The Hyde Park Angels “New Investment Series” profiles our most recent investments by examining the investment process and the individual company’s future trajectory from two perspectives: the portfolio company’s CEO and the HPA leader who made the deal happen. This month we invested in Quikly, a Detroit-based digital marketing platform for retailers, in a Series […]
At the early-stages, entrepreneurs are concerned with a host of problems and uncertainties surrounding the development of their company from how to hire talent to what it takes to get that product built and sold to customers. But overwhelmingly, we see entrepreneurs struggle to understand how the early-stage investment process works, and what they need […]
In a resource-strapped, lean, and agile environment like a startup, it can be easy to lose sight of the fact that you are just as vulnerable to business risks as other types of companies. Anything from an employee slip and fall to a security breach can turn into a major liability. For a startup, it’s […]
As an entrepreneur, you often have more control over investment timelines than you know in the early stages. You can drive the discussions and the timing by being prepared, anticipating commonly asked questions, and managing the investment process as professionally and strategically as you manage your business. Specifically, by actively preparing for a fundraise before […]
At Hyde Park Angels, we spend a lot of time working with our portfolio companies on developing and executing communications strategies that help them achieve their unique goals, whether they are attracting new partners, generating leads, or launching a new product in the market. With over forty portfolio companies, we have worked on a variety […]
When you’re running an early-stage company, the worst thing you can do is hire the wrong person. It’s a waste of time and money, which are an entrepreneur’s two most valuable and most limited assets. Conversely, a good hire can help hit major milestones, create new market opportunities, and reach inflection points that make or […]
In the last few days, a lively discussion over accelerators has cropped up, with industry thought-leaders like Sam Altman warning entrepreneurs to pick just one really strong accelerator and actually accelerate their companies, and others arguing that entrepreneurs can benefit from trying out multiple accelerators, so long as the fit is right each time. In […]
The tech world is presently rife with analyses on the perceived valuations crunch in 2016, and in particular, a few examples of startup giants that apparently aren’t immune to it after all. But what does that mean for early-stage entrepreneurs that are just getting out of their seed and Series A rounds and onto the […]
Join Hyde Park Angels at 1871 on Thursday, November 12 from 6:00 pm — 8:00 pm to learn from the expert investors, executives, and board members behind Chicago’s biggest exits and most successful investments. Discover how startups like Grubhub, Answers.com, and others found the advisors, board members, and investors that helped them drive growth and achieve success, […]
Investors care about metrics, especially your startup’s metrics –number of non-paying customers versus paying customers, customer’s lifetime value, growth rate, total revenue month over month, and the list goes on and on. A lot of times, they’re using data tools to evaluate these metrics even before you pitch them. For example, Mattermark allows investors to […]
