Peter is a technology leader and currently a co-founder. After spending around 30 years in the technology industry, he is now running his own startup while actively deepening his journey as an angel investor, bringing both operator and investor perspectives to the table.
In this article, Peter shared with us his past experiences in the technology industry, and how he got back into angel investing.
And from that experience, I learned through hard and a very expensive way that that’s not the way to do angel investing.
Hi Peter, thank you for joining us today! Starting off with your background, could you share with us an overview of what roles you did and the industries you were in?
Peter: I’ve spent approximately 30 years in technology, 20 of those in consulting and 10 of those in corporate leadership. I’ve been in all kinds of industries: government, healthcare, financial services, mining, oil and gas, pharmaceutical, telecommunications. A lot of that because I was in consulting for such a large part of my career and so my exposure is pretty broad. I can’t say that they’re terribly deep in each of them but I certainly have a lot of breadth in terms of the exposure to industries.
My roles have included from my early career would be very much in systems engineering, software engineering, systems implementation. And towards the sort of the later half of my career it’s much more into tech strategy, digital transformation, enterprise architecture. So I’ve played the roles of Chief Architect, have been a CIO, CTO in the past and have also been a digital product owner. So more as a general manager in those cases.
As an expert fielding over a decade of experience in corporate technology leadership, what were some interesting trends/changes you’ve noticed over the years?
Peter: There’s been so many tech trends throughout my career. If I start to think about where we are today and you know maybe move backwards, AI certainly, super apps, social media messaging apps, digital was a very big deal, the internet of everything, smartphones, e-commerce, internet, back to PCs and such.
So, I’ve been privileged to live through also sort of the dot com bubble and all of that. What’s interesting to me in terms of trends is not so much of technology, but sort of how we as people respond to all of this.
Gartner has this thing called the Hype Cycle. And I love how- I love its description. It says that it starts with sort of an innovation trigger so something happens and it triggers that innovation.
And then it goes into sort of this peak of inflated expectation. Like today with AI, maybe not today, but there was a period where people were just really starting to be afraid that AI could do everything in this sort of super intelligence or etcetera.
And then at some point, we just become disillusioned. “Wait a minute. This wasn’t what it was all promised to be.” And then at some point, I think we really figure out the uses of these technologies and we start to get better at using them and making them really help us be productive. And that’s where, you know, we see sort of that slope of enlightenment and what Gartner calls the plateau of productivity.
So throughout my career and all the various trends that I’ve seen in technology, I find this model to be pretty consistently applicable.
We’ve also noticed that you recently became a co-founder of a startup. What motivated you to make the switch from being part of a corporation to being part of a startup?
Peter: Gen AI, as you know, today is really a progression of classic AI, if you will, and I think it’ll be as consequential to humanity maybe more than, say, the advent of the internet.
That’s a pretty big statement for me to make. I realize, but that’s sort of the level of comparison. I think Gen AI together with AI is as consequential to the likes of the internet, the dot com, smartphones, and the likes. I’m, as I mentioned, old enough to have lived through sort of the dot com bubble and to have really seen sort of how that trend impacted our lives and have changed our lives. Same way with smartphones and such.
To me, as a longtime sort of tech strategist, I think it’s really important for me to have hands-on experience and knowledge of the potential of Gen AI and AI. And I thought, what better way than to jump in with both feet and see where the rabbit hole goes.
Were there any new perspectives you gained after being both a founder and an angel investor?
Peter: Yeah, I think the light bulb moment for me was realizing that founders and angel investors have much more of a friend relationship than food relationship, in reference to the fish and friends in Finding Nemo. So, of course there are exceptions to the rule, but I do think the rule is that angels are angels because they’re more interested in the success of the founders.
I think more so than sort of late stage investors as early stage investors and angels. There’s that level of synergy is something that I think is very much worth founders getting partnering with at the very beginning because really it is I think the heart of angels to support founders in their journey.
Could you share with us more about your investing journey – what made you interested in angel investing?
Peter: This is a great question because I started really quite unintentionally about 15 years ago and my first foray into angel investing was tagging along a bunch of people who are very wealthy and who’ve got money to put into new businesses and such. And it was literally just piggybacking on them, not knowing anything about what I’m doing. And from that experience, I learned through hard and a very expensive way that that’s not the way to do angel investing.
You know, that lesson cost me as much as an Ivy league MBA, alright? So, it was no small matter. And so after that experience I really sort of just stopped and thought this is just not for me. This time around it was very much motivated by my own startup journey and I felt that I really needed to understand the perspective of an investor as I embarked on my journey as a startup founder.
And so I really wanted to understand in much greater detail and discipline what a good angel investor does, which is the whole reason why I’m here at AngelCentral.
What were your expectations of being an angel investor? How has your thought process as a founder changed ever since you started angel investing?
Peter: Yeah, great question. When I started this journey, I think I just really thought it was about getting in early on a great business idea, in order to realize the 10x 100x, the massive growth and the massive returns. And just to think that must be how the rich people do it, right? I mean, you know, as they say, rich people make money with money. And so I thought, hey, this must be the thing to do as an angel investor. And that’s how all these people made it big.
This time around though, it has really solidified in my beliefs that ideas are a dime a dozen. They’re just really, you don’t invest in an idea. Just everybody’s got a great idea. And you need a lot more than a great idea to create a successful business. In fact, I still believe that a really successful startup requires a healthy dose of luck as much as it does really good skill and experience and anything else.
Now, of course, some people would describe luck as less of luck, but really something that you create for yourself. However you want to describe it I do think that it goes beyond, as I mentioned, just simply about skill and experience. To me, then it is therefore experience to consider being an angel investor as a broader context of being an investor. So it’s not just about being a good angel investor.
