One of my founders just called me. He was feeling extremely guilty and ashamed about the fact that he was going to have to shut his startup down, because he couldn't make ends meet . He had tried every option he could think of, but everything had failed. He was embarrassed ; and was scared that I would berate him . I was his largest angel investor, and he felt that he had let me down by burning through all the money , and having nothing to show for it. I tried to offer him a balanced perspective. " As an angel investor , I understand that most startups will fail - after all, this is the fate of most of them, so you don't need to beat up on yourself.