Marcia Dawood has spent 14 years watching high-earning leaders opt out of angel investing, because the entry point isn’t obvious. That gap is costing them, and their businesses, more than realise.

“I just don’t even know where my money is. I don’t do the investing. I have so many other things to do. I can’t be bothered. It’s kind of overwhelming.”

This is what Marcia Dawood hears predominantly from women who run departments, manage multimillion dollar budgets, and make high stakes decisions every single day at work. Marcia is a seasoned angel investor of 14 years, author, and chair of the SEC’s Small Business Capital Formation Advisory Committee who has watched some of the sharpest leaders she knows opt out of building their own wealth.

These leaders don’t opt out because they lack the intelligence or the capital, but because the world of early stage investing has never been presented to them in a way that made the entry point obvious. According to Marcia, this comes at a cost: Leaders who do not put their money to work will outlive it which impacts those that work with them.

“The women who don’t put their money to work will outlive it. That’s not a warning about risk. That’s the risk itself.”

In Marcia’s experience, the entry point is not complicated and it does not require a finance degree, a network, or a minimum investment, it requires curiosity. The curiosity to look at what companies are building, the problems they’re solving and what innovations are happening in the world. Marcia also thinks it’s a fun dinner time conversation to have, not only do you learn but the family does too.

The best thing for a leader who wants to get started in investing to do is to search for startup events in your own city and just go. You don’t have to invest or know anything, you simply start to see what is being built around you, meet the people building it, and let the world become familiar before you ever consider writing a check.

Melissa’s Take

I see this constantly in my network. High-earning leaders running departments, managing million-dollar budgets, sitting on seven figures in cash they’re not deploying. Not because they can’t but because nobody ever made it feel like they could. For years I watched brilliant people treat their capital like a liability instead of a tool. We’ll spend hours optimizing a budget at work but leave our own wealth on the sidelines. I used to be one of them.

As someone who works in regulation, I know the rules matter and most people I know have no idea what rules actually apply to them. That’s the real barrier.

Before you go to that first event, understand what accredited investor actually means for you. It’s one specific, doable action: research what accredited investor status means and determine if you qualify before attending any startup events. That’s the gateway action that removes the invisible barrier and positions you to listen differently to every pitch that follows.

This is part of a full conversation I had with Marcia on the Executive Connect Podcast which goes deeper on how experienced investors evaluate early stage companies, the portfolio math that most people get completely wrong, and the SEC thresholds that mean more of you already qualify than you think.

Each month, I publish The Full Brief which examines these conversations in more depth, provide my own insights plus take-away points you can action immediately. When you join The Full Brief, you will also unlock the Maverick Test, a three minute quiz that reveals your Maverick Archetype and what it means for the way you lead, decide, and build.