Daniel Tellalian founded Angel City Advisors to serve as a platform for investors, business owners and civic leaders to expand access to capital and expertise to enterprises seeking to make a social impact. With more than 30 years in the impact investing sector, Tellalian’s previous work has focused on bioscience and food equity.Â
Located in Mid-Wilshire, Angel City works across private, public and philanthropic sectors and specializes in securing investments from angels and philanthropic organizations to early-stage companies. The firm provides a variety of services including impact fund advising, development and management, consulting, real estate advising and project management.
What drew you into impact investing and how does Angel City Advisors’ work align with your interests?
While I am formally trained in business transactions, I have never been able to separate my values from my work. My moment of obligation came in 1992 as I was preparing to head to Wall Street after studying at the Wharton School. I saw my hometown neighborhoods burning in the civil unrest after the police’s beating of Rodney King and I accepted that my skills should not be used to make outlandish money for absentee investors. Investment should be more nuanced and center people and community wellbeing. So, I came home to Los Angeles.
I was first dubbed a “social entrepreneur” in the late 90s when I’d never heard the term, but I have always embraced market-oriented solutions to social problems. “Impact investing” is also newer terminology to embrace long-held ideas.
Angel City is my fourth start-up, and I think I’ve finally been able to create a business model that allows me to make the change I want to see in the world: not just a wealth manager, not just a business consultant, not just an activist, but a platform that meaningfully bridges the worlds of business, community and investment for social good.
What are your investment criteria/requirements for the companies and funds you advise?
Our criteria vary across clients, but we generally are looking at early-stage companies that have clear revenue models and product-market fit, as well as obvious and meaningful social impact. We are also focused on finding exceptional leaders, even if they are first-time founders.
Often our pipeline enterprises operate in the proverbial valley of death and have not reached scale or financial sustainability yet. We see our capital as essential in navigating that stage of business. We look at a broad array of industry verticals, operating models and impact areas.
How does your company strike the balance between profitability and social good?
We hold an impact-first lens, meaning we are most concerned with manifesting the social change our clients envision. We are clear-eyed about the economics of an investment, but we view profitability as a milestone towards financial sustainability and scaled impact. We do not intentionally seek extractive or outsized returns in our assessments.
What differentiates Angel City Advisors from other advisory firms? Talk about your team’s structure.
Our advisory firm is not large or SEC-regulated, meaning we do not need to charge significant management fees as a registered investment adviser on an ongoing basis.
We maintain an amazing network of subject matter experts that allow family offices, philanthropies, governments and nonprofits to engage in catalytic investing at a reasonable cost. We see ourselves as a financial Swiss Army knife for people wanting to express their values with their money.
Our competitive advantage, as I see it, is the high level of trust and consistent integrity we share with our clients.
Describe an impactful project you worked on at Angel City Advisors. How did the entity you were working with grow and/or evolve under your guidance?
Over the last couple years, I’ve been honored to set up a catalytic capital fund to make follow-on investments into the world’s leading social innovators. The Signal Fund was designed and launched in partnership with Echoing Green, a premier identifier of global social entrepreneurs.
As fund manager, we’ve made 20 investments in the last 18 months across an incredibly diverse number of sectors, geographies, tax-statuses and impact areas. We have already raised about $20 million of philanthropic capital and hope to double that raise this year. The portfolio is thriving.
What does the future of impact investing look like to you?
I envision all investing becoming a version of impact investing over time. As generational wealth transfers occur, and individuals feel growing helplessness in changing the trajectory of global economic inequality and climate change, everyone can still vote with their dollars. We can invest locally or intentionally according to our values.
As the impact investment field matures, and more credible options become available to regular folks, I believe the world will continue to express themselves through economics. The future of the field is bright.
