On my to-do list I have a plan to write a rip-roaring novel about a woman who starts a business and is backed by angels, with lots of exciting highs and lows in the narrative.
Should it be good enough and maybe – just maybe – become a bestseller, it would bring the world I inhabit to a wide audience and give many more women permission to have a go, but I need the time to put pen to paper. In the meantime Dragon’s Den does a great job on TV.
FTA: Talking about books, you've just published another one. Could you tell us about it and how this might help more women investors support emerging businesses?
MRM: The greatest part of my angel time is spent working with angel markets outside the UK where the dynamism and enthusiasm of the parties involved is addictive.
I was commissioned by the World Business Angels Investment Forum to co-author (with WBAF chair Baybars Altuntas) a definitive guide to angel investing that would be suitable for angels all over the world, as they are present in more than 100 countries.
The book is part of their wider strategy to develop and co-ordinate angel markets across the globe. The project turned into a major exercise as the book ended up running into 150,000 words with loads of graphics.
I had to write in plain English that could be easily understood if English is your second language. The book turned out to be so comprehensive that we agreed that as well as publishing it whole, we would also publish in parts – so one book became 28.
The good news for readers is if they only want to learn about one part of angel investing they can buy one of the smaller books.
We also have some exciting plans to use the book to support more training solutions for angels. I already regularly train angels all over the world on Zoom for WBAF – Bahrain, Thailand and Nigeria are in the diary right now.
FTA: What’s the elevator pitch?
MRM: In a few hours you will go from being a rookie innocent to becoming the very best angel backer of a great entrepreneur.
Not only will you increase your chances of enjoying being an angel and making money, but also finding the right entrepreneurs to back and helping them to succeed.
The icing on the cake will be that you also will learn fun facts about angel markets across the world, learn how governments could (or should?) support angel investing and why and how to run your own club or syndicates of angels.
