really clicks and becomes successful. But yeah, two years ago I'd actually spent the summer in LA and then went back to New York and had a bunch of people to catch up with. And instead of doing like individual coffee chats was just like, I think you'd all get along, let's get breakfast together.

Morgan Barrett
And it was such a great time. You know, we were coming out of the pandemic. I think people, people were still really enthusiastic to get together post pandemic. But then especially, and yeah, it went so well, we were like, let's do it again as soon as possible. And then next time it was instead of twelve people, it was 30 people.

And then it just kept doubling there for a while. Now we have to be like really selective about the guest list. Yeah, great vibe. No one was really doing anything in the mornings and, and selfishly, as a lawyer, like, work rolls in throughout the day, so your evenings are pretty busy. And after I canceled like the 20th drinks or dinner event, I was like, why don't we just do something in the morning when I'm free and available?

Harry Campbell
Colin, I thought, I thought I told you not to join this session. Were you invited to this? This is super awkward. All right, well, I guess for those who aren't watching our beautiful faces on YouTube, Colin decided to show up five minutes late. So we were just learning about Morgan's tech breakfast club, so you'll have to listen to the replay.

But I'm kind of excited to talk to Morgan because I like this kind of trio of what he has going on with tech breakfast club, his angel investments, and then apparently as a day job as a lawyer, too. So I'm kind of curious to learn about this trio. And before we kind of dive into how they all work together, Morgan, I've got a few kind of get to know you questions, specifically around your angel investing. How does that sound? Yeah, let's go for it.

All right, cool. So in your lifetime, how many angel investments have you made? A dozen. Cool. How many angel investment investments have you made this year, or do you plan to make this year?

Morgan Barrett
I've done two. Okay. What's your average check size? So ranges from a five k check up to like, the biggest check I've written is 30k. What type of startups do you look for and at what stage?

Yeah, pre seed seed. I've done series a. There's nothing really unifying about the types of startups other than, you know, I joke that I'm just signing up for an expensive newsletter, so I want to be entertained. I want to do something that's weird, like if you tell me your uber for this, like probably not interested or like if it's too obvious, if it's a slam dunk, theres tons of people that will invest in that. But I want something thats a little bit off the beaten path I look to really influenced by this angel investor, Jerry Newman.

I dont know if youve ever come across him, but successful founder in his own right. And then maybe around 2008 started angel investing and hes had some huge winners. One of the first checks into Datadog, one of the first checks into like, trade desk and, you know, has multiple ipos under his belt. Super successful. Also a professor at Columbia.

So I was at Columbia for law school and got to know him there and he's been so helpful in, you know, just kind of laying things out for me. And, you know, we've co invested on some deals, but super smart guy. And one of his guiding principles was, you know, it's just got to be weird. I want something thats weird. And thats stuck out to me when I started looking at investments.

Almost never. Yeah, I dont think ive ever gotten a deal from, like, cold inbound or ive never pulled the trigger on someone who just like, reached out through cold inbound. Everything that invested in is through an introduction or like ended up working with the founder in some capacity and got to learn about them and. Yeah, so a bunch of the deals that I've done. Yeah, the unifying thing is it's like people hate it.

They really struggle. Even like, beehive, which is probably my most successful investment when it first got going. And now in hindsight it looks so obvious. But when Tyler was, like, first Tyler Dink, the founder of Beehive, when he was raising money, people did not like the idea. If you told anyone that email was going to be the most important medium of like, the next five or ten years, they would have laughed at you.

And that was just 36 months ago. Yeah. And he really struggled raising his seed round, but to me, just his whole vibe and weird dude, for sure. I think they just raised a pretty big round the other day. And I'm actually thinking about moving my list over to beehive, so they must be doing something right.

Harry Campbell
So congrats to the team. Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, I'll say that you should. I mean, of course I'm biased.

Shocker. I think it's the obvious choice. Yeah. So. Well, let's.

Let's see how well Colin knows me. Colin, you know the next question I'm going to ask. I have no idea. Okay. Well, we're not a good thing.

Well, you keep talking about all these weird companies. What's the weirdest company you've invested in? I guess other than beehive, if you thought that one was weird. Yeah, probably. Rainmaker is the weirdest company that I've invested in.

