Amy Brandenburg: [00:00:00] We really obsess over what we call founder DNA.

All of the partners committed to investing in every single deal that went in front of the group.

GitLab really taught me all about iteration. So, putting things in a document, sharing the first version, and then letting people collectively iterate to keep things moving versus like adding on an extra few weeks to slow things down and be a backlog.

Let venture do its thing.

You can read every blog about statistics. Some are gonna close their doors, some are gonna give you just your money back, and then a few of them are going to return everything and more. 

Andrew Kazlow: Welcome to the Diligent Observer, where we help angel investors see what most miss. I'm your host, Andrew, and every week we explore what works, what doesn't, and why through conversations with experienced startup investors and operators.

My guest today is Amy Brandenburg, co-founder and managing partner of Denver Ventures Seed Fund. In this episode, Amy shares how their angel community's rapid growth, created the momentum [00:01:00] needed to launch Denver Ventures, breaks down their proprietary founder DNA assessment process developed alongside a former Andreessen Horowitz advisor,

and reveals why showing investors fewer pre-vetted deals actually increases engagement and investment rates. I hope you enjoy learning from Amy as much as I did. 

Amy, thank you for being with me today.

Amy Brandenburg: Yeah, great to see you and excited to chat about angels and deals and everything else we're gonna cover.

Andrew Kazlow: Likewise. Well, my classic first question, Amy, is what are you excited about right now?

Amy Brandenburg: Hmm. The easy answer would be AI, but trying to think about something outside the box or different, um, no, actually the last couple of years, I'm sure many of you have read the book, Super Founders, but. You know, a lot of the companies that have just now started building in the last, I call it 24 months, will be exiting in completely different market environment 5 to 10 years from now.

So, while it's a long game, um, I'm very much excited about new [00:02:00] founders, new businesses building right now in this market. You know, being much more sensitive around cash and runway and how they, build these businesses, knowing in the long term, um, things are gonna look a lot different and, and we're doubling down.

Andrew Kazlow: Any specific transitions or changes within that, that you're excited about or particularly interested in? Um, I know there's a lot of impact with what you just described, but I'm curious if there's any sub kind of permutations that are, uh, particularly interesting to you right now.

Amy Brandenburg: You know, with our, we'll get into it, I'm sure, but if people go to our website or read some of our recent blogs, um, we really obsess over what we call founder DNA. So with that, it's the people that are most important to us. So, we don't really, I mean, of course it's great to follow new trends, new sectors emerging and all of that, and we absolutely do that.

But what we're most excited about is the people. Um, and so really there's no, um, you know, cookie cutter answer to that, [00:03:00] but it's really who are these new teams coming together with new concepts and have they worked together before? And a lot of other things that get us most excited. And with that, we're able to evolve with trends that are emerging.

Obviously there's a lot of money flowing in right now to defense tech and robotics and AI and health tech and many other sectors. Um, we're pretty sector agnostic, so we have a lot of that in our portfolio and it's really the people that get us excited for the long term.

Andrew Kazlow: I love that Amy, it's, it's funny, you know, doing so many of these interviews, I feel like one of the themes is that no matter what the trend or the hot topic of the day is one of the foundational things that we're all here investing in is at the end of the day, it's the people, it's the team, and so getting really good at assessing and finding, discovering, surfacing sharp teams that can navigate all of this trendiness is always a good [00:04:00] investment. And so I'd love to hear more about how, you and your last several years, have done a lot of that work, starting in 2020 up until today. Tell us a little bit more about your story.

Uh, the, the people that you've worked closely with and kind of what's been happening there in Denver the last few years?

Amy Brandenburg: Sure. Yeah. I think going even farther back, when I was a student at Baylor, they were just launching, um, had just launched an angel network there. I was in the second cohort of student analysts, and so it— 

Andrew Kazlow: You were one of the original Baylor analysts.

No kidding. 

Amy Brandenburg: Yeah. Yep. Got to help be a part of building that out and absolutely loved being a student, um, with these investors and these founders, that was the most real world experience I got.

