Thank you Khalida! I really appreciate your response and your insights. Are there any syndicates that you would recommend?

Hi Alamin, investing in African startups can be challenging, but exciting. Here are some strategies I follow to reduce risk:

1) Investing through syndicates: Syndicates allow you to leverage the experience and due diligence of seasoned investors, e.g. syndicate leads and other co-investors. By pooling resources, you also gain access to better deals and reduce your risk exposure.

2) Avoid the hype: It's easy to get caught up in the excitement, but focus on startups with a clear moat, i.e. unique, defensible advantages that are difficult to replicate. This could be the strength of their proprietary technology, defensible market positioning, or exclusive partnerships.

3) Clear thesis or framework: It’s worth investing time to consider what industries or trends you really believe in, e.g. industries that are ripe for disruption or mega trends with wide-reaching implications, such as demographic shifts. You can then view potential investments through this lens. At a minimum, evaluate the founder(s), business idea, their tech, traction so far, key metrics, and expected returns. A structured approach can bring rigour to what might otherwise feel highly variable.

Hope that helps. Good luck on your angel investing journey!

Thank you so much, Fatima! This is very detailed and very insightful. In particular, I appreciate your point about investing in companies who are in their growth phase.

This is a great question, and a more important one for African tech since they face challenges and set backs that other startups around the world don't have to deal with. My first and general rule for any investment is that I only invest what I can afford to lose 100%. This advice might sound repetitive or overused in the personal finance world but clichés are clichés for a reason. Now when it comes to doing the due diligence aspect, as I dont a lot of investment fund just lying around, I avoid very early companies. Like I mainly look for companies that already have a good user base and they are mainly looking for investments to expand their operations and scale up (more products, more locations, more countries, etc.). Basically, I invest to help startups scale and not to stay at float. These companies are still early stage but more growth phase and not infancy. I also look at how they intend to retain their existing customers. The good thing about companies in their growth phase is that they do have a better idea of what they are doing and what they want to achieve. I know for investments, they also advise to look at the experience and expertise of the founders but I am not quite good at that yet. This is important because building a good product doesn't mean it will sell. Selling is a different ball game, so ensuring that the startups are ready for every phase of the market process.

Secondly, I am really a newbie investor, who knows that I don't know much, so I never invest alone. For all my investments, I was lucky to have a community of other investors that are able to ask questions that I could not think of. I also attended a lot of Q&A sessions where the companies will go through their pitch and the audience will ask them questions. Remember what I said about avoiding infancy companies when starting out, infancy companies are really trying to survive so they are not at the stage where they might have these organized pitch sessions.

Last but not least, I invest in companies that I like their ideas and that I am excited about their product and services (and their execution plans) such that if they fail for any reason, I can easily come to terms with the fact that maybe it was not time or that something unforeseen or uncontrollable happened. And for start ups, the unpredictable are numerous, they can do everything right and life will throw a wrench in all their best laid plans.