Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Brian Cohen, Vice Chairman, New York Angels (Part 8)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Irina: What can angel groups do better?

Brian: I think there are a variety of things that angel groups can do better. They could – I would say, most important – make it clear to the entrepreneur what their ability is to actually fund him or her. That’s a very deep point.

I think an angel group should be more upfront with entrepreneurs about what they’re capable of funding and what they’re not. I think it also behooves the entrepreneur to question the angel group on that issue. Have you funded companies in this area? They should ask this question.

I think there’s a certain kind of development relationship early on with an entrepreneur that, for example, in the screening, they should know up front [whether] we’re curious or we’re interested.

There’s a big difference between the two. I think the entrepreneur is the most important person in the room, of course, and that lends itself to even more understanding of the process and what can be achieved out of it. That’s the relationship with the entrepreneur, giving them that transparency of what the real possibilities are to fund them at various levels. >>>

New Year’s Message: 1M/1M Call For Action

As we end 2010, I want to wish each of you a very happy 2011.

We have a come a long way this year with the 1M/1M initiative, and will continue to push forward in 2011, executing on our mission to help a million entrepreneurs reach a million dollars in annual revenue by 2020, establishing a framework for Capitalism 2.0. Here is my 2010 New Year’s Resolution that embarked us on this path.

In 2011, I want to set before you a very simple call to action: please help us promote the Free 1M/1M Strategy Roundtables for Entrepreneurs through syndication of our recap posts.

Those of you who want to lend a hand to 1M/1M can work with Maureen Kelly [maureen AT sramanamitra dot com] to help identify a website (blog, media property, entrepreneurship portal, social network, other variations of online media that helps us reach a core group of entrepreneurs in your local community) that has at least 3,000 members who are entrepreneurs or aspiring entrepreneurs, and then help put together a free syndication arrangement with the site, that would be an awesome way to broaden our footprint.

Today, we syndicate the weekly 1M/1M roundtable recap post to ReadWriteWeb (1.7 million readers), Yourstory.in (one of India’s largest entrepreneurship portal), and Venturewoods.org (another of India’s entrepreneurship-focused blogs).

In 2011, our goal is to broaden the syndication, and my request to you is to make this the top priority for your 1M/1M ambassadorship. It’s a simple, focused objective, and as we build up a large list of syndication partners, my belief is that we will spread the 1M/1M message far and wide.

I hope you will all join hands to contribute at least one syndicate partner each to 1M/1M.

My warmest greetings for a happy new year.

Sincerely,

Sramana
Founder, One Million by One Million
https://1m1m.sramanamitra.com

Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Brian Cohen, Vice Chairman, New York Angels (Part 7)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Irina: How do you feel about entrepreneurs who drop out of school to build their companies?

Brian: I think, for the most part, entrepreneurs have to be educated. There’s no turning away from the fact that a good education represents curiosity and a desire for personal advancement. There are always exceptions to the rule, but I think you have to stick with the tried and true talent that comes from smart people excelling at various educational institutions.

That doesn’t mean it’s from a name school, by the way. You know, you come from City College of New York because you couldn’t afford to go to an Ivy League school. High ntelligence is something you can find in a variety of colleges. >>>

Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Brian Cohen, Vice Chairman, New York Angels (Part 6)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Brian: They say in the angel business, the real problem companies are the ones that keep existing. They don’t go up; they don’t go down. They just stay in place.

That’s why it’s so important to look for companies that do have the opportunity for scalability. But there’s no real way to answer the question about how long an exit takes for us. It’s pretty much how the company performs.

If we invest wisely, as we do – as we learn to do – we see where the exit could be at the day of the investment. That might makes the exit more clear as an opportunity, but it doesn’t necessarily make the timing any more predictable. >>>

Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Brian Cohen, Vice Chairman, New York Angels (Part 5)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Irina: In the past 12 months, how many new investments has New York Angels made?

Brian: I’m going to say probably eight, which I hear is pretty good during a recession, and maybe five or six add-on investments.

Irina: Can entrepreneurs who are not based in New York pitch to your group?

Brian: Yes, but they would have to come to New York. We really want to meet them, we have to see them. They don’t have to be [based in New York]. It’s nice if they are, but if they’re not, that’s OK, too. >>>

Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Brian Cohen, Vice Chairman, New York Angels (Part 4)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Irina: So, you run the educational workshops for entrepreneurs as part of your work for New York Angels?

Brian: Yes. We started a New York Angels meet-up group in New York City, and we’ll have ongoing educational workshops.

Irina: How often?

Brian: New York City is a complicated place, so the number of activities that take place can be overwhelming to anyone.

Some of the workshops are ones we do ourselves, which we can control. We have Wilson Sonsini, one of the leading law firms in the space, as our sponsor and partner. They do ongoing workshops, so we collaborate with them on term sheets, design, and developments. We invite our angels and entrepreneurs to those. >>>

Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Brian Cohen, Vice Chairman, New York Angels (Part 3)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Irina: What is your source of deal flow?

Brian: A good portion of the deals come from the angels themselves because of their contacts. We are on the Angelsoft platform, so there is an enormous amount of deal flow that comes through them as well.

New York City is a cauldron that’s just bubbling over like I’ve never seen before. Entrepreneurs, startups, whatever you want to call them, kids are coming here in droves from Silicon Valley and all over the world. There’s no lack of deal flow from either the investing angels or just from the generic platform, from Angelsoft. >>>

Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Brian Cohen, Vice Chairman, New York Angels (Part 2)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Brian: At the age of about 28 or 29, I ran into a guy by the name of Regis McKenna, whom many people to this day don’t know. Regis, who wrote The Regis Touch, was the first real marketing strategist in Silicon Valley.

He announced Apple computer, he announced Intel and became their counsel. He asked me why no one was doing that on the East Coast.

So, in 1978, I left the publishing business and started the first major science and technology PR strategy agency in the United States. I built that into one of the largest agencies – hundreds and hundreds of employees around the world. I handled the IBM Corporation – all the divisions, 52 of them – for more than 14 years.

I introduced IBM to the Internet space. At the same time, I handled Sony and did all of Sony Corporation’s PR strategy for more than a decade. >>>