Archangel for Hungary and Croatia, Reginald Vossen is the President of Business Angels Europe and is working in the business angel scene since 1998. Reginald shares his experience in business angels activities and explains why supporting a more diverse generation of business angels with mixed experiences is key for future investments. 

How long have you been a business angel and what are your greatest successes?

I have been active in the angels scene since 1998, first as founder and director of a regional Business Angels network, then as CEO of a national network. In the meantime, I have also made several investments myself, mainly focused on services.

The growth of one of my portfolio companies Officenter as a flexible workplace provider for young and growth companies with 14 branches throughout Flanders, is certainly a success story.

Exits are not there yet, but patience is a beautiful gift as an angel!

What does the ‘new generation of angels’ means to you?

The new business angel is an investor who is ready to actively support the current challenges of young entrepreneurship. Sharing wisdom is crucial for sustainable growth.

The new angel is also more (gender) diverse and taps into a new generation. The fact that this group is also encouraged in ESIL’s target countries is a plus. The new generation of angels is also more internationally oriented and wishes to invest with peers outside his/her home country.

What do you consider to be the biggest difficulties that new business angels are facing and what advice would you like to give them?

The major challenge for a new angel is to get “started” and take his/her first investments. To this end, risk mitigation is an important tool.

Bringing together angels with mixed experience levels and backgrounds to invest in new cases together is a priceless “on the job” training for young angels. Offering an investment-friendly framework is a second vital enabler.

Why did you join the ESIL project and what are your expectations?

ESIL offers exactly what you need to get started as a start-up angel: a framework that offers you the comfort to make the first investments with the best possible support from experienced angels, a network and support at the local/national level to be able to collaborate and evaluate companies with peers, and valuable pan-European connections to take invested companies to a higher level and to broaden horizons as an angel yourself.

As chairman of BAE and as archangel for Hungary and Croatia within this ESIL-program, that is already reason enough to support the set up and roll out this program. I expect that this program will provide an interesting new group of engaged angels in a thorough way to a European angel community.