Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Elizabeth Marchi, Frontier Angel Fund (Part 2)

By guest author Irina Patterson Irina: So, not all of your fund investors are based in Montana? Liz: No, five are not. Some are here part of the year, and they really wanted to be  part of this, and that was part of the discussion when we formed the fund. For example, of the 33

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Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Raymond Chan, Tech Coast Angels (Part 7)

By guest author Irina Patterson Irina: Right. Do you see any issues in the angel ecosystem? Is there anything that can be improved? Ray: I think the key thing is, investors like us have to get involved, to educate entrepreneurs. For example, Silicon Valley is the best ecosystem in the whole wide world. And for

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Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Elizabeth Marchi, Frontier Angel Fund (Part 1)

By guest author Irina Patterson This is the twenty-eighth interview in our series on financing for entrepreneurs. I am talking to Elizabeth Marchi, fund coordinator at Frontier Angel Fund LLC. It’s a member managed pooled fund – that is, they review deals together and then vote to invest their pooled capital. Their investments range from

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Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Raymond Chan, Tech Coast Angels (Part 6)

By guest author Irina Patterson Irina: What do you think is the most important thing that angel-backed founders can do to increase their chances of success? Ray: The execution. It means you have to work with partners — work with partners like us, work with the team, and execute the plan. They also be able

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Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Dick Reeves, Executive Director, Huntsville Angel Network (Part 6)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold Irina: When you invest in e-commerce companies, do they have to be located in your geographical area? Dick: That’s interesting. The one that exited here was a virtual company. One of the founders was here, one was in Boulder, Colorado, and one was up in New York

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Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Dick Reeves, Executive Director, Huntsville Angel Network (Part 5)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold Irina: You were telling me about two companies in your portfolio that failed, and you lost about $1 million combined on both of them. What were the reasons for their failure? Dick: Both failed for the same reason. They failed for factors that were outside of their

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Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Raymond Chan, Tech Coast Angels (Part 5)

By guest author Irina Patterson Irina: What do you do when you get incomplete business teams? Ray: We go in there and help. I especially love to work together with the entrepreneurs. We do what they don’t want to do or what they don’t know that they need to do.

Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Raymond Chan, Tech Coast Angels (Part 4)

By guest author Irina Patterson Irina: What is a typical valuation of a company when you are investing? Ray: We don’t touch anything more than $4 million. Irina: Do you think in terms of equity, and how much equity do you usually seek? Ray: In terms of equity, it depends. We don’t have the percentage

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