Episode 162 - Angel Investing Overview with Mark Klopp
Subscribe to the Podcast:
Our ministry receives tons of questions around angel investing. What is it? How does it work? How can I get started?
In this episode, experienced investor and advisor, Mark Klopp, joins our host John Coleman to answer these questions and more as he provides us with a basic overview of Angel Investing.
For more, check out this page: https://www.faithdriveninvestor.org/angel-networks
All opinions expressed on this podcast, including the team and guests, are solely their opinions. Host and guests may maintain positions in the companies and securities discussed. This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as specific investment advice for any individual or organization.
Episode Transcript
Transcription is done by an AI software. While technology is an incredible tool to automate this process, there will be misspellings and typos that might accompany it. Please keep that in mind as you work through it.
John Coleman: Welcome back to the Faith Driven Investor podcast. This is John Coleman. And I am very privileged to have with us today Mark Klopp to talk about the topic of Angel investing. Mark is an independent consultant, board member, advisor and investor. He's focused on corporate venturing best practices. He's an instructor for Global Corporate Venturing Institute and a principal advisor for Larta and Tech Future. He's also an angel investor himself and serves as a board member and advisor for several startups and Christian ministries. And I know my partners have known Mark for some time. He's such an incredible influence on this ecosystem, and we're incredibly grateful to have him on today. So Mark, welcome to the FDI podcast.
Mark Klopp: Thanks, John. Great to be here and appreciate all that You and Luke and Henry and others are part of the faith driven investor movement and community that's being built. I've gotten a lot out of it myself and happy to share what I've learned as well.
John Coleman: Well, we were joking before the recording started here for the audience that our audience knows, I sometimes get into rather eclectic investment topics that maybe don't have the listenership of angel investing. But angel investing is a very popular topic that I think people will be engaged in, and we're super excited to learn from you, Mark. You know, maybe just to start this term, angel investing is a little bit broad, right? People mean different things with that, I think. What is Angel investing mean to you? It's a big topic. How do you define it and how do you think about the parameters of angel investing?
Mark Klopp: Yeah, that's I think everybody probably has their own definition and mine is not an official one. But I think at a high level, John, that angel investors are really usually individuals that invest their own capital into startups. And usually that's during the early stages of development. And for that they receive an ownership stake or equity. Sometimes they invest alone and sometimes in a formal or an informal group in order to pool resources and share due diligence. And now these businesses are early. They might not even have customers yet or generating revenue, but they could only have a business plan or a beta product test or a minimum viable product. So some of the capital is used for research and development to help the company formulate its product service, offering even to build a business strategy or identify a target market, depending on how early you invest. And for me, from a faith driven investing standpoint, that's a subcategory of angel investing. And that means that I'm seeking out investing and mentoring an faith driven entrepreneurs and their teams, and that involves adding value beyond the cash investment in terms of coaching, strategic insights, as well as providing leads and introductions to investors, customers, partners. And the sweet spot for me is a company that has a strategic focus and values and a specific mission aligned with Christ. Hopefully being able to make some kind of kingdom impact.
John Coleman: When obviously angel investing. One of the unique things about it is that it is super early. Typically we know that super early investments are high risk. And so, you know, it is for a particular type of person and is different than the approach most people take, usually investing through professional fund managers or in a diversified portfolio of more mature investments. What drew you to Angel Investing is a discipline, and maybe it ties in to that, being able to counsel people in spiritual impact and those sorts of things. But what drew you to it and why has this become such an important part of your life and your investment portfolio?
