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Reader question: Please explain “angel investing”, as in this sentence: He has also been doing angel investing in technology start-ups. My comments: In other words, he’s been investing in technology start-ups as a venture capitalist. A start-up, you see, is a company in its formation stages, a time when it usually needs funding the most. It’s up and coming but very young and unable to hold its own yet, and so therefore investing money in a start-up is risky business, to say the least. That’s where venture investors come in. They are investors who make investing in risky start-up a business. They assume the risks and ask for hefty returns if any start-ups make it big – in the form of acquiring shares of the companies. Angel investing? Essentially, people say angel investing when they want to refer to their investors as angels. That’s just when they choose to think very well of their investors who kindly offer their money and support. When they don’t think very well of their investors, they, well, talk of them as vultures if you know what I mean. Anyways, angel originally is a celestial being, someone unreal really, that serves as a guardian of people and places. Angel investors are kind of looked at in the same way. Usually, you see, angel investors work alone and are usually not into investing with an eye (or both eyes, I shall say) solely on the potential profits. Angel investors are just rich individuals who want to make good use of their extra money by helping someone developing a business of his own. In a sense, they almost serve more as a guardian, as in guardian angel, than as a businessman. In other words, they’re not the usual type of venture capitalists who are in for the money and money alone. They’re professionals who do it strictly as a business. | 
