Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 23, 2010

Over the past 10 years, I have had the opportunity to see how the process works, several times from the startup side, and more recently from the angel perspective (as a member of an angel group selection committee). Like the business plan, a financial model is required as much for your own use as to impress angel investors.

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Angel Investor Intellectual Property Technical Review Elevator Pitch 224

David Teten

JANUARY 21, 2021

This essay is part of a series on alternative VC: I: Revenue-Based Investing: a new option for founders who care about control. II: Who are the major Revenue-Based Investing VCs? III: Why are Revenue-Based VCs investing in so many women and underrepresented founders? IV: Should your new VC fund use Revenue-Based Investing?

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Equity Revenue Cofounder Colorado 78

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 15, 2012

Jason Calacanis, a well-known entrepreneur and Angel investor, opened the debate a while back in a strongly-worded article on his blog which attacked the practice on ethical grounds, and called out popular Angel groups charging fees ranging from several hundred dollars to $5,000 or more. Others , including noted Angel David S.

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Angel Groups Angel Investor Due Diligence Seed Stage 237

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 13, 2010

Jason Calacanis, a well-known entrepreneur and angel investor, opened the debate about a year ago in a strongly-worded article on his blog which attacked the practice on ethical grounds, and called out popular angel groups charging fees ranging from several hundred dollars to $5,000 or more. Find and fix that first.

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Angel Groups Entrepreneur Angel Investor Due Diligence 234

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 24, 2012

But many entrepreneurs don’t realize that Angels are also extremely discerning in the projects that they will invest in, rejecting approximately 97% of the proposals submitted to them, according to the California Investment Network. Don’t expect the pomp and celebrity of the Angels on Shark Tank , but they do ask a lot of the right questions.

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Angel Investor Intellectual Property Elevator Pitch Angel Groups 260

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 27, 2012

As a member of the local Angel group selection committee, I’ve seen a lot of startup presentations to investors, and I’ve never seen one that was too short - maybe short on content, but not short on pages! In this section, you need to be passionate about recurring revenue, profit margin, and volume growth. Business model.

Elevator Pitch 247

Elevator Pitch Exit Strategy Burn Rate Merger 247

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 23, 2017

A major angel group used Influitive , an advocate management tool, to track, activate and motivate their members. Many tools designed for B2B marketing in general are also relevant to investors.

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Private Equity Venture Capital Equity Technical Review 60

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 3, 2015

In all cases, due diligence is recommended on every potential investor and angel group before spending money you don’t have, looking for money you need. As they say, you only get one chance to make a great first impression, so don’t pitch to a key angel group or venture capital team for practice.

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Cost Angel Groups Due Diligence Silicon Valley 120

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 10, 2011

As a member of the local Angel group selection committee, I’ve seen a lot of startup presentations to investors, and I’ve never seen one that was too short - maybe short on content, but not short on pages! In this section, you need to be passionate about recurring revenue, profit margin, and volume growth. Business model.

Elevator Pitch 234

Elevator Pitch Exit Strategy Burn Rate Merger 234

SoCal CTO

MAY 19, 2010

But, this is not my experience with Angel groups. For example, TCA’s evaluation criteria first bullet is: A market opportunity sufficiently large to create a business that can grow to at least $50 million in annual revenues. Bob is heavily focused on ROI (and team/product). But it seems like Bob would be a candidate.

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Hockey Stick NPV IRR Valuation 205

Gust

DECEMBER 16, 2012

But many entrepreneurs don’t realize that Angels are also extremely discerning in the projects that they will invest in, rejecting approximately 97% of the proposals submitted to them, according to the California Investment Network. Don’t expect the pomp and celebrity of the Angels on Shark Tank , but they do ask a lot of the right questions.

Angel Investor 179

Angel Investor Intellectual Property Elevator Pitch Angel Groups 179

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 19, 2010

As a member of the local angel group Selection Committee, I’ve seen a lot of startup presentations to investors, and I’ve never seen one that was too short - maybe short on content, but not short on pages! In this section, you need to be passionate about recurring revenue, profit margin, and volume growth. Business model.

