Valuations and Due diligence – hosted by Mainland Angels

Inside an Investor’s Mind: How Professionals Evaluate Startup Deals

This advanced session is designed for experienced angel investors and those who have already evaluated or participated in angel deals. If you have made investments before, understand the basics of venture investing, and want to sharpen how you assess opportunities, this session will be highly relevant.

Mike Wyeth, Partner at BDO Invercargill and former Senior Investment Associate at Invest South will take participants behind the scenes of how professional investors evaluate early-stage companies. Drawing on more than 15 years in the finance industry across the UK and New Zealand, Mike will walk through the real-world frameworks, tools, and thinking he uses to assess risk, value, and investment readiness. Ben Keall, CA and Deal Advisory Associate at BDO Christchurch will also be co-presenting in this interactive session

This will be a practical, technical session. Attendees should bring a laptop and be prepared to work through examples and apply tools live during the session.

The discussion will operate under Chatham House Rules to enable open, candid insight into how professional investors approach deal evaluation.

This session is ideal for angels who want to deepen their investment capability, stress-test their own decision-making processes, and gain greater confidence evaluating startup opportunities.

Location: Christchurch
Audience: Angels who want to learn more quantitative methods and already know the 101 of angel investing
Format: Interactive, laptop-based working session