You know, of course classroom you learn a lot, but having an angel network and being able to do that for two and a half years, almost as a student was, an amazing experience. Um, and, and getting to see a new angel group be established and how [00:05:00] that, how you scale that, who needs to be involved. It got to do a lot of different things beyond just being an analyst.

So that's really where my angel exposure first started. Um, and then after that, it led me into career in finance, but ultimately wanted to be back in the startup world and venture capital. I knew later in my career that I wanted to be in venture capital. But I needed to go work at a whole host of different companies at different life cycles, different fundraising stages to really understand operator side.

The, the pains and, and the highs of working at, you know, really early stage companies have shut their doors to really, you know, experiencing an IPO at GitLab. And so I learned a lot through that time. Um, and then come 2019 timeframe before the pandemic had started, I really missed venture capital. I had not been involved for a while.

I've always been involved in the Denver startup ecosystem, which has grown and evolved so much in the last 10 to 20 years. Um, I've been in Denver [00:06:00] 13 years now. We're spoiled with people like Brad Feld and the Techstars community. And, there's just been so many different groups here in Colorado that have really established roots and committed to building out this ecosystem.

But we've always been a state that lacked enough capital at the seed stage. We have a lot of funds on the coast. Um, we have a lot of founders building in Colorado, but just not nearly enough capital. And so, there was a small group of business owners and operators that were getting a lot of interesting deal flow.

They started kind of doing an open pitch platform and realized that they were onto something. And so very informally started as an angel group and I knew one of the partners at the time and so reached out and raised my hand just to get involved and see how I could help 'cause they were so new and I, I wanted to be involved.

Really that was the beginning of flash forward, never thought I'd be here this quickly, five years later, running a seed fund as one of the partners, life goal and, and so happy to [00:07:00] be doing that. But really early days. Um, angel group that was doing, you know, SPVs and, and helped build out that entire platform was one of the first employees now at Denver Ventures, which we can happy to share more about, but stop there. What else, would you love to talk about as far as early angel days in Denver specifically? I know you had a couple questions there. 

Andrew Kazlow: Yeah. Well, it, it's fun hearing the variety in your story. You, you mentioned several work types, even between, you know, coming outta school and, and coming back into kind the venture space. I wonder if you've got any particular takeaways or, experiences from your IPO time or from a shutdown that you feel like have shaped the way you even approach investing, uh, and running these communities over the last few years. Any stories or particular takeaways from that season?

Amy Brandenburg: Yeah, I think foundationally when I look back, um, between where I grew up in Nebraska with Warren Buffett culture of, you know, kind of [00:08:00] fundamental bottoms up how you assess companies and then working at a hedge fund after school that was actually looking for fraudulent companies and shorting those. Um, so you really have to understand bottoms up fundamental.

You know, listen to earnings calls, go out and do market research, and then being in venture capital, they're actually all the same from private to public investments. Um, for me and how I think about assessing on the company side, um, but for me, what I personally love and I think where my skillset thrives is on the relationship side of the business.

So, I've always loved being in you know, a business development or investor relations or partnership technology alliance type roles. And so being now in venture capital full time. Being able to be the bridge with both the investors who have capital to deploy, but also the founders who are raising money.

I can really help connect those dots. So, you know, I think even at GitLab who, when at the time was growing, I joined when there were 700 employees. Within 12 months they went to almost 1300 employees. [00:09:00] Um, and a lot of times it's just, 

you may have a job title and a role, but you have to be able to be given a blank canvas and pivot and jump in and scale and become comfortable or comfortable with kind of rapid change and pace.

And I learned a lot at GitLab, um, specifically about documentation, communication and asynchronous culture, which I would love to see more companies embrace the GitLab model and they have a handbook that they share online. But that was really, where I learned a lot about just my communication skills and how to work with teams all over the world.

Andrew Kazlow: I'm curious in that kind of asynchronous culture point, which I think has come to define so much of how we operate as a ecosystem these days, particularly in tech. What are maybe one to three key takeaways or key lessons from that season that you apply now?

