By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold Irina: Do you pay attention to the total available market (TAM) for companies’ products or services? Todd: Absolutely. We’ve invested as high as $13 million in a company. That was a company where we were swinging for the fences, and we were hoping that that would be
By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold Irina: What’s the typical valuation of a company? Todd: Typical valuations are about $1 million to $5 million. I would say on the high side, between $1 million and $10 million, but most of the companies we’re looking at are between that $1 million and $5 million
By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold Irina: How many deals do you receive each month, on average? Todd: Typically, about 40–70 a month for our region alone. Irina: Out of those 40–70, how many deserve a closer look? Todd: We narrow that down to the best seven to nine companies. Those seven to
By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold [Todd continues his discussion of why he thinks the group’s model works.] Todd: The third thing is the amount of resources that our members are able to provide to the companies. Anybody can write a check or invest in a company and that’s one thing, but when
By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold This is the seventh interview in our series on seed financing and angel investing. I am talking to M. Todd Dean, Keiretsu Forum’s Northwest Chapter president. Irina: Hi, Todd. Please tell us about yourself. Todd: I was in insurance for about ten years, and then through a
By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold Irina: What about the angel-backed companies, what can they do to improve their chances of success? Corey: Reach out and get some of the coaching that you were just talking about [I was talking about 1M1M initiative] I’ve heard of other groups that do similar things, so
By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold Corey: I think where you can get into some trouble is if you have too many of the ride-along types in the group, too many who are there more for the social aspect and don’t really have the time to put in. If you have too many
By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold Irina: Do you charge a fee for entrepreneurs to present? Corey: We do not. We charge no fee. In fact, not only do we not charge a fee for presentation, but we give free coaching services, for which most angel groups that have some kind of coaching