Angel Investor Q&A: Craig Dixon
Founder of Global Black Syndicate
I like to highlight Angel Investors from my Angel Syndicate. This week’s angel is Craig Dixon who is running his own syndicate on Angel List.
Q. Tell us about yourself?
A. I am a Founder and entrepreneur in the sports and wellness space. My partner and I started The St. James, which is a platform of premium sports, wellness and entertainment experiences in the United States.
In addition to our 450,000 sq. ft. Flagship Complex in the Washington, DC Region, and a second Flagship in pre-development in the Chicago Region, we have a digital platform of training, sports and lifestyle experiences.
Before co-founding The St. James, I was an attorney focusing on mergers and acquisitions and, at the start of my career, on early-stage businesses and venture capital financings.
Along the way, I’ve had a number of opportunities to invest in early-stage and operating businesses. I passed on most of them because I was focusing my time and resources on The St. James. Everything changed in 2020.
Q. What is the Global Black Syndicate and why did you start it?
A. Over the past year, there have been very public discussions on social media platforms across the globe about the challenges that Black and Brown founders, Women founders and others have getting access to capital, investment opportunities and professional advancement.
While all of the most prominent VCs and corporate investors have pledged to back diverse founders, those founders are finding that things haven’t changed very much.
These very public conversations mirror the private conversations that I’ve been a part of during my entire educational and professional career. I decided that now is the time to act.
I started GBS to:
Bridge the Capital Gap that prevents Black Founders from getting their best ideas funded
Bridge the Access Gap that prevents Black Investors from getting in on the best investment opportunities on the planet
Bridge the Relationship Gap that prevents Non-Black Founders, VCs and Investors from diversifying their portfolios, teams, cap tables and advisors
I have developed a set of relationships that have gotten me access to really great opportunities that I am sharing with my syndicate in order to help solve the significant challenges mentioned above.
I know that a syndicate is only part of the solution, which is why GBS also aggressively builds relationships globally with VCs and institutions further up the value chain to provide support to companies as they grow.
Q. What are your areas of investment focus?
A. Health & Wellness, FinTech, Consumer, SaaS, Real Estate (including PropTech and AgTech), with a particular emphasis on companies that come out of the Global Black Diaspora - the 140+ million people of African descent around the planet.
To be clear, we don’t only focus on companies with diverse founders, nor are we only for Black investors.
However, GBS believes that there is a very Blue Ocean in this space because the majority of investors don’t know it and aren’t focused on it. We want to work with anyone who agrees with our thesis.
Q. Why should investors back you? What makes your syndicate different?
A. First, I am a founder and operator. Pathway Ventures recently wrote an article asserting that the Operator-Investor is the future of venture capital and I agree.
As an operator, I understand that winning companies pair strategy with consistent execution. Not only am I a pretty good judge of a team’s ability to execute, I can actually help them do so. Plus, I used to be a lawyer, so I know how to solve thorny regulatory and risk management issues.
Finally, I've been in the management team's shows (and still am), and bring a level of empathy and humility to the conversation that is not always present in conversations with investors. Money alone is not enough
Second, because GBS is focused on an undervalued space, we should be able to find opportunities that most investors overlook.
GBS is both a syndicate and a network and will be well-positioned to see value where other investors cannot.
Ultimately, however, it will come down to the quality of the deals we source, which is why I am so excited about First Boulevard for example.
Q. How can investors indicate their interest in participating in your Syndicate?
A. Join my Syndicate Page on AngelList!