Amy Brandenburg: So, I've always been a perfectionist [00:10:00] and I love to get like things perfect before I share it because I, don't wanna look like I was lazy or messed up. But 

GitLab really taught me all about iteration. So, putting things in a document, sharing the first version, and then letting people collectively iterate to keep things moving versus like adding on an extra few weeks to slow things down and be a backlog.

So, I become a very iterative person. We have, they called it no short toes. So there's just let people edit, don't take it personal and move, move along quickly to get to the next best thing together. Um, so that was one and then two is, they were very, you know, dogfooding using your own products.

So, we were not an email heavy company. It was amazing not having a big inbox. We had to use our own tools to get work done and, create agendas. If there was an agenda before a meeting, there was a meeting was canceled. So, you have to come prepared, um, to have speedy meetings and read the agenda ahead of time and everyone take notes.

If you missed it, you [00:11:00] can see the notes 'cause everyone collectively documented that. So, those were kind of, I'd say top three that stood out for me. And it was across the board. It could be C-level all the way to, you know, I was an individual contributor. But it was a very, very, uh, cohesive and collaborative culture.

Andrew Kazlow: So much to learn from that. I can say no emails and only well-structured meetings sounds like a great operational system to build around.

Amy Brandenburg: Yeah.

Andrew Kazlow: Uh, well, let's talk a little bit more about kinda your angel work. So, walk me through maybe the high level evolution of the community. You came in, you know, the group was looking to grow. It was kind of getting started and, and forming into something from what was previously just a, a informal community. Tell me a little bit more about what the group looked like when you entered, and then what changed over time and, and how you fit into that.

Amy Brandenburg: Yeah. Um, I would say it was pretty typical to what other people are familiar with early [00:12:00] angel groups. It was a kind of open pitch platform and syndication. Um, so if an investor or group of investors were interested in a company that presented at that event or that quarter, uh, it was up to them to kind of follow up and, and write an angel check into that company.

Um, it really started formalizing in what we, our vintage years 2020. And we officially made it a private group. We opened it up to referrals, so you had to be referred by another member. Our biggest thing was just getting enough deal flow in front of the group at a very active pace early on.

And I think because of that, paired with the flow of talent and capital that came to Colorado during the pandemic. It just kind of unleashed a huge opportunity for us. And so the group just started growing very quickly. Um, and a few of us as team members really committed to just spending a lot of time with the organization, even though, um, early on we all had other full-time jobs.

We just all [00:13:00] were so passionate about making this happen. We worked together really well. We had amazing investors and had made a couple investments at that point. And so from there, I won't cover all the five years of the history, but fast forward, um, to now where we're a full blown, you know, VC firm with almost 65 million under management between a few different vehicles.

But we have 850 investor members. We'll probably be close to 900 by the end of this year. 500 of them have done deals with us, so, we have a dedicated seed fund that invested the pre-seed and seed stage, and that's made 11 investments so far. And then we have our SPVs, which has made about 45 investments out of that.

So, a lot has happened in, in five years and happy to, you know, get into that more. But for us it was, you know. The way angel groups have originally been structured. There's, you know, pros and cons to that and it's hard. You hit a certain number of members in a group and then it's hard to scale beyond that.

[00:14:00] Um, and so that's why we became Denver Ventures is we started writing much larger checks that was confusing to founders. We're not an angel group anymore. We're doing more on average, you know, $500K to $3M checks. So that's why we became a full venture firm. And, you know, we're super excited about the founders that are in our portfolio, but I'll pause there.

What question you— 

Andrew Kazlow: Love it. So well, first off, I appreciate pausing for questions. It's nice to not have to interrupt or reiterate. So, take me back to some of those early days. Was this always the strategy in that you were, you know, trying to kind of prove out a model and then flip into this venture strategy?

Because it's, it's so interesting to see how different angel communities form and then evolve, right? The, the angel community as a concept is 30 something years old, you know, Band of Angels. All of that on the West Coast in the mid nineties hold the title.

