Anyone who’s spent any time in the angel investing world (or on Hulu) knows the name Theranos.

Valued at a lofty $9 billion in 2014, the MedTech startup claimed its technology could reduce the amount of blood required for testing to a microscopic amount.

Theranos founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison at the beginning of 2022 for the lies.

In her and the company’s wake are a long list of big-name investors who wrote nine-figure checks – only for them to disappear.

It is perhaps the most notorious example of fraud in startup history.

And the perfect cautionary tale about the intangible risk latent in the industry.

For angel investors, the prospect of being swindled by snake oil salesmen could be enough to scare them away altogether.

But that’s unfortunate, because, as long as you know who to trust, angel investing isn’t as risky as you’re led to believe.

It’s more than just trusting the founders.

It’s about verifying and double checking and doing the hard, long research. It’s about getting background checks and even legal counsel. That’s tough to do on your own. That’s why we do it for you at the Angels & Entrepreneurs Network.

Run rates. Annual recurring revenues. Valuation multiples. Earnings before interest, taxes, and depreciation. These are widely known metrics of success for startups. You don’t need to be an expert to understand their impact on a business’ potential.

However, to the A&E research team, these are single grains of rice in a jam-packed rice cooker.

You’d be hard pressed to find a group more committed to pouring through the granular information of startups.

This includes a legal team that examines every deal we feature.

The value of this was made obvious earlier this week when they put the kibosh on one of the deals we were preparing for Angels & Entrepreneurs Network subscribers.

What we’d discovered in our initial research made this company look like a great investment opportunity.

Low debt.

Already generating revenue.

Positive press everywhere you look.

It appeared to be a startup with a strong chance to return high investment multiples.

And then legal shared their discoveries.

They uncovered information that 99% of angel investors would most likely overlook.

So we nixed the deal.

It’s not our job to bring you every deal out there. You can simply go to the funding platforms for that.

It IS our job to find you the deals with the most potential and the least risk.

Sometimes things can be too good to be true. Sometimes those things actually are true.

In both cases, you can rest assured that the Angels & Entrepreneurs Network Team has you covered.

And you can always feel comfortable that the investment opportunities hitting your inbox have every “i” dotted and “t” crossed.

After all, the road to financial success is much smoother with a safety belt.

Join the Angels & Entrepreneurs Network today.

The Research Team