Three Questions for Dan Malone
Dan Malone, Fractional CTO and Angel investor, is asked three questions about running your own business, investing and future key business sectors.
Dan Malone is a Fractional CTO, Angel investor and entrepreneur. He founded the digital agency Mawla and has invested in startups such as Tipple. Additionally, he currently serves as Director of Customer Delivery for Axonista. I asked Dan three questions curated just for him.
Question 1
Conor: As an Angel Investor, what are the key indicators you look out for in a startup before investing?
Dan:
-Team-
I invest in the person first, business second. You want to invest in someone with experience that'll treat your money like their own money. Someone who knows how to make moves and do a lot with a little. You don't want them to be learning on the job.
This is more important to me than the product, if the people are good, they've likely already done their groundwork.
Question 2
Conor: You have worked for major companies and built your own businesses in your career. What are the biggest challenges of working for yourself compared to working for others?
Dan:
-Having to do everything-
Before I was an engineer. Now I'm Sales, marketing, legal, dev, support, etc.
The 'e-myth' book is good to reference here or Andrew Wilkenson's Never Enough book. I liked programming but I didn't realise that running an agency meant that 99% of your time was spent not programming.
Question 3
Conor: Despite significant investment in the AI sector, many have struggled to turn a profit. Are there any markets or business sectors with strong potential that might be currently overlooked?
Dan: The people who are really going to see value from AI aren't going to be the AI companies. It'll be the companies that can make their product easier to use, reduce headcount, etc.
So while OpenAI, Anthropic, Nvidia etc are all printing money that part of the market isn't going to have a lot of players.
The application layer of the market will cross all sectors in my opinion.
Thanks to Dan for taking the time to chat with me. In this series I ask 3 unique questions to some of the world's most interesting thinkers. Subscribe below to get the next post right in your inbox.