As far as I, as far as I know of first angel group.

So, you know, 30 years old is a concept. [00:15:00] Uh, and so many of these communities kind of evolve based on the, the, the ethos and what's important to their leadership team. Tell me more about the strategy and what, what was happening in those, you know, closed door conversations as you all were thinking about how to build this community.

Amy Brandenburg: Yeah, I would say one thing, and I'm, I'm only speaking in my experience with a few other angel groups. I know there's so many other structures and models out there, but for us, what was really unique early on was 

all of the partners, 

um, and a few of the managing directors 

committed to investing in every single deal that went in front of the group.

Which is not typically how angel groups start. Um, and so it did look and feel more like a SPV fund because the partners have over 2% in all of the SPVs. Um, and so that was really unique early on. The investors understood that we also had skin in the game because of it, and knew that the seriousness of which the deals went in front of the group meant we were also putting our own capital to [00:16:00] work.

Say, I'd say a second thing is when, when members were joining early on, we had a member agreement and we were, you know, very serious about what it meant to join the group. So, we would, and also reeducating this asset class a little bit because we all know the typical angel story.

Someone wrote their first check. Larger than they probably should have for their first deal in a friend's business that they felt, you know, they wanted to support their friend, or maybe it was like an industry that they didn't know much about. Unfortunately, the business didn't make it. They lost all their money and now they're burned by the asset class.

So, when we started growing the group early on, there were a couple of core things that we really want people to think about to this day. And it doesn't mean it has to all be invested with us, but if you're going to even invest in this asset class, you have to have an active intent to invest.

And you need to think about the next, call it three to five years. Pick a dollar amount in your head for everyone else. It's for everyone. It's different. That could be, you know, a hundred thousand dollars, it could be [00:17:00] $5 million. It could be, more than that and then work backwards and divvy up and the number of deals that you need to be in to get truly diversified.

Just like you would never put your whole retirement account in one stock. Why would you do that in angel or venture or any other real estate? So, that's how we intentionally set the group, is we actually have smaller minimums. Our fund is different, but for our SPVs, we want people to get in call it 10 to 20 companies over 3 to 5 years, and then 

let venture do its thing.

You can read every blog about statistics. 

The third, a third, a third rule, or you name it. Um, but you know, 

some are gonna close their doors, some are gonna give you just your money back, and then a few of them are going to return everything and more. 

And so that was really our goal of like, Hey, if you're going to dabble in this space, doesn't have to all be with us, but you need to commit to be in a certain number of companies over the next three years and then [00:18:00] just start doing it and start deploying.

And you can't change halfway through. You can't change the strategy. Um, and so that was, I think, early on. And then it was up to us to get enough deal flow in front of the group at an active pace and run a really tight process. Um, sometimes I've seen angel models where it's like trying to fit deals in on a quarterly basis, or there could be a long period of time before a new investment opportunity comes.

We're, We're doing, you know, 8 to 12 investments per year. And so the investors have to pay attention. Um, they have to commit within, you know, two weeks turn around and SPV close it in three to four weeks. And so that's just, that pace isn't always common early on for angel groups. And we've found that was something that really worked for for us. And also just, vintage year matters. So, if everyone had put all their money in the 2020 or 2021 years of all of those high, very high valuations, granted, we're still seeing high valuations today, but [00:19:00] the IRR is depending on the vintage year, you can go read studies are going to vary. So, if you can just get your capital in multiple years, the outcomes of your returns are also going to look very different.

And none of us have the crystal ball to know, oh, that year in particular is gonna be the year. So, if you can get your assets deployed over those different vintage years, that's another strategy as well. 

Andrew Kazlow: Your dollar cost averaging your, your angel checks.

It's amazing how consistent the themes are either apply in one area of investing or in life. It just, it translates, it translates so well. We, we tend to think about, you know, the angel stage as a totally distinct asset class, and it certainly is, but so many of these principles just make sense, like objectively.

