#26 - Vikram Rajagopalan on Angel Investing and the Journey of Expertise

Joining me this week was Vikram Rajagopalan. Vikram leads the On Deck Angel Fellowship. He has a very atypical path to becoming an expert in the world of investing. At the University of Michigan, he was involved in hackathons that became exceptionally popular outside of Michigan. He parlayed his experience leading some of the hackathons to land a job at Delta Airlines. He helped Delta create a ventures arm, which initially started as a way for the company to bring in computer science grads and build infrastructure that attracted exceptional talent. This eventually became an investment vehicle, where Delta saw opportunities to invest in early-stage companies as a way to make small bets with long-term pay-offs, and also to learn from these companies. After 5 years at Delta, he joined On Deck. This was a fascinating conversation because I am also currently learning about the investment space and Vikram is someone who really believes in expertise being relative. In this episode, we tease apart what makes a great angel investor, what are some of the things you should be thinking about if you want to get into angel investing, how does relief capital relates to angel investing, and so much more. Please enjoy!  Are you an expert? Want to create your own online course? Start right here with my 2-week actionable email course.