My wife, Ann, and I visited Ireland, Russia, Estonia and Finland, from mid-March to mid-April (2012), sharing experiences in angel investing through lectures, discussions and workshops. We met passionate entrepreneurs with exciting startup companies and engaged angels investors in all four countries. Ireland Upon arriving in Dublin, we were met by our hostess, Diane Roberts, [...]
In 2007, Professor Rob Wiltbank reported in Returns to Angel Investors in Groups that angel investors made follow-on investment in about 30% of their invested companies. It was surprising for me to learn that follow-on investments correlated with lower returns, that is, angels that made follow-on angel investments saw returns of 1.4X their investment, while [...]
The Center for Venture Research at the University of New Hampshire has been publishing statistics on angel investing for decades. Over the past several years, the numbers of US companies funded by angel investors has increased from about 50,000 per year to over 60,000 annually. Based on CVR reports, Mark Boslet of senior editor with [...]
I’ve recently taken a look at seed stage funding by venture capitalists (VCs) and angel investors over the past five years. For VCs, I chose to look at all seed stage VC deals (from MoneyTree©) as well as those in five of the most active regions in the country. Note that I merged the two [...]
For years there has been a pervasive opinion across the entrepreneurial landscape that the US has a shortage of capital required to startup and grow new ventures. It is suggested that companies cannot find the cash necessary to start new and exciting ventures. Furthermore during this economic downturn, we’ve heard a crescendo of voices lamenting [...]
Kevin is a friend and angel leader in Boise, Idaho. Dr. Learned is a counselor at the Idaho Small Business Development Center at Boise State University where he specializes in counseling with entrepreneurs seeking equity capital. He is a member of the Boise Angel Fund, and is a principal in Loon Creek Capital which assists [...]
The Flathead Beacon (Kalispell) just published this article: Angel Investors in Montana
In a recent post, Bill Clark, CEO of Microventures, did a nice job of summarizing the Convertible Debt versus Equity option for startup investors. Unfortunately he left out the primary disadvantage to investors, which is why you won’t find most savvy angel investors who are part of angel groups using convertible debt. Convertible debt can [...]
In 2004 James Surowiecki, New Yorker business columnist, wrote the Wisdom of Crowds which recognizes that the opinions of groups is routinely more accurate than those of most individuals in the group. In particular, the author demonstrates that large crowds consistently outperform experts within the group in decision-making. I sense that the Wisdom of Crowds [...]
One entrepreneur has a company which appears to be scalable to a $30 million exit value in 5-8 years and a second entrepreneur’s venture seems to be scalable to $200 million in exit value in the same time frame. Yet, at the pre-revenue stage of development, angel investors price both companies at a pre-money valuation [...]