Yeah. We want people that are gonna participate, actually invest, we want, you know, encourage you to spread it out, build a portfolio. When did you and the team look at yourselves and go, oh, there's something here. Like, it sounds like it started out as an [00:20:00] passion project for the group.

You know, you had had these active uh, partners that were participating, excited about the opportunities and wanted to open 'em up to the, the ecosystem. Tell me more about the conversation where you looked around and went, holy crap, there's something here. Let's let's do this. What did that look like? 

Amy Brandenburg: Yeah. 

I would say that was um, 2022, about two years into the group growing and a couple of the team members were, we were spending more and more time on it just because we loved it so much and we had about 350 investors at that point. For a variety of reasons we hit a hit a point where we needed to double down and get full-time focus.

Uh, at the same time, we recognized we should launch a seed fund because the SPVU model was work is working really well for us at series A and beyond. 'Cause we're doing, you know, one to $3 million checks now at that stage. But we needed a seed fund vehicle and a dedicated team that could move really fast at the pre-seed [00:21:00] and seed stage, which is very competitive across the US.

Um, and we do invest outside of Colorado. That is a question we get asked a lot, but, for that reason, having the seed fund, that could be at the earliest stages, right? Smaller checks, move fast, be nimble. That could also be a feeder into future SPVs for our investor members. That was a big part of what we started thinking about in 2022. And so it took a while to map out what would that look like. Um, and then really 2023 is where everything today is of, of what, you know, as Denver Ventures really took off. And our team started to grow and we brought in a few partners for the fund. And you know, we had very committed members.

And, we love their help with diligence and the, all of them were consistently saying yes. You know, we were worried about ban people's bandwidth and ability to pay attention to deals. They're probably in other funds, other angel, angel groups, but that was really a sweet spot in timing for us. If, hey, these members are committed, they're referring their friends, they're helping us look at [00:22:00] deals.

They want these founders to be successful. They're opening up ICP intros in our backyard for these companies. And it was all just organic and inbound from there. And on the founder side, there was finally more capital. You know, we have a lot of great funds here in town now and, and other groups, but 10 years ago that was not the case.

Um, and so founders were excited as well to have more opportunities to, to get local funding from Colorado. And, you know, we see more funds regionally investing here in Colorado as well, like lot of Utah and Texas and Chicago, and some other markets as well.

Andrew Kazlow: Okay, so Amy, I, I talk to a lot of angel community leaders and that organic growth that you just described is like the apex of what every community wants to build, right? Is, is membership that is actively participating, showing up, referring their friends, like that is the goal when building and operating one of these communities.

What are some of the key reasons why you think you [00:23:00] all were so successful in being able to activate. Your part-time volunteer members to be able to lean in and, sacrifice so much and, and invest so much personal, relational, and financial capital.

Amy Brandenburg: Yeah, I can't share the full secret sauce. No. Uh, 

Andrew Kazlow: Just the nuggets. Give me a nugget. 

Amy Brandenburg: Yeah, no, I, I do think about that a lot and I think it was, you know, multiple, I think, you know, multiple reasons. One in Colorado it was needed and so it was like a breath of fresh air and right time, right place opportunity. I think also, you know, our actions followed our words and so we delivered consistently on what we said and we're, we were, no, we're not perfect by any means for sure.

We're still a startup in our own regard. But a lot of investors saw what we were saying and then doing. And then I think they appreciated the tight process. And also just, you know, I feel like angel groups really struggle of like [00:24:00] opening up the entire pipeline too early versus kind of working some through the stages that would, by the time an investor member would see a deal, it's one that we've actually as a team vetted pretty thoroughly or at least halfway through our process to where we're trying to respect their time and not just show them

all the companies we don't even know if we're serious about or not. And that got them to pay attention as well because we had you know, notes, notes to share and, a human behind that and could bring them into it. It's a sector they love. We, you know, they, they're passionate about it.

They've been successful in. And so it's kind of connecting at the right time, I would say. Um, I know there's other reasons, but it's, it's something I think about and super thankful for, but it, it is to, to be at the place where we're at is truly 'cause of the members and the word of mouth. Um, and I think it worked for Colorado.

