Angel

Jason Calacanis lays out how he approaches angel investing in technology startups, drawing on some twenty-five years of backing companies that made him tens of millions of dollars. He holds that there are two ways to make money from startups: build something valuable, or fund the people who are building it. The book explains how angel investors think and set priorities, how they size up new companies and weigh risk against reward, and how the best startups make use of their angels. Calacanis, whose father was a bartender and whose mother was a nurse, argues that neither elite schools nor top grades are needed to do well as an investor.

Foundry Group co-founder Brad Feld, a friend of Calacanis since the mid-1990s, wrote that the book is as outspoken as its author and holds many gems.