Mark Klopp: Yeah, I think it goes back to my initial experience with investing was as a corporate venture capitalist, that was with Eastman Ventures, which is the corporate venture capital arm of Eastman Chemical Company. And through that I got to understand investing in the venture ecosystem. But that was secular and I always had a drive to try to find something that's more impactful than just financial returns. So that was always been an underlying goal or objective. But I was constrained in what was strategic to Eastman at that time. And since I left there and learn some of the fundamentals and had a network build up in the investing world, I started consulting for corporations on VC best practices, which is kind of been my day job. And then investing also as an angel investor and serving on the boards and advisory boards for private companies, but from a spiritual standpoint. I read the book half time, which many of you may have also read and been influenced by as kind of, you know, what are you going to do to make an impact in your second phase of your career or life? And went through the master's program at [...]. Those have been big influences on my faith journey, especially as it relates to integrating faith and work. And I realize that the relationships, the knowledge, the learnings that I gained in the for profit world could be leveraged to make an impact in Christian ministry and start up arenas. So I started out with before the FDI community had been built by you guys, I was focused more on medical devices, which was my way of trying to make an impact or be involved with impactful investing, because I could understand as an engineer medical devices more easily and I could see where I was helping improve or save lives and many times. But then when FDI came along and kind of opened my eyes to the opportunity to make a kingdom impact beyond the secular play. So my interests as far as industries and application has broadened to more of a generalist with a kingdom impact being the central theme. It's kind of been a lot of fun to learn about new technologies and industries, kind of keep me on a learning curve. And although many of the principles of investing apply across different technologies and business models, I still try to glean some wisdom from those experts that might be more experienced in the domain or space that may be new to me.
John Coleman: Well, if you don't mind, I'd love to follow one quick tangent because you brought it up as your day job. And this is not exactly angel investing, it's corporate venturing. And in my last role, I helped a bit around the edges. It was unique in that we were an investment firm, but as a corporate we were also thinking about new technologies, new innovative companies within asset management, etc. And so we we thought about this as well. And it's a tough space to navigate, actually. I mean, you know, there are so many different stakeholders within a corporation. You know, you're triangulating for different purposes with the investments that might be more multifaceted than you would as a pure VC. Maybe just as a quick tangent. Tell us a little bit more. What is corporate venturing and what makes it so both challenging and interesting for the corporations who choose to do it?
Mark Klopp: Yeah, it is. You're right. It's a very complicated algorithm to be able to balance the strategic desires of the corporation and the tastes and innovation outside with the startups. It kind of goes to the open innovation theme where corporations have started to realize and it's becoming more mission critical to reach outside for open innovation and bring in technologies. Then while trying to find things that are relevant to the company to create options or to hedge or to build business intelligence for the company. And balancing that is a very difficult thing. And that's why there is a need to kind of learn from the past about best practices and how that's done. So a corporation might have a heavy emphasis on financial returns with a light on strategic. Another corporation may have almost all strategic and very little financial return objectives other than returning their capital. So it really depends on the corporate needs. But in general, they're trying to do both because building a sustainable corporate venturing effort requires you to make a strategic impact to the company that is creating an M&A option, a licensing of new technology, a partnership or go to market collaboration, a new vendor to enable something or just in competitive intelligence and business knowledge. And those objectives are part of the investing. So you have the filter of what is strategic to the corporation. And you have the filter of a traditional venture capitalist. So many times corporations will co-invest with lead VCs, financial VCs, and just try to fit those deals that make sense strategically and then set up that collaboration almost in a business development role with a core corporate.
John Coleman: Yeah, love everything that you said, and we always thought about kind of you had to almost measure the return of the portfolio in a broader way because we were often investing for some sort of commercial acceleration. And so we might partner. We might invest, for example, with a natural language processing company in order to be their exclusive customer for a period of time in our space, right, in our industry. Yeah. So there were even if the financial return were modest in some respects, if it were able to accelerate a part of your business upon which you were relying, you know, you could think about multiple sources of return. And I think that's what you're describing is how do you do that while also, you know, everybody believes that in theory, although people do tend to look at your financial returns pretty aggressively when you're doing that front line. And so, you know, you can say it's a balance that everybody kind of wants both.
Mark Klopp: Yeah. When you're like a 10 billion plus market cap corporation and you dedicate, let's say, $50 million to a venture capital effort over multiple years, and if you get A5X return, that doesn't make a huge impact to your now market cap. So you have to have a strategic leverage to that. And how do you measure that? It's important. And that's one of the best practices. Also, you're not going to be around very long as a corporate VC if you lose money, right? So that's right. The way to position is you're a profit center inside a corporation that's also doing innovation. And you can ultimately recycle and create kind of an evergreen fund yourself inside the corporation. And you're returning more than the average return on invested capital for alternative uses of that allocation of resources.