Andrew Kazlow: So, you're saying just to, to make sure I'm tracking, not opening up the full pipeline, meaning, [00:25:00] hey, we've, we get a thousand applications let's say in a year.

But we're only showing you the 15 that we think actually have legs and not actually giving access to the full thousand. 'Cause that would just overwhelm the average member.

Amy Brandenburg: Yeah. And I think it, there's a, quality, um, there, like if, they start to see too much and it's like, eh, that not sure that's even fit for angel capital or venure capital, um, they start to not pay attention. So, if you keep it really tight process. And show them like a few that fit in their sector of expertise, um, they really start to pay attention.

They know that we're serious about it. And I'm not saying other angel groups don't do that well, but, it was that paired with just, they wanted their friends and their deals with them and they liked the deals that were being presented to them. And so, it was just, kind of organic from there.

Andrew Kazlow: Tell me more about current state. Like what, what's changed now? Uh, what are you working on today with, within Denver Ventures that's maybe different [00:26:00] particularly distinctive, right? The venture landscape, to your point, is very competitive, and so I'd love to hear more about your kind of unique lens on the world.

Amy Brandenburg: Yeah, there's a couple of things. So, looking ahead, we're on the path to have a hundred million AUM in the next few years. So from a strategy and structure standpoint, there's a lot that goes into that. Um, so that's very top of mind for us as a team. Um, very exciting. Of course, I remember when we had our first million, under management.

So it's, it's just crazy to, to see the evolution. I'd say our seed fund is a big area of focus. We do plan to roll out more funds in the future. 

Um, could be different strategies, uh, and structures, but that's important to us. So that, going back to that point of investors being diversified, yes, it's still great to have them look at individual deals and pick and choose, but if they can be in a fund where they go to work and they end up in 25 to 30 companies over a few years, um, it's a nice way to get diversified into two different approaches as [00:27:00] well.

And then a big thing for us is our philosophy around our founder, DNA. So we have an advisor, um, and I encourage everyone, we can put it, I think probably you'll put, put it in the notes, um, any book references. But his name's Marty Dubin, he's here in Colorado. And one of our LPs early on we were fundraising.

Uh, we were talking a lot about how we think about people and how we wanna diligence the teams that we're backing. Of course you have to diligence the business side of things, but for us, we wanted to be really serious about how we diligence people, knowing there's no cookie cutter. And what we could do with that to be really serious about, our thesis around the teams.

And so, Marty has been, he has an amazing background as both a clinical psychologist but also a serial entrepreneur. He's had a couple exits himself and at the time we found him, he was, entering into retirement from his full-time practice, but had been in his career advising and consulting Andreessen Horrowitz for 10 years.

Both the GPs but also [00:28:00] founders that were coming through their portfolio and we approached him about working with us and he was so excited and he said yes. And um, I won't, you know, go listen to his podcast. His book just came out July 29th. It is fresh, but it's with Harvard Business Review. It's called Blindspotting

And a lot of that book is how we have built our entire proprietary assessment process and even our cultural thinking about how we assess teams and people. And it's been an incredible journey over the last two years. And we're only getting started. It's iterating all the time, but Marty's help and guidance um, has been a huge part of, and will be a huge part, long term about how we invest and back the teams, um, that we, we are behind and totally encourage everyone to listen to his, his podcast, because that's been a really unique approach for us and we think it's working.

Andrew Kazlow: Well, it just, it all comes back to the people, right? At the end of the day, uh, none of this happens without great people, despite how, how amazing our [00:29:00] tech tools might be. We've gotta have, uh, humans behind it driving them. And I love this. I'd love to ask a little bit more about the Denver ecosystem in particular.

You've been there for a little over a decade now. 

So I know Denver Ventures invests nationally, but I'd love to hear a little bit more about the Denver ecosystem in particular.

Many of our listeners won't be as familiar.

