Brad Feld

Common Angels‘ James Geshwiler recently wrote a 3-part series on Reinventing the Board. As he pieced it together he solicited the input of many, including Brad Feld of the Boulder-based Foundry Group. They’re together here for an update on how to build — or how to reinvent — a successful early-stage board of directors.

With angel groups, it’s often the deal lead and maybe other big investors who get named to the board, but is that the best approach?

Does a startup board need a hierarchical structure with a Chair? Brad thinks:

When you put a chairman or lead director, sort of in the mix at the very early-stage, in a lot of ways you create this very weird dynamic between all the different participants that leads you to a lot of the bad behavior…

James Geshwiler

What does work well? James complains that too many board sessions are focused on the past, like looking in the rear-view mirror, instead of plotting strategies for moving forward. That’s when we get into some reinvention ideas where both Brad and James get rolling.

Boston and Boulder, it’s a great discussion — listen to Hans Severiens Award recipient, James, and one of venture capital’s most prolific bloggers, Brad.

Show #363: Stream, flash player or iTunes

Paulo Andrez

Think angel investing is only about investing locally?

Portugal’s Paulo Andrez might have you thinking twice…

We’ve crossed paths in Madrid, Istanbul and Warsaw; he’s involved in research for EBAN.

These interviews are often arranged for early mornings, and especially when calling from Los Angeles to Europe, but I miscalculated the time and this call started before dawn, leaving my co-host, San Diego’s David Barach, well, leaving him out for the first part of the interview.

David Barach

At EBAN we are lobbying the European Investment Fund, and we expect that EIF will launch an initiative of 1 Billion Euros for the period 2014-2020, for Co-Investment Funds in Europe. This will make a revolution in several countries in Europe, because many governments will co-invest along the EIF and BAs, and we believe that the total investment capacity will reach 5 billion euros.

It’s Part II of a three part series on Research. Listen to Paulo: stream

Hope you’re keeping well. Just to let you know that I will be in Austin in early March and look forward to the Bike Tour. My girlfriend Susan, too, joining the Bike Tour with me if OK.

So I just paid a deposit with Austin’s Barton Springs Bike Rentals who will be our guide and outfitter for the 2nd Annual Summit Bike Ride. As you make plans to attend the ACA Annual Summit, come a day early for the bike ride.

Like last year, the outfitter will supply the bike and helmet, make sure everything fits well, then lead us on a tour around Austin. Of course, you know it’s Lance Armstrong’s home town, so expect a great ride.

We’ll meet at 7am Tuesday March 6th in the lobby of the Hilton. The outfitter will shuttle us to the ride start. It’s a “no-drop” ride which means no one gets left behind, so whatever your riding skills, you’re welcome. The outfitter provides 3 guides, so we’ll enjoy lots of support and hear classic tales of Austin’s colorful past as we visit its most popular sites.

Register here; the cost is $60 per person, plus a generous tip for the tour guides. Limited to the first 15 to sign-up.

Last year in Cambridge

John Taylor

The NVCA‘s Head of Research, John Taylor, joins Tech Coast Angels Chairman Emeritus, Dave Berkus, for a lively discussion about the latest trends in early stage investing.

During Dave’s introduction he mentions 87 investments, so I have to digress to talk about the latest startup he sent into Screening, AdventureLink. One feature of this funding candidate, they claim to be a small investment away from cash-flow-break-even which implies modest venture capital requirements, if any.

Dave Berkus

That sets the stage for a lively discussion about angel investing and its changing reliance on venture capital.

Show #361: It’s Part 1 of a 3 part series on Research.

Listen to John and Dave [Stream]

Quick! Can you think up some fishing analogies for angel investing? David Verrill, founder of the Hub Angels Investment Group, can.

You can’t go to the Hub Angels website and apply; so how do entrepreneurs get evaluated? They must network through one of the members, to come in through a trusted source. That’s different! David says it acts as a great filter and reduces administrative effort looking at deals that aren’t a good fit.

