Gust

MAY 22, 2012

This is a good time to reflect on my experience with locally based angel investment. I just finished with the fourth of our annual angel investment event for my local group based in Eugene and Corvallis, Oregon. I’ve been an investing member since the group — the Willamette Angel Conference , nicknamed (ugh) the WAC — started. . We now have an investment in Cascade ProDrug, using technology developed at our own University of Oregon (based in Eugene, where I live) to help people

Technical Review 111

Technical Review Oregon Due Diligence Term Sheet 111

Gust

MAY 28, 2012

Business success begins in the mind of the startup founder and his team. A winning startup is a team of entrepreneurs who build and run the business as an extension of who they are, rather than some extrapolation of the Google or Facebook model. It’s not so easy to fake the important attributes when the going gets rough. So before you risk it all by jumping into a startup, do a reality check on your own mind to see if you can find a majority of the following attributes, summarized from the book

Entrepreneur 182

Entrepreneur Business Model Startup Design 182

Gust

MAY 29, 2012

It’s the end of May as I write this so I’ve just finished my annual April-May business plan marathon reading more than 100 business plans for my angel investment group and four different business plan contests. This seems like a good point to summarize here what I look for in a business plan. . Don’t push adjectives. Let me assign my own.

Business Plan 174

Business Plan Forecast Channel Cost 174

Gust

MAY 24, 2012

Dual-class voting structures are receiving a lot of attention these days along with intense publicity related to the Facebook IPO , following in the wake of other recent tech IPOs with a similar structure such as Zynga and LinkedIn. This is nothing new; long favored by family-controlled media empires such as Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation , among Internet firms alone, Google took a dual-class approach when going public in 2004.

IPO 159

IPO Equity Common Stock Stock 159