Smart Money: Angel & Startup Investing

Early stage investing sits at the front edge of the private capital continuum—where conviction, judgment, and relationships matter as much as spreadsheets. This immersive weekend is built for the professional who’s been curious about angel investing and backing startups and is ready to get started. Whether you’re weighing making direct deals or exploring a limited-partner (LP) role in a fund—or want to understand both seats before you commit—you’ll leave knowing how to move from the sidelines to the cap table.

What You’ll Master

Over two and a half fast-paced days, you’ll build the working command that separates disciplined investors from hopeful ones:

• Deal due diligence—how to evaluate teams, markets, and traction before you commit.
• The mechanics of convertible notes and SAFEs—valuation caps, discounts, and conversion math.
• Reading a capitalization table and modeling how dilution, liquidation preferences, and a venture’s goals shape your return.
• The investor’s role post-investment—adding value, supporting founders, and stewarding a position through later rounds to exit.

Learn by Doing

This is a hands-on weekend, not a lecture series. The program centers on practice: you’ll assess live pitches from early-stage startups, pressure-test their assumptions alongside fellow participants, and develop instincts that only come from evaluating real deals. You’ll hear candidly from active angel investors, angel network leaders, and Triangle venture capitalists—and build relationships with future syndicate partners and co-investors on the same path.

What You’ll Leave With

• This weekend is built to send you home with tools you’ll use on your very next deal:
• Your own investment thesis—a clear point of view on what you’ll back and why.
• Diligence and term-sheet checklists you can apply to real opportunities.
• Field tested perspective—candid successes and failures from investors who’ve lived both.
• A working command of cap tables and valuation—the math behind your outcomes.
• Networks, community, and connections among like-minded investors who can help you source deals and partner on due diligence.

Your Facilitators

Led by Duke I&E faculty, Jamie Jones, PhD and Shep Moyle, alongside Leah Townsend, PhD, Executive in Residence at Cofounders Capital and member of the RTP Angel Fund. You’ll expand your knowledge and build your confidence learning from investors who have deep experience deploying capital into startups.

Investment

Early-bird rate through August 31, 2026. Duke alumni receive first access and the preferred rate—seats are limited.

What’s Included

Registration fee includes dinner Thursday and breakfast and lunch Friday and Saturday. Friday evening features our curated dinner matching—you’ll be grouped into small parties by shared interests and backgrounds, with reservations made and assignments given; each group then dines on its own (Friday dinner is on your own). A curated list of local hotels is provided; participants book their own accommodations.

Who Should Attend

This program is designed for prospective and early-stage investors who meet the threshold to be an accredited investor under federal securities law. Generally, an individual qualifies with a net worth over $1 million (excluding primary residence), or income over $200,000 individually—$300,000 with a spouse or partner—in each of the prior two years.

Register