He’s got a fund to work with so he can afford to be optimistic: “I really have a good feeling about this environment, there’s a lot of opportunity out there. When markets have a way of becoming more efficient, that’s usually good and if you’re well positioned during one of those shake outs, I think you’re gonna end up far better than you would if you were sitting on the side lines.” Yet entrepreneurs need a big dose of reality…

Show #199 Listen to David

Joshua Baer

Could your startup use $20,000 in seed capital? Mind spending 10 weeks in Austin? If so, Joshua Baer is someone you’re gonna want to know better!

Joshua’s the Managing Director of Austin’s Capital Factory, a seed-stage mentoring program. Startups must apply and out of the hundreds that do, 5 are selected. Each receives $20,000 in cash, $20,000 in stuff and, best of all, the attentions of 20 mentors over the 10 week program.

Since angel fundings are down, wouldn’t most investors be suited to returning to the roots of what it means to be an angel? Can you picture a Capital Factory franchise in your neighborhood? What if you could organize those risk-averse investors and get them involved with a structured mentoring program like Joshua’s? What could it mean to your local innovation economy?

Entrepreneurs, you better apply quickly…

Show #275 Listen (stream)

Mike Napoli

Outgoing Chairman Mike Napoli sent around a summary of the investing year at Tech Coast Angels. His email described a lot of good news.

Season’s greetings to all TCA members.

As 2011 comes to a close I would like to provide you with some TCA highlights from this past year.

We have increased our metrics by all measures!

At the beginning of the year we had 257 members. We are closing the year out with approximately 304 members. That’s an amazing increase. I must note that the San Diego Network has 104 members of that total. Congratulations San Diego for crossing the century mark!

Another whopping increase occurred in the number of funding applications to the TCA website. 2011 saw 1004 applications vs. 603 in 2010. I attribute some of the increase to the revised and shortened funding application and the heavy volume of networking activity across all Networks.

A few more numbers: (not final yet – we will have final numbers by the end of January)

In 2011 we funded 29 deals (15 new + 14 follow-on) for a total investment amount of approximately $30 million.

Number of new deals:
2010 – 11
2011 – 15

Dollars invested in new deals:
2010 – $6.2M
2011 – $7.1M

TCA members have invested in 187 deals since the inception of the TCA, with $116M coming from TCA and $1.4B total (including VC’s and other investors).

There were significant accomplishments in many other areas as well during 2011:

• Our “Deal Syndication” efforts both inbound and outbound were greatly enhanced
• The “Industry Specific” pre-screening panels continue to improve and are speeding up the processing of funding applications. We are getting entrepreneurs into the right hands at the TCA much sooner in the process than before.
• Successful fund raising and closing of the ACE Fund
• Development of new TCA website (due to be released in Q1 2012)
• We now have a process in place for “Seed Track” companies
• Increases in both PR and Marketing activity
• Increase in Networking events

I was able to meet with several angel groups outside of California this year and I will tell you that our reputation across the country with our peers is stellar. Being the largest and one of the most well respected angel groups in the U.S. has many of the others wanting our advice on a variety of issues. Thanks is due to all TCA members and your involvement in TCA activities that help improve the reputation of our brand. It greatly helps the quality and quantity of our deal flow and syndication activities.

I would like to give a special thanks for the many volunteer hours put in by the TCA Board of Directors, Executive Committee/ Board members at the Networks, Deal leads, Pre-screeening panel leads and members, Quick/Fast Pitch volunteers and the other that gave of their time to keep the TCA in the limelight as one of the best in the country. Also thanks to Kim, Robin (Linda, Mark and Oliver in SD), Renee and Kate for keeping it all together and running efficiently.

Please support Steve Flaim (SD) our new TCA Chairman for 2012 as we continue to address our challenges, improve and grow.

Wishing you all the best in the coming New Year!

Cheers!

Michael Napoli, Chairman
Tech Coast Angels, Board of Directors

Kirsten Mangers

In Los Angeles, socalTECH reported the shut-down of WebVisible. Wince with me: the company had raised $37M from venture capital. I interviewed co-founder Kirsten Mangers in July 2008.

 
Listen to Kirsten: stream.
 

Ash Kumra

A story of a local boy, made good. I’ve known Ash for many years; we’ve both traveled some of the same circuits. Today he shares his story of building companies, plus the work he’s doing to spread the word about entrepreneurship.

Listen to Ash.

Check out this recent post: A Startup’s First Steps – What’s in a Name?