“We want to achieve successful investments for Angel Investors in Australian entrepreneurs and we want women-led or significant women leadership roles in those businesses” Susan Oliver, Chair, Scale Investors.
Angel investing in Australia has been a relatively mysterious world to most people – an area in which mostly men and only the very wealthy or well-connected are involved.
In 2013, one of Morrows’ clients, Susan Oliver, with the support of the Victorian Government and a high quality team of corporate women, started to change that with the launch of Scale Investors Ltd.
Susan has been an entrepreneur for more than 10 years and a company director for more than 18 years on Boards such as Transurban and Centro as well as not-for profits such as The Big Issue. “I’ve been through the thick and the thin,” she said recently. “We took Transurban from a start-up company to a Top 30 ASX company in 10 years and we are very proud that it became a company with good values and excellent performance.”
With a background in strategy, technology and experience in chairing risk committees, Susan brings wisdom and strong ethics to any enterprise in which she is involved.
Scale Investors
It was Susan’s entrepreneurial flair and active involvement in the Melbourne business scene that led to her membership of Women Company Directors (WCD), an international organisation of top businesswomen.
“I was at a conference for WCD and every woman, so it seemed, said ‘are you an investor’? I chipped away and I found they were Angel investors. In Australia, I had found that Angel investors tended to be blokes who are technical and often don’t make any money. So I was very interested to find out that there was a group in the US called Golden Seeds, which was a group of women supporting women entrepreneurs. I spoke to the Managing Director and others and I believe that if I had received their advice at an earlier stage I would have knocked 5 years off my 10 year entrepreneurial journey.”
“So I decided we had to have an organisation like it in Australia,” said Susan.
Retaining contact with Golden Seeds has been a great support to Scale Investors which has been able to leverage the training materials and experiences already developed in the US.
Training Investors
Angel investing is at the high end of investing, that is, it carries high risk and deals put forward for consideration may be embryonic, without pricing models or even customers. Scale Investors’ over-riding goal is to train women to recognise quality deals and become excellent investors so they achieve significant wealth for themselves.
“We now have 43 Scale Angels (including some Scale Males) and we train our investors in rigorous due diligence practices, risk management and taking considered positions in start-up companies because often you are relying on the quality of the person in front of you. We believe that women investors inherently “get women” entrepreneurs at any age or from any industry. Sometimes men just don’t, Susan explained.
The internet and internet based businesses are an area in which Susan sees women excelling. “It’s all about connections and relationships and women understand the power of the internet in that regard,” she said.
Why Scale Angels?
Scale Investors differs from other angel investing operations in that Susan and her three co-directors (Carol Schwartz, Annette Kimmett and Laura Mckenzie) successfully pitched to the Victorian Government and received funding to support their initiative with a full time CEO for three years. The other advantage for Scale is the connections of the Director group in Melbourne business which bring with them a unique depth of skills and experience.
“We are bringing a cohort of people, who are opinion leaders, smart as can be and able to change the conversation in their boards, companies or homes. We bring them into the fold with their funds, their skills and their advocacy to become part of the story,” Susan said. “There is now so much research evidence that women make excellent angel investors. Scale Investors will capitalise on that for the benefit of investors and the entrepreneurs we support.”
Next Steps
With a core group of 43 Scale Angels in place, Scale Investors is looking forward to entering the Sydney market and growing its numbers to 200 with a mix of male and female angels. The business is also looking to create a Co-Investment Fund with $20-30 million to invest in entrepreneurial businesses. The fund will have same reliance on the angels for involvement in assessing each individual opportunity, but will give Scale Investors the ability to leverage that investment and diligence. Morrows has been fortunate to be involved through Laurel Moulynox, Principal, who has acted as Company Secretary to the Scale Board and has exceptional investment experience. We look forward to sharing more of the Scale journey with you in future and encourage you to visit its website at www.scaleinvestors.com.au.