What's the best way to do due diligence on an Angel Investor?
cperciva: Make it clear that you're not committing to anything until it's in writing and you've had a lawyer look at it.  That way even if the "angel" is less than angelic, he can't cause too much damage.Deals fall through; that's a fact of life.  Deals with inexperienced angels fall through in particularly screwy ways.  Shortly after I started working on tarsnap, I talked to a wannabe angel; it sounded like we had hammered out the framework for a deal, but "I'll get this put into writing and send it over for you to review in a few days" stretched into two months, and the draft he sent over was unlike what we had discussed on nearly every important point -- and then when I objected he accused me of backing out of a deal and threatened to sue me for the cost of drafting it (he never went so far as to tell me how much those fees were, though, so I guess he came to his senses).Seriously -- unless you're dealing with an angel who has a track record, trust them as much as you'd trust a second hand car dealer.