Amber Illig intentionally spent three years testing her investment skills by angel investing in ~30 startups with her own savings before becoming a full-time VC, and she built The Council Angels, a curated group of 100+ operator angels from companies like Square and Airbnb that she activates for expert help and follow-on capital after investing. She focuses on "existential industries" like construction and healthcare while positioning herself as an "operations expert" rather than a traditional finance-first GP, using her dual background spanning heavily regulated physical industries and high-growth software to identify strong operators to back as founders. Amber Illig intentionally spent three years testing her investment skills by angel investing in ~30 startups with her own savings before becoming a full-time VC, and she built The Council Angels, a curated group of 100+ operator angels from companies like Square and Airbnb that she activates for expert help and follow-on capital after investing. She focuses on "existential industries" like construction and healthcare while positioning herself as an "operations expert" rather than a traditional finance-first GP, using her dual background spanning heavily regulated physical industries and high-growth software to identify strong operators to back as founders.