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 […]
Drug development is interesting and important R&D but, unfortunately, very few regions of the world can attract the venture capital necessary for commercialization. Read my June column in the Flathead Beacon (Kalispell, Montana) at http://www.flatheadbeacon.com/articles/article/montana_drug_rd_good_science_but_no_commercialization_funding/23243/
The following article appeared in the July 2010 issue of the Flathead Business Journal, but is no longer available online. Last month we described VC firms as limited partnerships in which general partners raise funds from large passive limited partners, such as pension funds, foundation endowments and big corporate investors, and then invest those funds […]
The following article appeared in the June 2010 issue of the Flathead Business Journal, but is no longer available online. While wealthy businesspersons have been supporting start-up ventures for hundreds of years, by investing time and money as angel investors, the Venture Capital (VC) industry emerged as investors in new businesses after World War II. […]
I chuckle when I read Silicon Valley pundits attempt to generalize on the characteristics of US entrepreneurs and their source of capital based of information gleaned from surveys of Silicon Valley folks. Such is the case with the Dorsey and Whitney (D&W) survey, “What Really Matters to Startup Entrepreneurs” released last month. Let’s just look […]
Super Angels are high profile entrepreneurs-turned-investors, mostly in Silicon Valley, doing rapid-fire investing in startup entrepreneurs. For many, 10-20 investments per year is the objective. They are now raising small VC funds to finance even more ventures. Are Super Angels a positive influence on the entrepreneurial economy? Let’s take a look at the pros and […]
What’s all the hubbub about Super Angels? Well, some high profile entrepreneurs-turned-investors, mostly in Silicon Valley, have been doing some rapid-fire investing in startup entrepreneurs. In the process, they began to accumulate some nice press (see our recent post) and lots of attention. And, wanting to do more investing in startup ventures, many of these […]
As many of you know, high-growth entrepreneurs seek capital from three generally non-competing sources: Friend & Family, Angel Investors and Venture Capitalists. F&F often invest up to $100K in idea-stage companies (no product, no customers). Angel investors provide funding in amounts ranging from $100K to $1 million to companies with at least a prototype product […]
I spent my summer developing a new ½ day workshop on the valuation of pre-revenue start-up companies for angel investors and entrepreneurs. It is now complete and will be delivered in Tucson, Grand Forks, ND and Philadelphia in the next six weeks. This was a volunteer project I completed for the Angel Capital Education Foundation. […]