Elevator Pitch 235

Elevator Pitch Exit Strategy Burn Rate Merger 235

View from Seed

MARCH 16, 2016

Look out for bootstrapped CarGurus , one of the leading used-car properties, targeting over $150M in revenue this year. There’s Semantic Machines , one of the best collections of AI and ML minds in the world, led by serial entrepreneur Dan Roth. Want the next TripAdvisor or Wayfair?

Boston 215

Boston Early Stage Artificial Inteligence Semantic 215

Gust

AUGUST 19, 2012

As a member of the local Angel group selection committee, I’ve seen a lot of startup presentations to investors, and I’ve never seen one that was too short – maybe short on content, but not short on pages! In this section, you need to be passionate about recurring revenue, profit margin, and volume growth. Business model.

Elevator Pitch 146

Elevator Pitch Exit Strategy Burn Rate Merger 146

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 18, 2010

Angel Investor: Writing a business plan for angel investors can be tricky. If you’re pitching to a member of an organized angel group, then a business-like tone is in order. For many angel investors, letting them know “What’s In It For Me” (WIIFM) is critical. Focus on your designated market area instead.

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Audience Business Plan Angel Investor Widget 243

Berkonomics

APRIL 4, 2019

Summarizing income statements with a line for revenues, cost of revenue, general and administrative expenses, sales and other direct costs – all leading to net income, would satisfy the legal requirement for statement of income and expense. Requirements created by investment documents.

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Stock Options Balance Sheet Stock Common Stock 48

ReadWriteStart

APRIL 13, 2012

According to the just-released Halo Report from the Angel Capital Association and the Angel Resource Institute ( ARI ), founded by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation , "The median size of angel & angel group syndicate rounds was $700,000" last year, up from $500,000 in 2010. What's your end game?

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Angel Investor Syndicate Syndication Exit Strategy 128

David Teten

JANUARY 28, 2019

For instance, Columbia has launched a variety of explicitly interdisciplinary centers in recent years, including the Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute , Columbia Data Science Institute ; the Brown Institute for Media Innovation ; or cross-school courses such as Columbia Business and Engineering’s Research to Revenue course.

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Berkonomics

DECEMBER 17, 2020

Angel groups invest from $250,000 to $1,000,000 or more in qualified investments. Some can supply more when syndicating with other such groups. How many angel groups are there? All angel groups will want to see the founders in person or by Zoom at sometime early in the process.

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Equity Finance Liquidity Event Angel Groups 62

YoungUpstarts

MARCH 31, 2016

Angel and other seed fund investors fund prototypes. Most VCs don’t invest pre-revenue. He’s formed multiple venture capital funds, founded angel groups, and is an angel investor. It depends on the stage of your company. Incubators and economic development agencies may invest at the concept stage.

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United Kingdom Entrepreneur Oklahoma Ohio 100

Tim Keane

JANUARY 12, 2010

.   For individual angels and others investing their own money, this may be more fluid than for someone with responsibility for a managed fund. For angel groups, the distinction between groups and VCs on this issue is dwindling, especially as angel groups do bigger rounds of financing.

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Term Sheet Valuation Dividend Liquidation Preference 68

Berkonomics

APRIL 14, 2012

Summarizing income statements with a line for revenues, cost of revenue, general and administrative expenses, sales and other direct costs – all leading to net income, would satisfy the legal requirement for statement of income and expense.

Stock Options 81

Stock Options Balance Sheet Stock Common Stock 81

ReadWriteStart

OCTOBER 28, 2010

Rick Holdren and Rohit Saxena then discussed Medi-Code , an integration solution for small hospitals (up to 150 beds) and small physician practice groups ($5 million to $20 million annual revenue) to connect with Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) as a requirement of the healthcare regulatory changes coming in 2012.

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Partner Belgium Portugal Bootstrapping 117

ReadWriteStart

FEBRUARY 10, 2011

Also, Kimbra Orr with Kimbra Studios presented an interesting business selling photo jewelry that is already at $750k revenue. Most incubators, accelerators, or angel groups won't be willing to work with the smaller TAM businesses. Kimbra Studios. Kimbra has just started some OEM relationships.

