When David Steinberger decided to start a creator-friendly comics brand, he hoped to partner with angel investors who could help. On this special New York Angels edition of the Angel Nest, you'll learn how that initial partnership spawned not one successful company, but two. Today, we meet Dytslry and its founder David Steinberger, whose independent next-generation comic book publishing company has found early success by partnering with A-list creators to make unique digital innovations and turn that into a digital retail powerhouse for all comics. New York Angel Kit McQuiston led the seed round for Dytslry, but it wasn't their first collaboration. We'll also speak with New York Angels member Ed Levine and Helge Seetzen about a partnership they forged between the New York Angels and Tandem Launch, a group in Canada that backs high-tech startups with big opportunities, but often lower valuations that we see in New York. Check out some very cool comics at dstlry.co, learn more about Tandem Launch, and see who the New York Angels are partnering with at newyorkangels.com. Be sure to also revisit the Angel Nest archives for more great conversations with founders and angel investors.

In a special edition of the Angel Nest podcast, host David Hemenway talks with two prominent experts about the Rhode Island Life Science Hub and how the Hub’s support is integral to growing the life science sector in New England and helping to get great ideas to market faster. Among the most important priorities in life science today is the work being done on the human brain. Dr. Leigh Hochberg is a professor of engineering and brain science at Brown University and joins us to talk about his work and the rapid advances happening in the science now. As the director of the BrainGate Consortium, Hochberg and a research team of top neurologists, neuroscientists, clinicians, engineers, computer scientists, neurosurgeons, and mathematicians develop and test implantable brain computer interfaces that could very soon restore communication, mobility and independence for patients with neurological diseases like ALS or the loss of limbs. David also speaks with Thorne Sparkman. Sparkman is the managing director of the Slater Fund which invests in RI-based startups. He gives us the investor perspective on the Hub and shares how investors are getting more involved now in the RI life science sector. Learn about the RI Life Science Hub, the BrainGate Consortium, and the Slater Fund. Catch up on our two previous episodes about the RI Life Science Hub in our Angel Nest archives.

On this special New York Angels edition of the Angel Nest, board chair Cindy Cook joins us to interview the founder of the New York Angels, David S. Rose. He’s updated his famous book, “Angel Investing: The Gust Guide to Making Money and Having Fun in Startups.” We’ll learn what’s new and how angel investing has changed since he came to be known as the father of angel investing in New York. Rose and Cook are, respectively, the original and current leader of the New York Angels, the member organization of angel investors (including host David Hemenway) that fund and mentor great young companies. We’ll discuss how the New York Angels has grown in size and scope and has evolved along with angel investing since the 1990s. Learn more about The New York Angels here. David S. Rose is now Founder & Executive Chairman at Gust, a global SaaS platform for founding, operating, and investing in scalable, high-growth companies. You can learn more about Gust at gust.com.

And visit theangelnest.com to catch up on dozens of past interviews with great founders and leaders.

We hear a lot about AI these days and how it makes work efficient, but what does that actually mean in practice? In this special episode of the Angel Nest podcast, we hear from people who are actually making it happen in finance and accounting. Host David Hemenway welcomes Johnnie Walker from Rooled Outsourced CFO and Accounting and Parker Gilbert, CEO of Numeric. Rooled are the startup finance experts and often collaborate with Numeric, which is using AI to help companies make smarter decisions and close their books faster. We’ll discuss real use cases where AI is changing the game for finance teams with better transaction monitoring, account reconciliation, robust reporting, and month-end closing. Visit rooled.com to learn more about Rooled’s services. Get more information on Numeric at numeric.io. And, check out our archives for more great episodes at theangelnest.com.

The Rhode Island Life Science Hub is accelerating innovation in New England. In this episode of The Angel Nest, we talk with Dr. Tejal Desai, Sorenson Family Dean of Engineering at Brown University about how Brown and The Rhode Island Life Science Hub are partnering to bring groundbreaking ideas to market faster. Discover how collaboration across engineering, medicine, and tech is shaping the next wave of innovation. We also speak with David Uffer who shares the investors’ perspective on Rhode Island’s expanding life sciences ecosystem. A veteran in business development, M&A, and strategic partnerships, David highlights what investors look for in emerging biotech ventures—and how collaboration between academia, industry, and the new RI Life Science Hub is positioning the state for long-term growth and impact across New England. Learn more about the RI Life Science Hub at rilifescience.com.

Hear previous episodes of the Angel Nest podcast at theangelnest.com.

This month on the New York Angels edition of The Angel Nest, we meet a great business inspired by a disaster. When his home flooded with water, John Rusk decided there had to be a better way to protect property. So, he invented an early warning system and started ProSentry in 2019 to prevent others from experiencing the same frustration.

In a recent 18 month period, they alerted commercial and residential building owners to more than 6,000 water leak events. And they've done it so quickly that not one has resulted in an insurance claim. ProSentry collaborates with Chubb Insurance on water leak detection initiatives, now operates in six states and is growing quickly. We’ll talk with John and with Tom Hirschfeld, a New York Angels board member who co-led the group’s investment in ProSentry. He’ll tell us what it was about ProSentry that caught his attention. And, we also meet Seth Masters, vice chair of the New York Angels who shares how the group funds the most exciting startups and why he chose to join New York Angels after being a chief investment officer of private wealth management at Alliance Bernstein for 27 years. Seth has been a New York Angel since 2017, where he has already invested an astounding 70 rounds in 40 companies.

Listen to the episode now and find dozens of past episodes at theangelnest.com.

Academically rich, Rhode Island and its capital city of Providence have traditionally excelled in research and innovation. Remember the industrial revolution started in Rhode Island. But now there’s a new catalyst to create businesses and jobs and bring new technologies to the marketplace that can help solve some of society’s most vexing problems. Investors are taking note and getting involved. In this episode of the Angel Nest podcast, we’re talking about how to get innovative and life-saving medical solutions to market faster. We’ll meet the people behind The Rhode Island Life Science Hub and the founders they are supporting. We are delighted to begin a series of episodes about The Rhode Island Life Science Hub, an organization created and funded by the state to spur innovation. In this episode, we’ll speak with Dr. Mark Turco, President and CEO of The Rhode Island Life Science Hub, and Katie Ellias, who is part of the Hub team that helps ventures find investors, partners and markets. We’ll also hear from one of the companies the Hub is supporting that is looking for ways to combat disease and aging through a better understanding of RNA. Learn more about the RI Life Science Hub at rilifescience.com.

Tune back in for future episodes with the Hub and check out dozens of archived interviews at theangelnest.com.

At Brown University they’re working on something called the extracellular matrix – a way to help the body promote tissue healing and regeneration with minimal negative impact and without debilitating drugs. It could be a game changer for heart disease and a host of other ailments. In this episode, we meet XM Therapeutics and the ecosystem at Brown Technology innovations that is working to make this amazing technology a reality for patients. Melissa Simon, the Director of Business Development at Brown Technology Innovations, and Karen Bulock from Brown Medical Biomedical Innovations work together to provide early funding and guidance so these amazing ideas that start in the research lab can make it to commercialization. We’re also joined by Dr. Jeffrey Morgan, Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Brown and Frank Ahmann the entrepreneur who BTI recruited to scale XM Therapeutics. Learn about Brown Technology Innovations here. Read more about this amazing advancement at XMThereapeutics.com. And check out TheAngelNest.com for many more stories of innovative companies.