Angel Investor Series – Steve Walsh

My name is Steve Walsh and I’m the founder of a company called Hands On Angel, which is an early-stage ecosystem centered around early-stage founders. I help them do three things. I help them accelerate capital, revenue, and growth.

Tell Us About Your Journey

So it’s been a long one. My journey started over 25 years ago. I’m an operator, turned entrepreneur and angel investor. I spent the first part of my career helping companies like Comcast, I was a Vice President there, helping them build a business services unit that grew from inception. I was one of the early employees into almost a $10 billion business.

And then in 2018, I burnt out. I got tired of having 200 people working for me. I was running a 500 million dollar business unit. So I became an entrepreneur and investor at 46 years old on the angel side.

And I had a thesis. And that thesis was pretty simple. It was, could I take my 25 years of building businesses and experience as an operator? And could I combine that with two other things: my experience as an investor, which I have been investing in public and private markets, and my massive network that I’ve spent my entire career building of super helpful resources. And now, five years later, working with one founder led to two, which led to ten. And now I raised my head up and 62 portfolio companies later, seven exits later, the thesis seems to have come full circle.

What Motivates You?

I think when you’re a founder/investor, the motivation for me is pretty clear. I’m having in this phase of my life, this second phase, I’m having more fun than I’ve ever had in my career. I’m only working with people I care about, doing things I care about, and having an impact. And my motivation is I just don’t want to do anything else. I don’t want to go back to a life where I work for someone else and someone else tells me what to wear, when to show up, how to act, and what to do.

I want to be in a world where I only work with people I care about, having a massive impact on their businesses and helping them succeed. It’s a truly rewarding and humbling experience. And I always say it to my wife, “I don’t want to do anything else the rest of my life.”

What Attributes Lead to Success?

I think a couple of things. One is motivation has to come from within. You can’t have a plan B. Most of the founders that I work with have no plan B. They don’t tell me that this might work, they say this has to work. I have no plan B. I have founders that have sold their house to fund their company. I have founders that have immigrated here from other countries. And what you find is a desire and a willingness to never lose.

And the other thing that they do is they’re not afraid of failure. They understand that failure is part of the process. Myself included, I have learned more from my failures than I ever learned from my successes. And when you understand that, fail fast, learn, understand, iterate, and move on is a key to success, then that comes off the table and stuff just happens. It’s great.

What Are Your Must-Haves Before You Make An Investment?

For me, it’s simple. I have a favorite phrase. Revenue solves everything.

I don’t care if you’re Mark Zuckerberg on your third company. If you don’t have paying customers, I’m not interested. I can’t tell you what to build. I can’t tell you how to go from zero to one. I am not the whiteboard and a dream guy.

What I love is when a founder comes to me and says, Steve, we raised a little money, friends and family, round. We built Rev One of our product. And it was really crude, and it wasn’t great. And we put it in front of as many potential customers as we could, and something amazing happened. 100 people bought it the first month, and now six months later, we have 1000 customers. And we went from no revenue to $10,000 a month. And if we just had a little capital, we could grow this faster, and it could really be a special company. Those are the founders I want to talk to, and that’s the stage. I want to talk to them.

What Advice Do You Have For Entrepreneurs?

First of all, start. That’s the hardest. Stepping off that ledge with no parachute, not knowing where you’re going is the hardest part.

Never quit, never stop. Understand that it’s a process and a journey, and it’s a long journey. Surround yourself with people that can help you. Understand that you probably don’t know everything about everything, and having the humility to raise your hand and saying, I need help. Understanding that if you’re going to build a venture-scale company, you can’t do that alone. You have to do it with people around you and having the courage to do that.

I love entrepreneurs that willingly ask for help. They’re humble, they understand they need resources, and they want to continuously learn. They’re constantly learning. Those are the people I want to surround myself with.

What Value Does Gesmer Bring to Scaling Companies?

I think the biggest value that I see is that Gesmer is aligned and focuses on the same types of companies that I do, which is early stage venture-scale software companies. They understand the nuances of being at that stage, whether it’s Delaware incorporation, merger and acquisition activity, Blue Sky filings, trademark protection. They really understand what an early stage founder needs. They understand what they don’t need from a legal perspective, what’s necessary and what’s not necessary. What’s a nice-to-have versus a need-to-have. And they try to position themselves with founders to make sure that they have the right type of legal protection without being overboard. And that’s the type of person I want to surround myself with.

Why Go With Gesmer?

So for me, it’s an easy decision. I don’t ask anyone to do anything I’m not willing to do myself. Gesmer has been a partner of mine for the last five years for both my own company and a number of my portfolio companies. And it’s really because they always think about giving as opposed to what they get. On a weekly basis I get emails from my good friend Steve Snyder and other partners at Gesmer asking how I can help their portfolio companies, asking how I can help their clients grow capital and revenue.

So when my founders come to me and say, Steve where should we go for help with our Delaware incorporation? Or where should we go with help with our round? It’s an easy call. My first call is always Gesmer.