Angel investor Steve Seigel has seen it all in his relatively young career.
From acquiring a master's degree from the London School of Economics to working at Bear Stearns as the financial world came crumbling down in 2008 to making investments in successful startups, Seigel decided his next professional adventure would involve something very relevant to his hometown: television.
Recently, Seigel debuted as a panelist on the second season of the nationally syndicated reality show Hatched, which pairs aspiring entrepreneurs with mentors and investors with the ultimate goal of attaining funding. But why would someone who boasts strategic investments in Bay Area startups Lyft and Honor take time out of his schedule to hear pitches from stay-at-home moms and teenagers when he could be hearing a pitch from the next Snapchat?
“I love the idea of supporting young people who want to go out there and start a business, and really just need the tools,” said the Beverly Hills High School and UCLA grad. “I love it when someone tells me that they're going to be able to create that roadmap to success and they want to use me as a sounding board to get there.”
Following his run at Bear Stearns, Seigel returned to Los Angeles where he drifted towards angel investing. For him, it wasn't so much a concerted career move, but rather seeing the rapid growth in the area and getting inspired to become a part of it.
"I had this bug inside of me to want to build, to want to be an operator, to want to be an investor, and having the skills of being a banker teaches you how to rip companies apart and understand what drives them," said Seigel. "There's something about being there from the beginning to have that value add and working with entrepreneurs, especially in my hometown, that really got me excited.
Though a bit hesitant about stepping in front of the camera, Seigel felt strongly about the impact the show could make on entrepreneurs. Unlike ABC’s Shark Tank, where participants are grilled by a panel of investors, Seigel said Hatched presents a more family-friendly type format. Entrepreneurs pitch the panel of experts before displaying their products at the show’s pop-up retail store where they receive consumer and panelist feedback. Though not every entrepreneur eventually receives the funding they were looking for, they will go home with information on how they can improve.
“The thing that people think of sometimes about Shark Tank is that it can be very predatory, and if you don't know your numbers, you're going to get grilled,” Seigel said. “What we want to do is encourage people to be entrepreneurs, but also we want to give them the value add of prolific investors and this multimedia platform to display their products and brands.”
Though he had no prior experience working in front of a camera, Seigel said there wasn’t much of a learning curve for him and the other panelists because of their experience working with startups.
“I just focused on trying to make it seem natural,” said Seigel. “For me to go out and work with entrepreneurs and talk about ways to improve their business, or price points and packaging, it's something I've done for a long time. As soon as I look it as interacting with consumers and entrepreneurs, getting out in front of the camera actually felt very natural to me. I'm really excited to have a platform to go out there and help.”
But just because he believes strongly in the show's ability to foster, not limit, entrepreneurial spirit, Seigel said he still approaches each contestant as he would any entrepreneur. For him, the pitch all starts with the team.
"The big bet is really on the operators and the management team," said Seigel. "I always liked to look at the story, the cohesiveness between the team because at that seed stage, there's a lot of great ideas. A lot of times you might love an idea so much, that you try to overcompensate for the operators or the first time founders. But you really need to take a step back because you can't let your emotions get the best of you."
Following a successful first season, Hatched, which Angelenos can see on the CW on Saturday afternoons, partnered with the Home Shopping Network, giving show participants the added opportunity of potentially getting their products featured in front of 95 million homes.
“We put them in a retail pop-up environment, so no matter what, they're getting valuable consumer feedback on everything,” said Seigel. “They're walking away from the show with valuable information, and their business plan is going to improve because of it.”
Images via Steve Seigel.
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