Jeff Carter is a co-founder of Hyde Park Angels, one of the most active angel groups in the United States, and he is currently raising a VC fund, named West Loop Ventures. Before becoming an angel he was a trader for over 25 years and he continues to trade independently.
In This Episode You Will Learn:
How Hyde Park Angels started?
Why traders make for good angel investors?
Why having pornographers and money launderers latching on to your product early is a great sign?
Why it has been easier to find LPs for West Loop Ventures outside of Chicago?
Why you have to be a great analyzer of people and not just ideas for seed investing?
Why it's important to have a vision for the future as a seed investor?
Why VCs can bet on ideas, but angels have to be on people?
Why being coachable is so important for entrepreneurs?
How an entrepreneur/investor relationship is like dating?
Why he makes a point of blogging everyday?
What we have to do to keep growing the Chicago tech scene?
Favorite Blogs:
Streetwise Professor by Craig Pirrong
AVC by Fred Wilson
Feld's Thoughts by Brad Feld
The Musings of The Big Red Car by Jeffrey Minch
Favorite Books:
City of the Century: The Epic of Chicago and the Making of America by Donald Miller
The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors: The Extraordinary World War II Story of the U.S. Navy's Finest Hour by James D. Hornfischer
Neptune's Inferno: The U.S. Navy at Guadalcanal by James D. Hornfischer
The Doolittle Raid: America's Daring First Strike Against Japan by Carroll V. Glines
High Output Management by Andrew S. Grove
Personnel Economics in Practice by Edward P. Lazear, Michael Gibbs
Selected Links From The Episode:
Kenny Estes, VC at West Loop Ventures
Vishal Verma, Co-Founder of Hyde Park Angels
Steve Kaplan, Professor at University of Chicago Booth School of Business
Kathleen Swan, startup attorney
Raman Chadha, Co-Founder of Junto Institute
Irish Angels, Notre Dame inspired angel group
Jason Kunesh, CEO of Public Good
Dan Ratner, COO at Public Good
Marc Halpin, CEO of Kapow Events
Daniel McCormick, COO of Kapow Events
Sam Rosen, Founder of Deskpass
Jay Swoboda, CEO of Dabble
Robert Rosenberg, Professor at University of Chicago Booth School of Business
Mark Tebbe, Professor at University of Chicago Booth School of Business
PJ Media, conservative news site
Rick Santelli, Editor at CNBC
Sean Chou, Founder of Catalytic
Amanda Lannert, CEO of Jellyvision
Dick Costello, former CEO of Twitter
"The Nature of the Firm" (1937), an influential article by Ronald Coase
Merton Miller, deceased Professor from University of Chicago Booth School of Business
Bryan Johnson, Founder of Braintree and OS Fund
Matt Maloney, Founder of Grub Hub
Avocado