John Coleman: Well, I could do a whole podcast on this, Mark. We might want to come back at some point, but maybe to return a bit to the angel investing side. You know, I've had such long experience here and you talked about deals in the abstract to give people a sense for the space, for the types of companies, for the role that you can play. Would you mind talking us through a couple of your more interesting deals that you've done and just how did those come about? How did you find them? What made you invest in them? Just talk us through those deals and give us a sense for what an angel deal looks like in the role that you can play.
Mark Klopp: Yeah, I just at a high level, I typically assist the CEOs on company strategy, financing, business development, licensing, corporate partnering and investor relations. Those are my kind of strengths where I can bring something unique to the table. And on top of that, I try to be kind of a coach or a mentor or encourager and sometimes a cheerleader or even a therapist as needed, since it's kind of a very lonely and isolating to be a CEO of a startup because they're looking for someone that can be vulnerable with and they can vent to other than their investors, employees or customers. So maybe a few examples of some deals that are been in the FDI space that I've done. One is called FRDM, headed up by Justin Dillon. That was a deal that was led by Tom Blaisdell and I co-invested with him. Justin worked for years in the nonprofit sector to build awareness of forced labor and human trafficking. And he recently was part of a FDI feature demo day type of webinar. So some of you may have heard his story and FRDM story, but they're really trying to identify that forced labor and human trafficking as well as environmental issues in the supply chain. And he really learned that through his not for profit work, being an advocate in that area, so that right now they're getting some great traction helping and some of the world's best brands build transparent and responsible supply chains aligned with their company's values. So that's a really good example of one that has a kingdom mission, but also is solving a real problem in B2B. On the more consumer side. This is one where I've kind of ventured out beyond my normal focus is a company called Flaire F-L-A-I-R-E, and it's led by Julia Carter. And this was fueled by her faith and desire for social justice, the work she did with IJM in Uganda. And with flaire, she wanted to build community and social interactions with the Generation Z. And she's established a great culture. The company that's one of the things I look for is, is there a cultural goal within the company to have kind of Christ's values, even if it's not such a clear kingdom impact, but influencing through culture. She's building what she calls a friend powered AI that maps where your friends have been and what they recommend while keeping track of your own travel history. Adaptic Health is led by Luke Stewart. This was a deal was actually referred to me by Phil Jung at Sovereigns and something that you guys are looking at for a later stage. And that's where I like to get some flow from venture capitalists who say, I like this, but it's a little early. You might be interested in it. And Luke is actually a pastor and a board member at Vive Church, and he's formed this company called Adaptic Health, which offers a software as a service or SAS platform that helps accelerate clinical development for drug and biotech development from the early stage of design through optimization. And it's kind of like a copilot leveraging generative AI to streamline collaboration, dynamic literature, review, what if analysis tools and other kind of analytics to improve the efficiency and bring to life drugs that save lives as well as improve lives. Debbie Chen is the founder and CEO of Hydrostasis that provides real time hydration, monitoring and guidance. So from a wellness standpoint or health, dehydration is a universal problem, and that's three out of four adults, in the US are chronically dehydrated, especially older. One of the lead causes for emergency. I know my mom's suffered this many times having to go to emergency to get hydrated through IV and she had a monitor. It might alert that problem earlier.
John Coleman: I mean, what you're describing is a really broad array of companies at a similar stage. Yeah. And you know, what I love here is, as you said, for a lot of venture firms, including ours, even if you're early stage, there's a stage that's too early even for us, right, where Angel often play a critical role. You also you mentioned all these folks by name. And I know a big part of angel investing is that counseling role that you can play the coaching role. Would you mind talking to us a little bit more in depth about what that looks like, like when you come alongside one of these entrepreneurs? What are they going through typically that you can be helpful on? And what is that counseling, relationship or coaching relationship look like between the two of you?
Mark Klopp: Yeah, it varies depending on kind of the need. Many times it's positioning for the next round of financing as well as rounding out the current round of financing, because I'm coming in many times right after friends and family. I may be one of the first angels. And generally at that stage. So it's about making sure the structure of whatever their vehicle they're using, whether it's a stage node or a convertible or a priced round, is the right one to go after the target audience suggesting who the target investors might be, referring investors that might align with their values, giving them ideas of investment firms and corporates that they might want to think about approaching later and kind of the financing strategy in general. Also, many times there's a need for a proof of concept or some kind of test evaluation and how to work with the corporation and make that palatable and appeal to the corporation. There's a lot of insight that I can give. I've got a lot of experience with licensing and intellectual property strategy. So we talk about that many times and then just building out a board of advisors, if there's not one in place or let's say finalizing the board of advisors and rounding that out. And then just the encouragement, a lot of it's encouragement and the subtleties of building a business that I try to bring in. Like I said, it's sometimes it's just someone to talk with on topics that aren't comfortable for them to talk about with their investors or employees or customers. Is that specific enough?
