Operate Podcast

My latest guest is Amber Illig, General Partner at The Council.  What started, as she told me, as her desire to do angel investing eventually expanded to a community and then a fund a couple of years ago.

The Council Fund typically invests about $50-100K into pre-seed startups, and then she also has a group called the Council Angels, which has become a consortium of over a hundred angels.  Prior to that, she has a really interesting history in both startups and established tech companies.

She's worked in names you would definitely recognize: companies like Atmos, Cruise, Snap, and even Apple. She started her career in engineering roles at Eli Lilly and Delta Faucet, two of Indiana's most well known companies. And she also graduated from my arch rival school, Purdue. But I was still excited to speak with her.

We had a fun conversation covering her journey, the current state of VC, where she sees exciting opportunities, life as an emerging manager, and some examples of companies and less obvious industries where she's finding great investments.

Thanks to show sponsor, BankTech Ventures.