Investing in Female Founders: Where VCs Aren’t Looking | David Fogel, Alma Angels

85% of venture capital still goes to all-male founding teams, after 20 years of tracking the data. David Fogel, Founding Partner at Alma Angels, explains why that's a blind spot for investors and how angels can build a portfolio that backs female founders. In this episode of Investor Returns, host Ulyana Shtybel talks with David about the myths around investing in female founders, how to size angel tickets, why you should treat every angel investment as illiquid, and the huge untapped pool of potential angel investors in the UK. Alma Angels is one of Europe's largest angel communities backing female founders. It sees around 1,000 startups a year with no marketing budget. What you'll learn: • Why "there aren't enough female founders" is really a deal-flow bias • How to build an angel portfolio of 15–20 startups over time • How much to invest per startup (and the mistake of £100k first tickets) • Early stage vs late stage, and where family offices fit • How angels add value beyond capital, and what "stupid money" looks like • SEIS/EIS: why most eligible UK taxpayers have never used them ⏱ Chapters 00:00 Teaser 00:37 Intro: David Fogel & Alma Angels 01:30 Why David started angel investing 05:10 How much VC funding goes to female founders? 06:30 Myths and biases about investing in women-led startups 09:42 Female founders building in AI 11:29 Inside Alma Angels: 550 angels, 75% women 12:40 Early vs late stage, and where family offices fit 15:31 How many startups should an angel portfolio hold? 17:21 How much to invest per startup 19:19 Group due diligence, syndicates and SPVs 20:39 Economic and political headwinds for diversity investing 23:19 US investors and raising in Europe vs the US 25:16 How angels add value beyond capital 29:01 Do angels make startups more successful? 30:17 Rapid fire: the skills to thrive in an AI world 31:24 If your portfolio was replaced by your fridge… 32:28 The $10M question and grant funding 34:15 "Stupid money": investors founders should avoid 35:39 Illiquidity: what every new angel must understand 37:58 SEIS/EIS and the UK's untapped angels 39:30 Wealth transfer and next-gen investors 41:35 Wrap-up 🔗 Connect with David Fogel:   / fogeldavid   🔗 Alma Angels: https://www.alma-angels.com/ 🔗 Host Ulyana Shtybel:   / ulyanashtybel   🔗 Quoroom, private markets infrastructure for syndicates, SPVs and funds: https://quoroom.com 🎧 Subscribe to Investor Returns for conversations with angels, VCs and fund managers on how private-market investors actually make returns. This content is for educational purposes only and is not investment or legal advice. Investing in early-stage companies is high risk; you could lose all the money you invest. #AngelInvesting #FemaleFounders #VentureCapital