By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold John: My favorite situation is when I have a founder who is strong in technology, but also has enough business acumen to be the CEO. That is when we have the strongest team, where you’ve got a tech person who’s essentially the CEO/CTO. The first 12 to
By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold Irina: What are your metrics for success? John: Traction in the form of investment, revenue, profit and exits. We always have the companies report at every meeting (a) validated customers, (b) users, (c) true customers, and (d) revenue.
By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold John: So, both years, one team in 2010 and one team in 2011, turned us down after we gave them the invitation. Irina: Why do you think they turned you down?
By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold Irina: How many companies were funded by angels during their incubation period? Debera: At this point, Sam Cochran, [the CEO of SMIT, which runs] the Solar Ivy company got about $250,000 in angel funding. The other companies are less needy, less technology based. They’re not actually looking