Last updated: 20 December 2021. This page hosts my ranking of the 5 best angel investing books. Angel investing is where an experienced investor - also known as a business angel - makes a equity investment at the early stages of start-up business. Alongside the cash, investors usually offer other forms of support to add value to the company, such as advice and access to the investors network of contacts.
On this page you'll find the best angel investing books, as several tailored shortlists and an overall top 5 ranking.
All books featured are beginner friendly and don't assume much prior knowledge. With prices ranging from £10 - £40, stocking up on a few of the best angel investing books can deliver the same value as an expensive seminar for only a fraction of the cost. They can even be read for free with Amazon's Kindle Unlimited free trial.
Click on any title below to see the latest price from Amazon, you'll be shocked at how affordable the most popular titles are. As an Amazon Associate, I earn a small commission from qualifying purchases which helps to support this site. This does not impact how I compile the list. Happy reading!
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The best angel investing books for first-time angel investors
Understand how angel investing works, and discover tips to help your first time investing as a business angel.
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My Top 5 Angel Investing Books for 2022
Click covers to see latest reviews and prices1. Angel Investing - David S. Rose
Financial Expert Rating:
Synopsis:
"Making money is no longer about sitting back and reading stock listings, David says. It is now about being part owner of an exciting startup that can be fun and financially rewarding.
Angel Investing teaches investors how to carefully select and manage investments, establish a long term view, and approach angel investing as a serious part of an alternative asset portfolio while also enjoying being an integral part of an exciting new venture."
Who this book is for:
Angel investing, once the exclusive province of multi-millionaire high-rollers, has now entered the mainstream, with more than $20 billion being invested annually by individual investors in the US alone.
Contrary to popular belief, access to these high risk/high return investments—and success in startup investing—doesn’t have to be a matter of luck or connections.
Angel Investing: The Gust Guide to Making Money & Having Fun Investing in Startups shows how smart investors with the right strategy and a long-term perspective can achieve annual returns of 25 percent or more from a well-designed angel portfolio.
Financial Expert Rating:
Synopsis:
"IS YOUR COMPANY ‘INVESTOR READY’? Getting investment is tough. Competition is fierce. There are new start-ups around every corner fighting for their slice of the pie.
In this book, Julie Barber shares her proven six-step process to showcase your company at its best and wow your potential investors.
The six Investor Ready steps outlined in this book will enable you to:
- Communicate your company Vision to investors
- Ensure the Structure and Scalability of your start-up supports your Vision
- Prove your Market fit and impact
- Provide business Numbers that give investors confidence
- Build your ideal Investor Profile and find investors who match it
- Create a Pitch and Business Plan that will wow potential investors"
Who this book is for:
This is a book written to help business owners and business managers the ability to seek finance from the best venture capital trusts and Business Angels.
Investor Ready is rated an incredible 4.9 stars with 30 reviews on Amazon. Julie Barber has created an excellent first time guide to raising funds for business activities.
Financial Expert Rating:
Synopsis:
"When you connect with the right angel investor, it's like finding a new best friend--you just have to know what makes him or her happy.
Smart funding is waiting for smart founders. Raising funds is all about connecting with the investor who's right for you--and What Every Angel Investor Wants You to Know shows you exactly how to succeed.
This one-of-a-kind book provides a rare look inside the minds of people who are in the business of funding businesses just like yours.
Read What Every Angel Investor Wants You to Know to get your best shot at funding for your product after your very first pitch."
Who this book is for:
“While this book is anecdotal, the authors discuss in depth how angels view a potential investment as well as how they evaluate its prospects. This is the book’s strength. Recommended. All levels of students, entrepreneurs, practitioners.” - Choice
Financial Expert Rating:
Synopsis:
"Startup investors are achieving 20%, 40%, and higher rates of return. Whether you’re investing in early-stage companies, raising capital for your startup, or just interested in how angel investors really make their money, Startup Wealth will unravel the mystery surrounding startup capital.