I wonder if you could walk me through kind of your mind map for the ecosystem. Who are the, the major players? Where does things happen? What's in process right now? Maybe that most of us wouldn't have eyes on.

Amy Brandenburg: Hmm. Yeah. Um. I mean, Brad Feld, he wrote a book back in the day called, I think it's called Startup Communities or, or something. But his big thing was it takes 20 years to build a new startup community. And so a lot of people in the early, early Boulder and Denver days were very intentional about that. And those same people still live here to this day, um, which is huge for any ecosystem you have to have

people are committed for the long term and built [00:30:00] deep roots and deliver on that. And so, that started, um, I don't know exact, it was prob it was probably over 20 years ago now at this point, or close to 20 years. And then we had Techstars here, um, in early on and has grown obviously to an international company.

They're kind of going through a new, um, I don't know what the term is, but that, you know, they're here to stay as well, but kind of restructuring some things for themselves as well. And then there's just been a lot of, I would say tech leaders. We have some early pioneers, um, like. Dan Caruso at Caruso Ventures, he built ZEO group here in Boulder and we've had a lot of Bay Area, um, companies.

The second office here, like Twitter for many years. There was a lot that moved here during COVID and offices that opened in Denver. And so there's been this wave of tech talent, but also coastal capital, um, that came here as well. And, and people that could live in a beautiful, for the same reasons I moved here, I [00:31:00] can work and also vacation year round and be outside.

And, there's so many hobbies and activities you can do, and so it's a, it's a very nice balanced life. But, but uh, really it was those, those early individuals, that played a big part and then, slowly we had funds started opening, there was, there's another local group called Rocky's Venture Club that's been around a long time and has been very instrumental in bringing angels to Colorado, educating them as well on this asset class.

And then, you know, I, I won't name all the funds, but there's, lots of blogs online and, there's a group, I think it's Colorado Startups. They have a leaderboard and a lot of ecosystem resources that they map out for everyone, so I'd encourage people to check that out. Um, to see who, you know, the companies that are building.

And then the last thing I'll say long term that we love to see is founders that are exiting and IPOing here, reinvesting in a local community or starting new companies. So, for [00:32:00] example, we've invested in, radical defense, Chris Petersen and, um, some of the other co-founders of previous company Logarithm, um, which was a large Colorado exit.

They're now here. They're starting a new company. They're hiring talent. Chris is reinvesting into the ecosystem. You know, we just had our big, Ibotta a IPO with Brian Leach last year. And so, I would love to see all those people go and start new companies, uh, reinvest their capital that they had from the IPO into local businesses.

There's, um, there's another major companies that have had, raises or exits in the last few years, but long term we also see that being you know, instrumental for our ecosystem here locally. I'm trying to think what else, what, what do you, what have you heard from Denver or Colorado Ecosystem?

Andrew Kazlow: Well, it's funny. Just recently I was doing an interview with, at the Dallas-Fort Worth, uh, Startup Week. And, uh, the primary kind of competitor for DFW Startup Week is Denver Startup Week. Uh, you guys are [00:33:00] really well known. 

But Denver Startup Week is something that I hear about all the time, particularly from founders, just the community, you know, back to Brad Feld, right.

Going above and beyond to create space for people to connect and just the magic that happens when you put, smart people in a room. And um, so that's one of the main things that I hear about and get excited about. I've yet to make it out, but it's on my list, uh, for sure, as soon as I can. Amy, I'd love to just conclude any final thoughts for our listeners, that we haven't covered or, that you'd be sad if we close without mentioning?

Amy Brandenburg: Well, I would say, I know, I know this audience, there's a lot of very experienced angels. There's probably people listening that would love to get their foot in the door with angel investing. And I would say another book that was really helpful for me and I refer to others all the time is Secret of Sandhill Road.

Um, so if you wanna link that in the notes after, I think it's a great one that you buy and you mark up. Um, and just go back to many, many times if you're on the curious side and wanna learn more, more about this. Another thing I'm super excited about is seeing more women in angel investing. [00:34:00] Uh, we have over 110 women in our group that are committed and, investing with us, and I'm super excited about that. So that's more of a, you know, personal passion and, um, would love to see more women in this, in this asset class. Um, and so, you know, any educational opportunity or exposure, just encourage people to dive in, start looking at deals, start joining Zooms, deep dives where you can hear, you know, other investors asking.

