Angel Investing in Jamaica

Over the past year I have been conducting a workshop on structuring early stage deals and term sheets as part of the NACO Academy. Now this will take me to such places as Calgary and Kitchener to name a few, so imagine my pleasant surprise when I was invited to conduct the workshop in Kingston, Jamaica. The local angel investing group FirstAngels Jamaica had organized a two-day event where they would present one of their latest deals, have their members network and allow me to run two modules, one a general introduction to angel investing and a second one focused on term sheets.

Like any other small nation Jamaica is forced, by history and circumstances, to look outward and be creative in developing its economic potential. And for good measure this goes well beyond reggae, tourism and having great athletes booking Olympic successes. Jamaica consequently is a nation of entrepreneurs and in that they are supported by a well-connected Jamaican diaspora that is able to source capital and deals that spur entrepreneurial activity on the island nation of some three million people. In addition it is also one of the key hubs for Caribbean economic development. 

So it was great to discuss the deals FirstAngels had recently done and understand how local universities on the island plugged into this development. What emerged was a country with a real zest to develop new business sectors, ideas ready to be funded and incubated by a steadily growing class of private investors keen to diversify their holdings and help fund local growth. When asked what the biggest constraint was on growing this community the answer was as I had expected: deal flow. So far FirstAngels has funded four deals and they are keen to find more within their geographic setting, it should be noted that angel investors generally prefer to invest close to home. 

During the actual workshops and panel discussion it was interesting to see the parallels and differences with other angel networks in North America. There were lots of questions from the audience that consisted of both (aspiring) investors, entrepreneurs and various professionals. A lot of time and questions dealt with valuation and I did my best to dissuade the attendees from getting too hung up over these and encouraged them to focus on the bigger picture and map out the future financing milestones of a new venture first. It was also rewarding to dive deeper into concepts that weren’t fully incorporated into local deal structuring and I happily elaborated on founder vesting and structuring option plans. It was great to have some Jamaican lawyers on the panel and get them to share some of their experiences. 

But above all it was great to meet the entrepreneurs and learn how they got their businesses off the ground with limited resources. FirstAngels presented their most recent deal, an investment in BookFusion, and the e-book company is not any different from US or Canadian startups. Having cleverly outsourced some development to Europe combined with a US presence this Jamaican company is on to the next step with the support of the local angel community. Their story merged perfectly into my framework for the workshop and enabled all the participants to learn more about starting and financing companies and above all feel energized to take the next steps in that process. As for me I really enjoyed the extremely friendly and positive Jamaican atmosphere and once more realized how the rapid movement of capital and ideas is fuelling a new breed of economic activity across borders. 

Note: anyone interested in getting me to do the two-hour introduction to angel investing or the four-hour structuring deals and term sheet workshops should contact Melissa Dodaro at NACO for further details.