STARTUP WEALTH delivers engaging interviews with early- stage investors in Google, Invisalign, ZipCar, Uber, Twilio, Localytics, and other successful and not so successful companies. Find out how an amazing IPO can result in early investors getting pennies on the dollar—or a 10x+ return"
Who this book is for:
"Required reading whatever side of the investing fence you’re on!” - Gerry Langeler, Managing Director at OVP Venture Partners.
Financial Expert Rating:
Synopsis:
"The most readable business book for angels and entrepreneurs. Written by serial entrepreneur and seasoned angel investor Peter Cowley, this book describes the key ingredients for becoming an invested investor and what it takes to work with an invested investor, whilst guiding you through the business journey."
Who this book is for:
Aimed at angel investors, entrepreneurs, and anyone interested in start-ups, The Invested Investor shows what it takes to be an angel investor that adds more than just money and best practice for working with angels.
You will learn from the experiences of serial entrepreneurs, seasoned angel investors, and many more from the start-up ecosystem. The book intends to reduce mistakes, increase honesty and create more successful exits. It will guide the reader on how to raise a start-up and build a scale-up.
The Financial Expert™ Best Angel Investing Book Challenge
I challenge you to read one book per month and see if it revolutionises your investing style!
The Financial Expert™ Best Angel Investing Book Challenge is a well-loved feature of this website.
It's about the pursuit of knowledge at a challenging but sustainable rate.
The rules of the challenge are simple:
I challenge you to read one book about business angels or angel investing each month for the next year, and find your new favourite!
The idea here is to try and collect as much academics and anecdotal information as possible about how to become an angel investor before you invest your first £1 in an unlisted company.
Angel investing is a high-risk activity, and 'learning from your own mistakes' will be detrimental to investment returns, and potentially derail your entire angel investing career.
It makes sense to study up on how successful business angels operate, and how finance professors advice investors should approach angel investing to achieve the best outcome.
As you'll read, many authors of the best angel investing books have made plenty of mistakes of their own, these can never be totally avoided. But you owe it to yourself to protect as much of your capital as possible by not falling foul of the same newbie errors.
Angel investing books come in two forms:
Anecdotal stories of an angel investors triumphs and defeats
Factual and impartial overviews of how angel investing works, the steps to making a private investment and so on.
I recommend that you pickup a mixture of these titles to serve yourself a blend of engaging stories, and an impartial backdrop to the inner-workings of unlisted investments.
Some guidance
- I found it helpful to stock up on books for the next few months, so that when a new month rolls around, my next book was my bed-side table asking to be opened!
- Pick a variety of styles. This will keep the challenge fresh and increase the diversity of opinion.
- Pick at least one book that you don't think you would enjoy, this book might be the one that surprises you the most!
- If you're time-starved, audio books are absolutely fine!
Where to begin?
My list of the best angel investing books above is as good as any place to start, as I have consciously included a mix of different writing and investing styles to ensure that it caters to a wide audience.
Good luck!
Even the best angel investing books offer a single perspective
"When you're an investor, you can look at the quantitative and qualitative elements of an investment, but there's a third aspect: What you feel in your gut."
Many investors hoping to become business angels are surprised at the most common type of angel investing book.
Most angel investing books are written by true experts; real business angels with private investment and venture capital experience. (Read more: The best venture capital books).
However, the tone of the text and the overall genre of the book could be best described as an opinion piece.
"This is what I did.... this is what I learned..."
In other words, the typical angel investing book isn't a factual textbook, like you might get if you were looking for economics books or corporate tax textbooks.
That's because of a few factors, but the largest is the fact that business angel investing is a niche subset of the financing world.
While Venture Capital continues to grow in size year by year and garners many column inches in the financial press every day, angel investing has remained quite obscure.
That's because its risk remains high, and there are high barriers to entry in the form of the expertise required, the labour intensive process of finding and conducting due diligence on investments, and so on.
VC on the other hand, offers effortless diversification (which reduces risk) and gives a convenient option for wealth investors of corporate investors to pursue an exciting asset class.
This niche status means that few academic studies are written about angel investing in particular, and fewer new titles are written about it.
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