Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Michael Gruber, Founder and Managing Director, Cornerstone Angels (Part 3)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold Irina: Will your new Independence Equity fund be making seed investments? Michael: It will be the first institution round, so typically it will be series A and series B type investments. Depending on how large the fund gets to be down the road, the size of investments

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Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Michael Gruber, Founder and Managing Director, Cornerstone Angels (Part 2)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold Irina: Could you give us a timeline of your career up to this point? Michael: I graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1990. I studied international relations and economics. It was basically an East Asian studies within the international relations. I studied Japanese, and I spoke

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Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Larry Chaityn, Keiretsu Forum, New York Tri-State Chapters President (Part 6)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold Larry: Some of other things that we have looked at are mobile technology and that weaves itself into media. So, it’s mobile media. We’ve looked at electronic coupons and location-based services. We look at what is the business problem that you are trying to solve as a

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Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Larry Chaityn, Keiretsu Forum, New York Tri-State Chapters President (Part 5)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold Irina: Right. So, if you would single out the most important character trait of a founder, what would it be? Larry: Previous experience in growing a company. That plus passion for what they’re doing. I mean, you’ve got to love what you do.

Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Larry Chaityn, Keiretsu Forum, New York Tri-State Chapters President (Part 4)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold Irina: When you think about valuation, do you have any specific number in mind? Larry: It really depends, because we also have a life science forum and in life science the valuations tend to be a little bigger . But I would say our valuations are probably

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Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Larry Chaityn, Keiretsu Forum, New York Tri-State Chapters President (Part 3)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold Irina: Tell us more about your advisory board. Is it an outside board? Larry: Yes, it’s an outside board that I put together and these are people whom I highly respect in the community. One is G.S. Schwartz , a PR firm. Reid Smith attends, Citrin Cooperman,

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Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Larry Chaityn, Keiretsu Forum, New York Tri-State Chapters President (Part 2)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold Irina: What would you say are the key points that make Keiretsu Forum stand out from other angel groups? Larry: It’s the breadth of our investors. If a company does well in one chapter, other investors in other chapters also want to see them and possibly invest

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Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Larry Chaityn, Keiretsu Forum, New York Tri-State Chapters President (Part 1)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold This is the twentieth interview in our series on financing for entrepreneurs. I am talking to Larry Chaityn, president of New York Tri-State Chapters, the Keiretsu Forum. Irina: Hi, Larry. Let’s start with your background and then go to the point where you got involved with the

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