Morgan Barrett
If you're on Twitter, you've probably seen Augustus running around. Berkeley dropout has had a successful startup before, and his next big thing is changing the weather. So, yeah, I, you know, I've only invested in, like, software. Wait, so what do they do? They change the weather.

Yeah. So they make rain? Yeah, they literally make Rainmaker. Rainmaker makes it rain. So cloud seeding technology has been around.

Harry Campbell
For a long time. Very cool. America invented cloud seeding technology, but we really haven't used it much. And for a long time, we didn't know how successful it was. It wasn't until we got, like, powerful enough radar to judge that like, cloud seeding efforts produce more rain.

Morgan Barrett
Yeah. And so typically, the way it used to work was you'd fly a plane into a cloud and spray silver iodide, and it would cause the moisture in the cloud to bind to the silver iodide crystals and precipitate out of the cloud. So you could, you know, make it rain over a general area. Make it rain over maybe, like, a ski resort. Those were early adopters.

Augustus has taken it to the next level, a bit more targeted. He can make it rain over a farm, like, an individual farm, and they fly a drone into a cloud instead of, like, a plane. It's much faster to get a drone out, and you can be a lot more targeted and then innovating, bringing to market some innovations and the aerosols that they spray. Yeah. And that's.

Harry Campbell
I can only imagine the puns that are going on at this company. Right. You know how every tech company loves the puns? Like, when I worked with bird, it was like, everything was like a bird. Bird nest, bird, you know, release the flock.

You know, I can only imagine the make the rain puns that are happening over there. Yeah, I'm sure anytime they've raised any money, it's been, they've made it rain. So filling in on this, like, weird kind of thesis because it's something that I, like, feel as well, that something that's just different or obtuse or, you know, just, I don't know, unique in its own way, has a lot of, like, outlier potential, I guess. Like, for you. Like, maybe, like, can you.

Colin Gardiner
Is it that the weird gives you the opportunity for big venture style outcomes? Or is it that it breaks the mold? Like, what is it for you that the weird is equating to in the long run? Yeah, there's probably. You can make an argument that that's where the venture scale returns come from.

Morgan Barrett
That's where the opportunity, the missed price, you know, opportunity in the market for me, though. I just want to have fun. So, yeah, like, the check size is not huge. If I was investing other people's money, I'd probably have to be a lot more thoughtful about, like, the investment thesis, but I. Yeah, I just want to do something with cool people who are doing, you know, things that other people shy away from.

Yeah, that's kind of, like, my whole vibe or, like, guiding principle in life. When, you know, in law school, everyone has, like, a clear, like, career trajectory, and its very serious. And looking around at my peers at Columbia, they all wanted to go work for Skadden or Kirkland or these big massive deal focused law firms and work on billion dollar mergers for KKR or Apollo.

Harry Campbell
I dont know any other companies or firms you just mentioned as FYI. Yeah, probably need to go on the Internet, Harry, and read around. I'm not closing any big deals apparently. Huh. Yeah.

Morgan Barrett
So when you're in that like private equity, multi billion dollar market and that makes a lot of sense and there's a ton of money to be made in that as well, but it just didn't sound fun to me. And then maybe one of the guiding things, not to get too heavy, but when I was in law school, super close to my dad and he was getting ready to retire and, you know, kind of live life and he was really looking forward to that. And then this is the only like tragic thing that's like happened to me in my life, but mistake during surgery and he died and. Sorry to hear that. Yeah, it's seriously the only like bad thing that's like happened to me in my life.

I've lived such a, like a blessed life. But that was a turning point where I was like, all right, he did everything right, you know, investment banking. Then he moved back and became a financial advisor in Virginia and he worked this long career, made some money, and then he was about to retire and travel with my mom and he kind of delayed life for a long time. And living through that, I was like, that's just not going to be me. I got to do something that's fun now along the way and I'll figure the rest out.

So decided that, hey, I enjoyed working for a startup before law school. Maybe I could be a startup lawyer, maybe I could start angel investing and just, I didn't have to have it all figured out at the moment. It would just the path would unfold in front of me. Didn't expect to be running tech breakfast club. Didn't expect that to be as successful as it is.