John Coleman: Yeah. No, no, no. I think that's a great overview and it is an opportunity because you're coming at a unique point in time where, as you said, you're kind of the first port of call after friends and family and they're really often looking for counsel, especially if this is their first venture. Now, you have an extensive track record and experience in venture capital through corporate venturing, through more traditional venture. So you came at this with a lot of experience that angel investing is a different beast even than conventional venture investing comes with a lot of risks. It's a different structure. And I suspect you maybe made some mistakes along the way. You know, as people are thinking about getting into angel investing because we hear about this all the time. I mean, people who have done well for themselves, who picked up great experience, who want to be an encouragement to others, who really want to take some risks. But, you know, it comes with some pitfalls, too. What are some of the mistakes you made along the way that others might learn from?
Mark Klopp: How long do you have?
John Coleman: This is a whole podcast, right?
Mark Klopp: Okay. Well, yeah, what is our time limit, there's a lot to choose from. And you would think I would have known better in many cases. So let me give you a few examples. Early on in my angel investing experience, and this shouldn't have been a mistake due to lack of planning, it was me failing to plan or at least accept that I should reserve adequate funds for follow on rounds. And that's assuming conservatively on the time to return, because as an angel, you're going to be in for the long haul. The interesting thing is that some of you may be aware of the J curve, which basically means you get the bad news early. And the good news comes later as far as financial returns. So the really good companies are going to take a while to generate a financial return through an M&A or an IPO or some other kind of exit. And this should have been obvious to me because we did that all the time in eastman ventures. And I knew how venture capital worked, but I didn't plan well. And the other mistake I made in the early days was when I came from a secular. Angel investing standpoint. I many times got enamored with the technology or the application or the business opportunity and didn't do enough due diligence around the character or the ability of the CEO to raise money or be a talent magnet or even execute on the business. I just got so excited about the product or the market, although, you know, market is important, but ultimately when you're Angel, you're kind of betting on the jockey as much as the horse. So as I moved into FDI, one of the challenges I have currently is time management and juggling kind of the day job like I talked about. But let me give you a couple of specific examples where I really messed up. One deal that I did early on before FDI was a medical device that treated emphysema with a less invasive approach. i was the first investor in on a convertible node, played an interim. I actually played an operational role for a period of time, VP biz dad role, and I received additional founders shares for that because I came in really early. So first money in and kind of played a role. So I kind of leveraged up my angel investing with some founder shares and the company did quite well. They were lined up for a Series C and then this is right in the middle of the financial curve, right at the start of the financial crisis. Oh, wow. A Series C came about. They signed the deal and literally everybody was signed up and in the syndicate. And the day of the wiring of money, they pulled out. Wow. Yeah. So the existing inside investors stepped up, but they did our very own arrests pay to play with a reverse split and all these other investor friendly terms. And my founder shares basically got wiped out. And then I had to come up with some money to pay to play and be in line for the liquidation preference. So that was a painful lesson. On reserving follow on zero. If you don't do it, at least you have it if you need it. And then another mistake I made was on an exit. I invest in a company and advised In Touch Health, which is kind of a telehealth company that was acquired by Teladoc, which is kind of the leader in telehealth now and a public company. It was an all stock deal after the acquisition. During that time, when you're locked up and you can't sell. They had a run up in the Teladoc stock price. And once the window opened up that I could sell the Teladoc stock and liquidate some. I took out some like 15% of the shares and gifted some of it to the donor advised fund. And I left the rest right thinking it would go up further or they stay pretty stable because they're a leader and then use that Teladoc stock as a kind of a holding stock for my source of funds going forward and then sell it when I had the investment opportunity. Unfortunately, with many Covid pandemic run ups, this one went down like 90% and it's remained at that lower level. So I really beat myself up for being greedy and not contributing more of the stock to my DAF or selling more of it to hold in cash and reinvest in FDI companies or using some type of option to protect the downside. And so that was a very painful lesson and still hurts and one that I hope not to repeat any time with our investments going forward when there's a stock consideration, take some gains, take more than you think you need, and use that to recycle into other companies.
