I recently talked to serial entrepreneur Johann Moonesinghe about his experiences as a founder and investor. He was one of the first people in the country to try equity crowdfunding, focused on restaurants. 

He actively invests in and advises tech startups through TechStars and directly.

We talked about how the COVID crisis impacted restaurants and other startups, and the common elements among those that are surviving.

He shared his experience as a gay minority founder and the importance of mutual community support.

Finally, we dove into his process in choosing what companies he wants to invest in and his advice to new entrepreneurs.

Get the podcast here.

Johann recommended:

StartOut Growth Lab - LGBTQ+ focused accelerator https://startout.org/growth-lab/

TechStars Accelerator https://TechStars.com

LinkedIn (don’t forget the obvious tools) https://LinkedIn.com

About Johann:

Johann is the CEO/co-founder of inKind and the Managing Partner of inKind Credit Fund. inKind is a restaurant financing company which provides capital in exchange for food and beverage credit. Over the past 3 years, inKind has successfully funded over 450 restaurants. The inKind Credit Fund is the only restaurant finance fund which has never lost money on a portfolio basis, even returning 7% to investors during COVID. In 2015, Johann started an 18,000 sq ft restaurant focused on incubating new food and beverages concepts. Johann is a serial entrepreneur and an active angel investor with seed level investments in companies including Uber and All Birds. Johann has a BS in Computer Science from UCLA.