Mi Primer Cheque como Business Angel

A director of operations in Madrid with EUR 200,000 of liquid savings (a EUR 30,000 emergency fund and EUR 170,000 in index funds) is asked by a former colleague for EUR 50,000 for his startup and decides, over four decisions between January 2027 and April 2028, whether and how to become a business angel.

Decision 1 sets the angel budget for three years (what the friend asks, 15% of liquid savings, or everything in the index funds), where the money comes from (the emergency fund, the index funds, or a personal loan at 7.5%) and the pace (one cheque, six companies in six months, or eight companies over three years with one third reserved for follow-ons).

Decision 2 treats the friend's company, the way the other companies are chosen (pitch and instinct, co-investing behind a lead investor in an angel network, or 40 hours of do-it-yourself diligence) and an offer from a supplier of the protagonist's own employer to invest at half price while the protagonist decides its contract.

Decision 3 sets the price and instrument with the friend (EUR 4 million, EUR 2.5 million, or an uncapped convertible loan), the shareholders agreement and the vehicle for network deals (direct subscription, the network special-purpose vehicle, or an own holding company).

Decision 4, fifteen months later, allocates the reserve (a bridge loan to the struggling friend, the Series A of the company meeting its milestones, or nothing), the Spanish income-tax deduction for investing in new companies, and the pace for the remaining two years.

The model is deterministic: each cheque carries a disclosed distribution of exit multiples (0, 1, 3, 10 and 30 times), and the portfolio's exact outcome distribution is computed, not sampled.

The score combines the quality of each decision with the net expected value per euro invested (after price, fees, loan interest and the deduction) and the loss in one future in ten as a share of savings, weighted by the emergency cushion left, and is capped when the protagonist invests in the supplier without declaring the conflict or claims the deduction on investments that do not qualify.

Spanish (primary, Spain) and English.

An intermediate simulation for participants who already know the core concepts of the subject, designed for master's and MBA programmes.