John Coleman: Well, it's just a good lesson on venture and public equities being dramatically different. Right. Which I think gets underestimated. You know, we've always talked about in the context of a fund manager, for example, people will hire you to manage the asset class. They've hired you to manage, not what that might turn into. You know, for a venture firm. Obviously, you want to be intelligent about the way that you exit a position even in public markets position and thoughtful about that. But ultimately they hire us for our venture fund to do venture capital not told public stocks and you know rather than capital to them so that they can diversify. And I think the same holds true when you're an individual where unless you just have a very strong thesis and conviction around that resulting security, as you said, keeping your powder dry for the activity that you're engaged in and a more diversified portfolio or these days you even get returns on cash market's fascinating. We haven't had that in 15 years.
Mark Klopp: [...] Percent on a money market. Who would have thought?
John Coleman: Who knew? It's like I'm a kid again. Yeah. You know, as you get into that, you touched on this earlier. But one of the unique things about your approach is how you play a spiritual role in the companies that you invest with and you are targeting faith driven leaders. It sounds like companies with redemptive impact. Where do you see opportunities for redemptive impact as an angel investor just for those who are thinking about getting in and, you know, whether that's alongside teams that are faith driven, whether that's the types of products and services or markets. You sort of you mentioned like I loved the example of I think it was called Freedom earlier, which obviously has an impact on human trafficking and supply chains, which is redemptive product, redemptive founder. But just talk to us about how you think about redemptive impact in your angel investing.
Mark Klopp: Yeah, that's a tough one. And you can get pretty deep from a theology standpoint. And I have a lot of learning to do in this regard. For me, it's a constant battle to avoid the temptation of a focus on financial return, because I'm kind of wired that way as an investor. So, you know, from a definitional standpoint, you know, I believe redemption to a Christian means that Jesus Christ, through his sacrificial death, paid a ransom for us as believers from the slavery of sin. And that's to set us free from the bondage of sin. So how do you find that in your investing? I do believe that there is a redemptive potential in angel investing when you can find some kind of spiritual, social, economic impact and a results and also some financial returns because you want to be prudent and find a way to return that capital back into the system and recycle it to others that are doing the same on the for profit side or in your tithing or gifting on the not for profit side. So you might have a an investment goal or a theme to support ventures that renew or reshape or restore individuals, communities and culture Now so you can as an angel investor, I think you can not only provide funding to support a business that has a kingdom objective and a culture that models Jesus, but you have that opportunity to kind of get into it from a higher touch standpoint as a spiritual mentor and encourager kind of a Barnabas, as well as provide strategic advice and connections and basically think about how can you help? I always think before I do a deal is can I help this company some way beyond the cash? And what is that way? And have that discussion with the entrepreneur ahead of time. And sometimes that results in an informal mentoring. Sometimes they ask me to be an advisor in addition to being an investor, and I'm formalize that agreement as an advisor and an investor. And then when it's formalized and we literally outline what I will do to help them in a document.
John Coleman: That's fantastic, Mark. And I love the structure that you're bringing to that. You know, I think often we see people without as clear a playbook, especially as they're getting started. And so the idea that you've got these learnings that you can structure that provide a framework which you can interact even on the redemptive side, I think is is incredibly helpful. Maybe to pivot a bit to portfolio construction, we kind of talked about your experience for Teladoc. And you had mentioned, you know, you've got redemptive being financial return as a criteria. I presume that not all of your assets are in your angel investing. You've got a broader portfolio, although I may be wrong about that, as people are thinking about getting into angel investing. How do you think about that as a part of your portfolio and what percentage of your broader investment portfolio that should be and just how you allocate from your own financial picture knowing that this is a relatively risky asset class?
