Forbes Column 2010: Calling All Angel Investors

We need to nurture entrepreneurs a lot more. Read how in this week’s Forbes column, Calling All Angel Investors.

Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Paul Olliver, Wider Wake Networks (Part 8)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold Irina: So, what do you think is the most important thing that angel-backed founders should do to increase their chances of success? Paul: From our perspective, if Wider Wake, being an angel group, has backed a team of founders, the best thing they can do is engage

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Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Paul Olliver, Wider Wake Networks (Part 7)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold Irina: Any interesting stories about the companies you invested in? Paul: Back to appssavvy, they’re really a case study deal for us. That’s exactly the way in which we like to work. Steve: appssavvy started out with an idea when Facebook opened its platform to third-party developers.

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Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Paul Olliver, Wider Wake Networks (Part 6)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold Irina: Do you invest in teams straight out of school, or do you require previous business experience? If only with experience, what level of experience do you require? Paul: We much prefer teams with experience, but that experience doesn’t need to be at a certain level of

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Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Paul Olliver, Wider Wake Networks (Part 5)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold Irina: Is there anything your group does differently from others in valuing a company? Paul: As we’re all successful entrepreneurs ourselves, we’ve been on that side of the table. We understand motivation and what a poor capitalization structure can do to motivation. For example, just because an

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Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Paul Olliver, Wider Wake Networks (Part 4)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold Irina: How many investments have you made in the past 12 months? Paul: Four. It’s probably a reflection of the fact that we’re a group of individuals who invest together, not a fund. When we set it out from when we knew the numbers we were aiming

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Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Paul Olliver, Wider Wake Networks (Part 3)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold Irina: So, appssavvy is one of Wider Wake deals? Paul: Yes, appssavvy is one our deals; KlipSmart is the company that we built years ago [before Wider Wake] . . . Smartclip is a company within Thomas Falk’s (one of our cofounders) empire, and that’s a video ad

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Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Paul Olliver, Wider Wake Networks (Part 2)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold Irina: So, right now you have about 20 members in Wider Wake. How do you prescreen for your membership? Paul: The membership criteria are quite tight, actually. All of the founding members have very applicable experience in digital media advertising. And that’s also reflected in the regular

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