And then it's all, you know, just found ways to make it work together and it's been helpful on the legal side, it's been helpful in the angel investments and it's all fed together. And if you told me in law school that this is like the life that I would have, I would be really incredulous. And, you know, I try to explain like, what I do to my peers from Columbia and they're, you know, shocked, but maybe also don't, like, fully understand it. Yeah, well, I guess your day job is somewhat straightforward with, you know, being a lawyer for optimal council and then the tech breakfast club. I'm curious, so tell us a little bit more about tech breakfast club and how does that fit into either your day job or your angel investing?

Harry Campbell
Or is it kind of, you know, you're just doing it and bringing cool people together and having fun? Yeah. So it's more the latter and everything else just works out from it. It's been, you know, you provide value, it's helpful to, you know, the founders, the VC's. There's a lot of VC's I know you're pretty fond of like Bloomberg beta.

Oh yeah, I love those guys. Great fund. Yeah, they've been big supporters of tech Breakfast Club. They've sourced deals from Tech Breakfast Club. So getting like these early career VC's, some of their first big wins has been amazing.

Morgan Barrett
And like they meet incredible founders at Tech Breakfast Club and then like getting amazing founders investments, you know, oftentimes their first big check coming out of tech breakfast club and that was not expected at first. It was just like, let's just get cool people together and see what happens. And in a way, like, you know, you're not even really supposed to pitch at Tech Breakfast Club. Like, that's not the vibe at all. You're not going in, gonna like speed date a bunch of VC's and like, you know, show up with your, with your PowerPoint and walk through your vision, but you know, just hanging out and getting to know people on like a very basic, friendly level and then great things happen.

Harry Campbell
Sort of feel a little bit of jealousy or kind of missing out. Like if you connect a great founder with a great investor, they raise this huge round at your event and you were like kind of the organizer and the impetus for it all and like you didn't really personally benefit out of it. Like, I think it's a little selfish obviously to feel that way, but like, I think it's like, I know that's happened to me, you know, with some of the events I put on and maybe, you know, that's just how I am. But I'm curious, you know, how you think about that or how you deal with that. Yeah, now that you mention it, this.

Founder or this investor, they raise 100 million. Good job, guys. Yeah, that's, you know, really hasn't dawned on me to think like that. But, uh, yeah, it feels, even if you're not like directly connected to the company, it feels great. It's like a validation of tech breakfast club and I want everyone else to get a lot of value out of it.

Morgan Barrett
I've gotten so much value out of it just as an easy way to meet a ton of people in a structured way. And I'm not the most outgoing person. Like, I can't go to endless events and kind of just like network 24/7 so, like being strategic about how you meet people and like bringing people together. And there's this Twitter thread, I wish I could remember who wrote it. And the, the title of it was like, build your own yacht.

Like, stop waiting to get invited on other people's yachts. Like build your own metaphorical yacht. And that really resonated with me. So, like, you know, stop waiting around to be invited to a really cool event, host your own really cool event. And then once you're like, have something of value to provide to people, all of a sudden you're getting invited to cool things as well.

So, you know, just creating something and the rest will follow has kind of worked out. So shout out to that. I owe a lot to. So I talked about Jerry Newman, whos been super influential on like the angel investing side, but Moses Kagan is another super important person and hes a real estate guy. If youre on Twitter, youve probably seen moses, hes like the pope of real.

Harry Campbell
Estate Twitter to push these real estate. Yeah, im interested in real estate, but its like Twitter algorithm loves real estate, folks. It's like just jamming their tweets down your throat. Yeah, he's kind of the opposite of that where, you know, there's very like self promotional people on real estate Twitter. But Moses, super smart dude.

Morgan Barrett
I actually worked for him for a summer while I was in law school, and I went in there thinking that I was going to learn so much about real estate. And I did, I like learned a fair amount. We did some deals. The market was a little slow, but the big takeaway was like how he built such a powerful content engine on Twitter and just educating people and teaching people. And I saw that and I didn't think I could recreate that as a content play.

I don't think legal advice for startups resonates the same way breaking down real estate deals does on Twitter. But then I was like, okay, could I take what he's done and kind of refashion it as like an event strategy and provide value that way? And like the events give a lot of content and, you know, celebrating founders and interviewing founders and different vc's. And so he was super influential in just kind of like planting the seed of what's possible. And then I took it and refashioned it for events.

