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"More Professionals turning Angel Investors"

Business Today has an article profiling some successful professionals who have turned angel investors.
All of them are professionals who’ve tasted success in their chosen fields. But bitten by a bug, or perhaps, just chasing the joy and excitement of playing midwife and mentor to start-up companies, they have all ventured out of their comfort zones. For some, like Ranjan Kapur, Country Manager, India, WPP, it’s the opportunity to spar with young minds engaged in ideation and channel the creative outflows, while for others, such as Praveen Chakravarty, COO & Acting Head of Equity Research, BNP Paribas India, it’s the adrenaline rush of taking risks and earning rewards. Of course, money is a big motivator. The six angels featured here are not professional venture capitalists or angel investors—we have purposely excluded members of the Band of Angels and other such individuals from this report. But all of them do precisely the same thing— financing and mentoring start-ups with passion.

...“Getting involved in start-ups gives me a high and you need to have a passion for it as it takes a huge toll on your time,” (Chakravarty) says. Plus, angel investors need to have a lot of gumption. “Only one out of 15 ideas will work and justify your faith in start-ups, but potentially, that one profitable idea can cover up the losses on the 14 others that don’t work. It’s a pretty skewed risk-reward spectrum— but greater the risk, more are the rewards,” he admits. The adrenalin rush of risking everything for possibly nothing, given that a majority of the startups, like Bollywood movies, bomb at the box office. Plus, he says, there’s the excitement of getting involved in a new business.

Arun Natarajan is the Founder & CEO of Venture Intelligence, the leading provider of information and networking services to the private equity and venture capital ecosystem in India. View free samples of Venture Intelligence newsletters and reports.

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