Hyde Park Angels

Hyde Park Angels is an organization that provides a forum for entrepreneurial-minded members to invest in seed and early stage businesses, primarily located in the Midwest. HPA is a group of current and former executives, entrepreneurs, and venture capitalists who are interested in investing their time and money into outstanding startups. HPA also provides domain expertise, strategic advice and coaching to its companies. The Chicago-based Hyde Park Angel Network was founded in 2006 by a group of classmates from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business Executive MBA Program.

The official Hyde Park Angels blog was launched in late January 2015 with one central goal — to demystify the early-stage investment process for entrepreneurs so they could successfully navigate the process and build their companies. Since then, they’ve broken down difficult concepts like term sheets, option pools, and venture debt and provided insights into how angels make investments and the dos and don’ts of pitching. Of all of our series, they’ve hand-selected our top 3 most used and recommended. Take a look.

Cap Table Series
· How to Read and Understand a Cap Table
· How to Measure Valuation
· How Option Pools Work

Pitching Series
· Building the Perfect Pitch
· 6 Killer Mistakes to Avoid in Your Pitch
· Pitch Your Startup in 30 Seconds
· Pitching Lessons from Applying to Shark Tank

Term Sheet Series
· Understanding Your Term Sheet Options
· How to Read an Equity Term Sheet
· 3 Key Terms in an Equity Term Sheet to Understand
· How to Read a Convertible Debt Term Sheet
· How to Understand Venture Debt
· 4 Ways to Negotiate with Investors Like a Pro