But, yeah, what was the question I went on. Yeah, you were. We were asking you originally. It started, Harry was asking you why you weren't monetizing your friendships more. Anyone who knows me is like, I don't do anything for free.

Harry Campbell
So. Sorry, Morgan. I think that was like, you know, you were saying, you know, you haven't thought about someone being, you know, successful raising from a connection, or. I don't. It could be anything, right?

Colin Gardiner
Like a business deal, whatever that comes out of those things. And I do think these days, one of our former guests, Dennis, he had a tongue in cheek Twitter thing the other day about trying to not, like, monetize his running group friends and things like that. And I do think there's, like, this culture now that's kind of going harder into the, let's monetize all our relationships, when in reality, kind of like you're saying, if you're going to build your. Yacht, that's not how it works. Yeah.

If you're going to build your yacht, it's about the people are going to be on the yacht that want to come visit, you know? Yeah. So am I getting thrown under the bus now? Is that what's happening? Harry?

You're miser. Although, you know what, Morgan? When you were talking, one thing, you said that it reminded me. Reminded me of. And we kind of.

Harry Campbell
I don't know, maybe we stole this idea from you, but we hosted, you know, we mentioned sidecar at the top as a partner, and we hosted a breakfast tacos event, Colin and I, with Sidecar in Austin. And it was pretty cool. Like, I thought it, like, we got a bunch of people out. Like, I ended up actually. Okay, well, I ended up one of the guys that founders that came.

He came on as a. I came on as a consulting client, or, you know, they hired me from that breakfast event. But, you know, we met a lot of people, and I thought it was super unique and cool. Just the format, like, it stood out, you know, and, like, came. I don't know, I thought it was just, like, a cool little thing we did.

Jeff. Yeah, breakfast is great. I mean, people have time in the morning. No one else is, like, really doing breakfast events. No alcohol was involved.

Morgan Barrett
Yeah. So one, it's, like, cheaper. So that's. Well, to be honest, I thought there. I thought the bar would be open, but it was so early.

Harry Campbell
It was closed, so. That can be changed. Vera in Austin, great. Breakfast tacos. Shout out to the Veracruz.

Morgan Barrett
We actually, you know, per your suggestion, when we hosted tech breakfast club at south by Southwest, that's who we had cater. Oh, really nice. Really good. Yeah, definitely shout out to Vera Cruz. Yeah, I'm taking full credit, but it does.

Harry Campbell
That was my idea. You know, even the bar, even though the bar wasn't open for your event, it. I think there's also this, like, tailwind of sober networking that breakfast just, like, plays really well into. And it changes the energy. Coffee versus alcohol.

Morgan Barrett
People show up with a lot of energy. It kind of sets the tone for your day. Who knows? You might meet somebody at Tech Breakfast club, and it's like, all right, let's do lunch, let's do dinner. Let's get drinks later in the day and continue this conversation.

So there is something unique about breakfast that I didn't fully realize. Like, I was just doing it because I had time in the morning and it's cheaper. But there is, you know, something special about breakfast. I think also, people are clearer in the morning. Like, they've kind of slept overnight.

Colin Gardiner
They're kind of refreshed, ready to go, like, versus a drink at the end of the day, you're kind of, like. You're trying to, like, relax. And then I also feel like I always make semi commitments to people in those moments where I'm like, eh, maybe I didn't want to do that. Circling back on the angel investing bit, I think you're doing this. I haven't been to one of your breakfast clubs, but it sounds like you're in the whole mode of connecting people, education, all this.

And I think in the spirit of all the angel investing you've done, if you could go back to the beginning and be a little conscious angel on the shoulder, what advice would you give to people? What advice would. I don't even know if I'm in a position to give advice. What would you do differently? Let's put it that way.

Morgan Barrett
What would I do? It doesn't have to be good advice, Morgan. It's just advice. Look, you're a lawyer, so I get it. You don't want to give any advice.

But, yeah, I was hoping you guys would give me some advice. That's, like, what I came on the podcast for. You know the name of this podcast is wannabe angels, right? Yeah. Yeah.

It's very fitting. It's not expert angels. We know everything. We've got it figured out. It's like, hey, let's bring on some smart people and learn from them.