Um, you can share deal flow with each other. And, um, you know, that's not just for Colorado, it's across the board. So, we'd love to put a plug for that and just see more in the space and, um, there's a huge opportunity ahead for that.

Andrew Kazlow: Well, we've had quite a few, um, really thoughtful leaders that are pioneering access for female investors on this show, and so, uh, that's a theme that, that we're excited about as well. Any particular resources you've found helpful for those 110 women in your community?

Amy Brandenburg: [00:35:00] For us, it's been curating really intimate events where we bring in speakers and we can talk about deals together. We can have dinners, form relationships, bring in our female founders for them to interact with and just get, more familiar with each other.

And even, you know, it could be a funnel for future advisory seats, um, mentorship opportunities. So I think, wherever you live, find the local group, or there's a lot of great virtual groups out there as well that are sharing deal flow and just get plugged in. Um, that can be the best resource is just paying attention to deals, listening to the, the recordings, or joining live and asking your own questions.

I think that's the best way to learn and. You really learn by getting in your first few investments and seeing how they play out. That's honestly the best, best way to learn. You can only read so many books or blogs until you just start doing it. And the first few are the best learning opportunities for sure.

Which, why, why we encourage people to start small and not get too overly allocated in their first or [00:36:00] second angel deal. Um, 'cause you'll learn the more you're in about your strategy and, and what exactly the type of company you're looking for.

Andrew Kazlow: Yeah, the deals that look great when you start out may not look so great. Six months, six in, uh, you realize your, your filters a little bit clearer at that point. So, I love that.

Amy Brandenburg: Well, I know I'm putting you on the spot, but I was curious if there's anything you're seeing, um, in the angel class right now that you're excited about or is, unique or different?

Andrew Kazlow: Yeah, one of the things I'm super excited about is the reduced cost that's enabling efficiencies around a community building. So a lot of, what's hard about building an angel community is that it's often volunteer, part-time, kind of fractional stuff, and so you never see the community end up, getting super efficient.

It's not like a business in the traditional sense, and so it doesn't have that same level of incentive. But with the increase in AI applications, the tooling that's being built out, it's making, running these [00:37:00] communities far more cost effective. And that's something that I get excited about because it increases the capacity for individuals to participate, makes it easier to build and manage these communities, uh, which allows for more investors to participate.

And, kinda increases the odds of, you know, that next deal, that becomes a winner hitting the, the bigger stage. I think the angel space is so important because it, it just, it's, it's everywhere, right? And so it's, it provides opportunity to many founders that wouldn't otherwise have it.

And so I'm getting excited about the reduced cost and increased in efficiencies afforded to community operators so that the next generation can kind of create more avenues for investors to participate that otherwise wouldn't have. So that's something I'm super excited about. A lot of kinda sub permutations in that, and that's where I focused a lot of our business is per helping make that happen. But that's something I'm super excited about

Amy Brandenburg: Cool. Thanks for sharing. Yeah, I'm always, uh, looking for [00:38:00] the next tool or software that can help with some of that because I do a lot on the ops side as well, like you and small teams. So you have to figure out how to scale that.

Andrew Kazlow: Absolutely. Well, we, we will continue that con conversation for sure. Amy, this has been such a pleasure. Thank you for taking a few minutes out of your busy schedule as you all continue to do great things there in Denver. I look forward very much to our next conversation.

Amy Brandenburg: Thanks, Andrew. It's to good to see see you and your time today.

Andrew Kazlow: Thanks for listening to this episode of The Diligent Observer. I'm your host, Andrew, and if you're an angel investor looking for essential angel intel in five minutes every week, I think you'd enjoy my newsletter. I send my best stuff, interesting deals, and more straight to your inbox so you never miss a thing.

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