Mark Klopp: Yeah. And I can tell you what we do, and this is with my wife and I, Meghan, discussing and agreeing because you have to have your partner on board or it's going to be ugly and you want support and encouragement yourself when you mess up. And forgiveness when you mess up as well as cheerleading when you do well as an angel. So our first priority when we think about investing is actually giving in the tithing standpoint. And we use a donor advised fund as a tool to tithe and then make grants from there to utilize the balance of each year and not have a huge overhang. So we have kind of a given autopilot thing going on with DAF and then we use opportunistically donate when we have unexpected gains. So we're very involved with supporting on a continuing basis several Christian ministries. And our theme is basic needs, rescue and education. So some of the ones that we've supported are opportunity International, which is microfinance edify as Christian schools place in developing countries. IJM International Justice Mission, which is rescuing trafficking, slavery, Fuller Seminary down in Southern California. Jessup University, which is the only real Christian university in Northern California. Teen esteem, which helps kids and parents with making biblical based choices. Shepherd's Gate, which is Women's and Children's Rescue City Team Miracle Messages and Mobilize Love. So those are the ministries that we try to support first with giving. And then on the Angel side, we've allocated 4 to 5% of our net worth to direct angel investing. And we kind of think of that as the riskiest and most illiquid part of our investment portfolio. And kind of also think of it like an extension or increase in the tithe that might have the bonus of a recycle and a return component. So when you make a grant, then that goes away and doesn't come back. But if you make an investment that can come back and if we return at least the capital, then we've leveraged that up. That's the way we kind of think about it. And the principal and the gains can be reinvested. But that doesn't mean we don't support not for profits because they're all part of the kingdom and they have their own business structures and you're getting eternal rewards. There's not financial rewards for the grants. And we're trying to move to something along the lines of what Greg and Tom Lernihan have done a great job articulating and a very evolved investment philosophy where they've broken it down into four quadrants with high and low spiritual and social impact and financial returns and kind of bucketing and compartmentalizing those investment objectives. So we've got when you talk about our overall asset allocation, we've got a rainy day fund, which is really cash that deals with some of my insecurity. And we've got about two years in money markets, Treasury bills, two years of runway in case anything ever came about that was unanticipated. And that also gives us a psychological confidence or boldness in pursuing riskier investments if we've got that safe investment to fall back on in case something comes about. And then most of the portfolio is a mix of brokerage and IRA accounts invested in diversified ETFs with about an 85 to 15% equity bond ratio. And then we've done some private limited partnerships in real estate, VC and private equity, and we're an investor or a limited partner. And as you know, in the Sovereign's Capital Access Fund, which is a fund of funds, and we're excited about that because it's not only focused on faith driven entrepreneurs and faith driven investors as funds, but, you know, we expect to get a great financial return, but it's also an opportunity to learn and network and possibly consider direct deal flow coming from that portfolio. So these limited partnerships are also illiquid in the short term, but the goal is capital appreciation in the medium and long term. So that's kind of the overall structure of our allocation, maybe more detail than we wanted to hear.
John Coleman: No it's awesome because I think, you know, it's easy to look at this from the outside as you're thinking about getting started and really think that others have kind of their whole portfolio in this. And, you know, for some people that might be right. It is a risky asset class. Right. And so being thoughtful about your giving, about the needs of your family, about the way in which you allocate, like you said, can give you some security to chase down some of the more fun stuff that you can do as an angel. I will say your bond portfolio is typically not quite as exciting as your as your angel investing work, but I guess the money markets certainly are. But that's the goal, is to have them not be very exciting, but to be able to pay for, you know, a bathroom renovation if there's a roof leak and that kind of thing. Yeah. Mark, those are great comments. In summary, you've been doing this for a while. What would you say to those who are looking to get started in angel investing?
