By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold Tim: If you’ve got an active angel investor who has the capacity and is ready to commit dollars, if [the answer’s] yes, that’s easy. You understand that.
By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold Irina: Describe the ideal company that would benefit from your incubation? Skip: It could be a company that’s providing a new diagnostic software that can be used in an alternative energy industry or conserved life sciences industry. It may be a company that’s working on software that
By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold Tim: As I said, in southwest Florida, we had never had an angel fund prior to August 1, 2010. Just because it doesn’t exist doesn’t mean we can’t build it, not only in our region, but in the state of Florida. I think we’re emerging. I think
By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold I am talking to Skip Simms, president and CEO of Ann Arbor SPARK, a nonprofit business development consortium in Michigan that works in partnership with the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC), the state’s economic development agency, to help early-stage entrepreneurs and growing companies.
By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold Irina: Does your fund have any industry preferences, or is it pretty broad? Tim: [First], I think we need to have a more robust entrepreneurial ecosystem here in the entire state of Florida. And there are a lot of elements to that ecosystem. Not only access to
By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold Tim: We [the Tamiami fund members] typically go through a more robust question and answer period inside of the fund structure [than the Gulf Coast Venture Forum]. When we’re done with our question and answer period, we ask the entrepreneur to leave the meeting.
By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold Irina: What is your geographical focus? Tim: The state of Florida. As stipulated in our fund document, we are not allowed to invest in companies outside the state of Florida.
By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold Irina: Who are the people who invested in the fund? Tim: They are all angel investors, all private individuals. We don’t have any venture funds or other institutions in the fund right now. Irina: Where is the fund located? Does it have a physical address? Tim: Yes.