When I tell people I'm an angel investor, they assume that because I'm a doctor, I prefer to invest in healthcare start-ups. They believe these are the companies I will be able to add the most value to them, given my domain expertise. While I do invest in healthcare start-ups, I'm also acutely aware of the fact that sometimes my preconceived notions about the healthcare industry could be completely wrong, and I don't want to contaminate the entrepreneur's perspective. 

I feel my strength as an angel is that I can be more empathetic. As a doctor, I have been taught to establish an emotional bond with my patients and to connect with them. Hopefully, some of my professional skills will spill over into my relationships with my founders, so that hopefully, I'll be a little kinder when I deal with them. 

Also, as an IVF doctor, I understand that no matter how good a job I do, most IVF cycles will not end in a baby. This is why I'm much more forgiving of failure, and am much more focussed on following the right process, rather than obsessing over an outcome which is not in my control.

This is the same yardstick I use when I measure the performance of our entrepreneurs. I don't judge them by whether or not they are able to deliver because I know they do not have any power over the external environment. I am much more interested in checking whether she is doing what she said she would do. 

Since I am a doctor, I am quite academic and read a lot. I respect professional expertise, and value the knowledge which my founders bring to the table. As a surgeon, I admire their real life practical skills even more, because the magic sauce in any start-up is the ability to implement the plan frugally, and a surgeon is only as good as his technical skills in the OR.

As a doctor, I have been trained to think independently. I have enough self-esteem to trust my judgment, even though it may be completely different from other investors, which means I am quite willing to be contrarian. 

Also, I understand a doctor's reputation is his most valuable asset, and that this can take a life time to build. This is why I usually have a long term perspective on most things in life, including my start-up investments. I don't think of them as a shortcut to getting rich quickly. Because I am in private practice, I am also an entrepreneur, and because I have "been there and done that " (though this was many moons ago!) can understand some of my founder's pain points better.

Because I don't have domain expertise in many of the start-ups I invest in, I am quite happy to take a hands-off approach, and allow the founder to take ownership of the solutions he has crafted. Just like I expect my patients to trust my professional expertise and not keep on second-guessing me, I am willing to have faith in my founder's skills and experience. I give him the freedom to set the agenda, as long as he shows that he is on the path he set out for himself - all I need is that he be open and transparent, so I can respect him. I treat my patients as empowered customers, and take my fiduciary responsibility to them very seriously. I expect my founders to treat me the same way. 

Finally, given the fact that I'm investing my personal money, I can be much more flexible as to which founder I choose to back. I can afford to take contrarian bets, because I am not bound by an institutional imperative - the only person I'm answerable to is my wife.