Mark Klopp: Well, probably the first thing is pray about it and talk with your spouse. If you have a spouse or a significant other and make sure that you guys are both on board and that you're willing to kind of move forward in that regard because you don't want that to create stress in the family and conflict. So that would be the first step. The second would be kind of jointly decide what percentage of your net worth or you're comfortable risking and allocating for an illiquid investment that might not return in 5 to 10 years or maybe even longer. And then be prepared to understand those risks that you're going to require a high tolerance for the risk and you should be prepared and really not shocked to lose your entire investment in any one deal if the startup fails or just winds down in some way. And then be prepared, as I mentioned earlier in follow ons, be prepared to include and set aside enough money for follow on investments in case that's required or desire and maybe to the tune of 30 to 50% of your initial investment. Diversification is very important as a angel like it is in any venture capital. So make sure you invest in multiple startups can help you spread your risk and increase your chances of success and also making an impact. And then when you're getting started picking an initial focus, if there's a particular industry that you're interested in or an expert with connections that you have where you can add value and maybe syndicate or introduce to customers, you might even think about a horizontal focus versus a vertical focus in maybe the kind of impact that you're targeting, a theme in that regard, and then understand where you can add value and be ready, be willing and able to offer help and assistance in areas that you particularly skilled or experienced in which align with the needs of the company, not just pushing those areas, but having the venture leadership team kind of pull you into that with what they require. So you could have a set of capabilities you can bring and say, which one of these can I help you with? And then once you're evaluating deals, make sure you do your due diligence and research. And before investing in a startup, you should really get to know the founders and the industry. And if you're looking as a faith driven investor, convince yourself that the investment in the team aligns with your values and Christian values and objectives. And then as far as generating deal flow, you know, network with other investors and the FDI marketplace where you can find potential investment opportunities and syndication with other investors. You can do that through sharing due diligence and learn from those other experienced investors and FDI community. And there's a sort of a bulletin board for the FDI community called the Marketplace. And that's a great way to get exposure as a Christian investor. And then you can look at companies that are coming from Christian based accelerators like Praxis or Ocean and participate in those demo days and get access to what's going on, because those have been kind of preveted. Prescreened for faith driven investors, faith driven entrepreneurs, and also potential financial return. Those will be some of the areas that I would start with as an angel.
John Coleman: Mark. You know, one way we love to end these podcasts and this has been remarkably informative is to ask people about something they've been reading in Scripture that they might like to share with others, something that they're learning through Scripture or through their own study that they might like to share with others. Is there something that stands out to you right now that you feel like you're learning that might make sense for others?
Mark Klopp: Well, you know, I'm just hearing the constant whisper from God to devote more of my time and talent and treasure to the kingdom and transitioning from, you know, I've got to regarding treasures. My families and friends know that my personal biggest struggle is guarding against the worship of financial security as an idol. And many verses in the Bible deal with that. And the Bible addresses money more than any other topic. And there's a lot of great FDI content around mana and management and being a steward. So I'm constantly learning and struggling with that. So angel investing is kind of one way I'm trying to battle that worship of financial security by willing to part with some of this security in the form of investing in startups and then recycling those capital gains to reinvest. Another is supporting the church and various ministries. And my wife and I have been involved with the journey of generosity in the past, which made a big impact on our intentional giving plan, giving and tithing. And then I'm trying to back off of chasing consulting fees with corporations, which is tempting on those engagements that pay well. And some of that. Activity kind of allows me to take the focus off of making money while freeing up more time and attention. Apply my talents to kind of give advice, encouragement and make connections to faith driven entrepreneurs, our church and and ministries that we support.
John Coleman: Well, that's that's a really thoughtful reflection. I had the opportunity to speak at a breakfast just last week on this topic of what I termed good money. Right. Which is, you know, the Bible warns that the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. And, you know, we all know that money can be destructive. We also know that money can be a tool for good. And there are some verses about that. You mentioned there are more verses in the Bible about money than almost anything else. I think it's the research I saw said 2350 references to money, many of which concern its dangers, some of which concern its proper stewardship and the opportunity to create. And I know one thing that you agree with, and it's kind of become a motto for us sovereigns that all investing is impact investing. It's just a question of what kind of impact you're going to have an idea that money is just one more thing in your life. There is a tool that God has given you to steward that you can submit to his purposes and that can ultimately make a positive impact in the world, but only if you've kind of let go of it and tried to put those resources at his disposal. And I think that message is a great reminder. You know, we don't want anyone to take undue risks or do not provide for their family, but sometimes it can become an idol to hang on to things too securely rather than dedicating them to investments in nonprofits or start up companies or other ventures that might make sense for the kingdom. And so I think that's a wonderful reminder in the way that you live your life.
Mark Klopp: Thank you.
John Coleman: This has been a remarkable conversation. I love how invested you are in the States. How much of a pioneer you've been in faith driven investing and your passion for those enterprises and those individuals and just your openness with us today given us a real download on what it could look like to be an angel investor. I know the FDI community is grateful and I hope we get to talk to you again soon. Thanks so much.
Mark Klopp: Thank you. John.