I think it’s about being a good investor of which being a good angel investor is just a part of it. So, I’d like to think of it a little bit broader and bigger these days. And this is something too that I think is echoed by the principals of AngelCentral where they often remind us that look, it’s a small part of your portfolio. Just by virtue of what it is, it’s not going to be a big part and it maybe shouldn’t be a big part of your portfolio.
How would you describe your current investment philosophy? What do you look for in a potential investment opportunity?
Peter: Since getting back to angel investing, I’ve met a lot more investors and VCs and have come to learn that angel investments and or investing comes in many forms, shapes and sizes. Some people put in 10K, some people put in 100K. Some people invest for 10x return, some people invest for a 100x return. Some people invest for a 10-year horizon, some people invest for a 10-month horizon. So, it is extremely different and I think it really does depend on an individual’s objectives, their risk tolerance, their phase in life, etc., etc. There are a lot of, a lot of considerations.
I think for me in particular, I’m more looking in opportunities that are tech-centric, tech-enabled, just because I think that’s my background and I understand it a whole lot better. And preferably, I think my time horizon is really, in sort of the time, a five-year time frame looking for more of a 5x to 10x type of return. So not the super high and not the super low. So I think that’s really where I’m most comfortable in.
Are there any areas you’re leaning towards in the tech industry, such as AI?
Peter: Given how consequential I think AI is, I say it’s impossible to escape that I think or it really is not an area that we should discount.
So yes, for sure AI but I think it’s also critically important to appreciate that AI involves many many different elements. At the risk of being overly simplistic, we could think of AI in two dimensions of software and hardware, right? On the software side, there are the applications that users interact with.
There is the actual model itself. There are a whole slew of supporting services and interfaces that make it all work. And then there’s the underlying data. So there are a lot of these, right?
So even when we talk about investing in AI where? Which part of this? And that’s just the software part, how about the hardware part? You know we’re talking about the chips, the memory, the storage, the power, the communications. All those things that go into a data center.
There really is a lot. So it’s not just AI as one thing but really what parts of the ecosystem of AI am I really looking to invest in. I think that, that level of clarity, is really important for anybody who’s going into AI investment.
How was your experience like taking part in the AngelCentral Review Committee (ARC)? Did joining the AngelCentral Review Committee (ARC) help to enhance your evaluation processes for investments?
Peter: It’s been an amazing journey. I’ve really appreciated what folks like Shao-Ning, Der Shing and Teck Moh have done to create this. I think for me the diversity among the team in terms of their experience, their backgrounds and the cumulative experience of the team and what they bring to the table.
That’s absolutely invaluable, right? To be able to lean on their expertise, their experience being very successful and knowledgeable investors and leaders themselves. I think that lends lots of credibility to investment decisions that we make together.
Which spaces have you invested in thus far?
Peter: Yes, I mean as I mentioned I think my interest in the areas of AI and specifically tools with AI and security. These are areas that are of particular interest to me that I’ve also invested in. There are others that I’m considering and many others. I’m being very careful too and deliberate about sticking to my investment hypothesis.
As I mentioned, it’s not just about a particular company or a particular sector, a particular industry, a particular technology. I think the entire package has to fit my investment thesis in order for me to really proceed with it.
Do you feel that there is a need to have intensive knowledge of an industry before you commit to an investment in said industry?
Peter: I think understanding the industry makes one a better investor in that industry. Do I need to know everything? You don’t need to per se.
As I mentioned earlier, I think one of the values of being a part of ARC [AngelCentral Review Committee] is you can lean on others who perhaps have the industry knowledge. But I think having the industry knowledge is only going to be helpful because when you understand an industry, you understand its customers, its customers’ behaviors, the stakeholders, the supply chains perhaps, the regulatory framework in various jurisdictions, business practice norms, the challenges, the value chains and therefore also the opportunities.
And so to me, having that appreciation for the industry will help us be better investors than if we just sort of walk into this thing without any of that.
And one of the things that I think has been helpful in the ARC [AngelCentral Review Committee] process is that it also encourages us to do a bit more research into the industries that the startups belong and therefore be better informed when we evaluate these startups. And also you know during our deliberation sessions, we do challenge each other to make sure that these are indeed companies worth our members considering and evaluating whether or not they want to deploy their capital to invest.
What do you enjoy most about this journey/angel investing?
Peter: To me, I think it’s seeing all the latest and greatest most innovative ideas, products, services, business models. In a way, it’s almost like looking into a crystal ball and seeing what the future might bring. I think that that’s amazing specifically with AngelCentral too.
I really appreciate the knowledge sharing that’s provided by our principals Shao-Ning, Der Shing, Teck Moh and them living out that passion of really wanting to help founders and other angel investors. The amount of time and effort that they put into sharing their knowledge, right? That goes well beyond just evaluating startups and those opportunities, but into things like deal structuring, governance, helping us look out for red flags and potential pitfalls, pragmatism, setting realistic expectations. I think these are all incredibly invaluable to angel investors and I really appreciate what they’re bringing to this entire community.
To end the session, what would be one suggestion you would give to new/aspiring angel investors?
Peter: Just from my journey alone, I would highly recommend joining a community that doesn’t just present opportunities but help us grow as investors, as good angel investors. I think doing it with others, who bring a diversity of knowledge and experience and perspectives, It helps set us up for success.
Thank you for your time, Peter. Where can people reach out to you?
Peter: Well, I mean certainly LinkedIn is a good place. It’s a public platform and one that everyone is on. So that makes it easy and feel free to do so.
