While mainstream hedge funds are doling out millions and waiting for unicorns to be ready, NEWTON University Angels is going in the opposite direction. Experienced investor Michal Tesař co-founded the fund, which invests just hundreds of thousands in the very beginning.

NEWTON University Angels (NUA) has been operating for three years and has managed to invest in eight projects, including Believer, an app by believers for believers, Bogroti men’s cosmetics and Take Up, a dating app. With an average investment in the hundreds of thousands and a horizon of 5-7 years, they are also able to support smaller projects led by students from their university, NEWTON University, for example. The idea is simple. Not just to be a supervising investor, but rather to be a co-founder who helps.

In our interview with Michal Tesar, we discussed not only his personal approach and vision, but also the risk involved in his work.

1) Michal, you have decades of experience with larger investments, yet you choose to invest small amounts in student or smaller projects. What was it about that that appealed to you?

The main attraction is working with the young dynamic startup environment, which you won’t find among adult companies. Moreover, I started investing as an angel myself before NUA. So I combined my activism at school, with the need to support students in pursuing entrepreneurship and my desire to become more involved in this field.

2) Your NUAF fund is “only” a few million in size, while regular funds operate with tens to hundreds of millions. What is your strength and vision for why you are doing all this?

The strength is in leveraging the entire facilities of NEWTON University, without that it would be cost prohibitive. I have a team of students who are effectively pulled into all the activities that are needed at the fund. It’s an incredible school of investment life for them. Plus the additional use of the school’s facilities, relationships and experts. We are moving forward with our vision, thanks in part to another significant addition from this year, Honza Bízik. With him, I believe that with NUA we will help not only the students of our school, but also others in the next few years.

3) You say that you don’t want to be just a supervising investor, but a co-founder. What does that look like in practice?

Money as our investment is of course important, currently it’s up to half a million, but in fact we are smart money. We help as much as we can, because most founders have a big pull at the gate, but very limited experience in starting new businesses. On a regular basis, we find out where the shoe is dropping and engage ourselves or other outside experts to tackle new situations accordingly.

4) I imagine that in smaller projects you and your team are very close. Everything is more intense. How do you say no then?

Sometimes I’m surprised how especially the young guys can handle it and refuse completely calmly 😊 But as you say, the closer the more difficult.

5) You make no secret of the fact that you take a lot of risks. Projects in the beginning and high mortality. Don’t you ever get tired of the constant risk and tension?

Naturally it comes in waves, classically up and down. It’s so dynamic that you can be sure that after a hard day the sun will come out again and that when it does, it will rain again.

6) And finally, a more personal question. What has given you the most joy and the most worry lately?

My greatest joy was a new insight from our LoveGuard project, an app to help men in their relationships with women. Namely, that the best way to attract a new male user is to motivate his female partner. She actually cares the most about making things work. We men are a bit rigid about this 😊

The worry I had with our AntsPark project on ant behaviour was that the original founder started to leave. But we managed to sort it out with the entry of two more new founders and re-energized the whole project.

Thank you very much for the interview!