Harry Campbell
Or if they're really dumb, don't do what they say, jeff. Yeah. I would say, you know what? You got to be a little shameless pursuing angel investments. If you just stand around and say that you have money to invest, that's going to get a lot of attention.

Morgan Barrett
But maybe not the deals that you want to get in on. You have to be creative in how you go about, one, sourcing deals, but then two, also convincing them that you have value to get on the cap table. One deal, and I had to sign an NDA around this, so I got to be very vague, but I can be general. And how it played out was super hot round. Maybe there wasn't going to be an allocation, but really liked the company, wanted to get in on it.

Found out that the founder, his girlfriend, was looking for a job. So I actually found her a job. And, like, once I provided that value and got her a sick job, probably way cooler than, like, what she would have ended up if she was just searching around for herself. But, like, once I provided that value, the founder was then, like, okay, we've got room for you. Thanks for doing this.

Solid. And, yeah, so, like, just finding, like, unique ways is to get in on cool deals. So it reminds me of this concept of, like, adding value to people in less, like, monetary ways, but more, like, what do. What do you have that's unique in your network or what skill? Like, what favor can you do to someone?

Harry Campbell
Like, can you get them, you know, your girlfriend is on Broadway theater, and you can get them a backstage pass when they're in New York. Like, you can't pay for that type. You know what I mean? Like, stuff that you can't, like, experiences you can't get or that you can't pay for. I always think, like, I totally, shamelessly, my wife is an ob gyn, so I always offer her up, like, to anyone that's pregnant, I'm like, hey, if you have any issues, like, text me and I can ask my wife.

And my wife gets mad at me, but I'm like, it's like, such a great, you know, for people that I'm working on business things with. So I like that concept. Yeah, I think going, like, like, being personable, like, asking people about their kids if they have them or something like that, and trying to, like, establish, like, some, like, real common connections. But I also think, like, tech stars, like, their first, like, when they first started out, their main thing was, like, give first, right? And I always think, like, I've kind of taken that to heart.

Colin Gardiner
Not that I've gone through tech stars, but I've been involved throughout the years. And, you know, it's like, as soon as you meet someone, I just try to, like, listen for, like, what they need and like, as quickly as humanly possible, try and solve that, even if you don't know, like, that they can do something for you or whatever it may be. And I've always just found that that opens tremendous doors immediately, especially in venture. Because the power law with outcomes and venture, who knows, who knows what's going to be the most meaningful investment or most meaningful relationship. And life just has an interesting way of, you might like somebody because they're fun to be around, and then all of a sudden, a couple of years later, they're doing something that's, like, perfect for you and you want to be involved and you already have that relationship.

Morgan Barrett
So. Yeah, definitely. Well, I think that's a great note to end it on. And you came with the fire. You brought some great advice, Morgan.

Harry Campbell
Appreciate you coming on. You've got a lot of cool stuff. I see you've got. I think this episode will go live shortly. So I think you've got a NYC tech breakfast club event, it looks like, on May 22, hopefully I'm allowed to mention that, but we'll leave a link to your breakfast club newsletter, maybe your LinkedIn, any events you have coming up.

Anything else you want to shout out? Yeah, come to Tech Breakfast club. Best founders, best VC's, best people. Yeah. And thanks for.

Morgan Barrett
Thanks for having me on. I will say, you know, best breakfast. Best breakfast. I will say, like, thanks for having me on. And I was hoping it was going to be in person.

I, you know, I get. I get Zoom. But given how much you guys charged me for an appearance, I definitely. I thought it was going to be, you know, we were, you know, I. Will say it really cuts into the profit margins.

Harry Campbell
You know, like to hire a videographer and do it in person. And then the last time we did an in person interview, I think I forgot to hit record. So it's like Zoom. It's a little more dummy proof. You got the record button right there and it says recording right now.

So when I checked, I'm like, oh, yeah, I did record. So we're looking good. And if people want to see our faces, they can actually go over to the wannabe Angels YouTube channel and subscribe there, too. Otherwise they'll catch us. Just audio only.

We also sound good. So, Morgan, thank you very much for coming on. Thanks for having me, guys.

Morgan Barrett
Thanks for having me, guys.