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PPC Entrepreneur Silicon Valley Incubator 114

Up and Running

APRIL 8, 2013

Angel investments generally refer to contributions of $1M or less and are labeled ‘seed’ investments while venture capital investments are generally labeled as ‘Series A’ and are $2.5M Additional resources on angel groups and venture capital firms are available here and here. or greater.

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Equity Covenant Venture Capital Finance 82

Gust

OCTOBER 20, 2011

Individual accredited investors in typical angel deals put personal capital at risk for an equity share of growth-oriented, start-up companies. These angel investors generally invest $25,000 to $100,000 in a round totaling $250,000 to $1,000,000. As can be seen the average (mean) pre-money valuation for recent pre-revenue deals is $2.1

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Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Intellectual Property Technical Review 146

Growthink Blog

MAY 13, 2012

There are certain criteria that, if your business meets them, will show the angel that you DO have the potential. Criteria #1: Scalability This is the potential for your company to achieve significant annual revenues. Here they are below.

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Angel Investor Exit Strategy Liquidity Event Angel Groups 93

Up and Running

MAY 28, 2015

Having said that, if you are, what I see in our group is the lean business plan is initially in the background, it’s your screenplay for your movie. It’s your plan that you go to as you develop summary and pitch, and most important, I see a hundred pitches a year because I do judging for some other angel groups and so on.

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Lean Business Plan Video Software Review 60

ReadWriteStart

MAY 6, 2011

In fact, I think it is a great curriculum for certain angel investors too, especially those who are starting out, including angel groups that are just formed. What a great product - truly an excellent value for entrepreneurs.

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India Vertical Entrepreneur Connecticut 115

David Teten

DECEMBER 3, 2019

A major angel group uses Influitive , an advocate management tool, to track, activate and motivate their members. Investors are also mining for leads such sources as: – product crowdfunding sites ( Indiegogo *); – tech communities ( Producthunt ); – angel group platforms ( Gust ); – expert networks (e.g.,

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78

Up and Running

AUGUST 19, 2014

The type of deals and industries they invest in, the company stages, and the amount they invest depends on the individual or angel group. I have pitched to hundreds of angel investors over the years as a result of co-founding two tech companies and raising just shy of $1M in angel capital. Angel from Eugene, OR.

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Angel Investor Technical Review Due Diligence Startup 161

VC Adventure

FEBRUARY 22, 2010

I’m clearly on the side of not charging entrepreneurs to pitch to investor groups – reputable events of this nature can attract sponsor dollars and/or the angel investors involved should be footing the (relatively small) bill.

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Venture Capital Angel Groups Angel Investor Reputation 52

VC Adventure

FEBRUARY 22, 2010

I’m clearly on the side of not charging entrepreneurs to pitch to investor groups – reputable events of this nature can attract sponsor dollars and/or the angel investors involved should be footing the (relatively small) bill.

Venture Capital 52

Venture Capital Angel Groups Angel Investor Reputation 52

This is going to be BIG.

NOVEMBER 1, 2016

So if you're a super early stage with just a prototype, you might not think that a VC fund is the right fit for you--so you wind up at an angel group. The founder I just spoke to pitched Golden Seeds, for example, a group of experienced professionals that specializes in female founders. It's not that straightforward.

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Founder Angel Groups Cofounder New York City 60

Berkonomics

APRIL 3, 2014

Angel groups invest from $250,000 to $1,000,000 or more in qualified investments. Angel Capital Association (ACA) lists over four hundred member groups, located throughout the country. All angel groups will want to see the founders in person at sometime early in the process.

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Equity Finance Liquidity Event Angel Groups 92

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 12, 2012

We are talking about angel investors here, meaning people who invest their own money in early-stage startups for a share of the equity. Angel groups almost never supply financing for real estate purchases, or personal loans. Early-stage these days means early customer revenue received, and early product in the market.

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Angel Groups Angel Investor Early Stage Startup 237

Austin Startup

JUNE 26, 2019

You might notice what’s not on that list above: revenue, investors. No revenue isn’t always a problem for venture-style businesses; no investors + no revenue = challenges for most founders without tremendous self-funding. However, we also discovered key challenges we could not overcome with the capital and window of our team.

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Silicon Valley Startup B2C Sweat Equity 54