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Seed Capital From The Government: SBA’s Sean Greene (Part 1)

By Sramana Mitra and guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

This is the twenty-first interview in our series on financing for entrepreneurs. Irina is talking to Sean Greene, associate administrator for investment and special advisor for innovation at the U.S. Small Business Administration. The SBA was created in 1953 as an independent agency of the federal government to assist and protect the interests of small businesses. >>>

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 between $2 million and $5 million. >>>

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, and there’s a company called the Calyx Group, they’re a strategy firm. And then there is another company, Laitmon & Associates. Peter Laitmon does branding. Peter was responsible for bringing Vespa, the motor-scooter, into the United States. >>>

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 in them. So, I think it’s the multi-chapter access, and it’s also the makeup of the investors. >>>

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 Keiretsu Forum.

Larry: My background is in technology consulting, and I have worked for companies like Capgemini and Oracle, dealing with CEOs and CFOs on mapping business strategy and leveraging technology.

I was in the consulting group for both those companies, and I would go out and understand what the business challenges were for Fortune companies then come back and put together solutions using technology to help companies either solve their business problems or initiate new strategies. That was in early 2000s. >>>

Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Amit Grover, Member, Mumbai Angels (Part 6)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Irina: What can investors do to be more successful?

Amit: We need to devote more time to the companies we invest in. We need to give them more customer references. Early-stage companies lack a lot of things that angel investors or successful entrepreneurs can bring them.

On average, all investors in Mumbai Angels have more than fifteen years’ experience in running their own businesses as Indian CEOs or in large companies. There is a lot that we can bring to the table. There are, obviously, time constraints, but slowly things are changing. >>>

Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Amit Grover, Member, Mumbai Angels (Part 5)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Irina: Nurture Talent workshops are live, right? They’re not online?

Amit: They are not online. We are going to start our online training programs in the near future, but these workshops are completely offline as of now.

Every Saturday we take a conference room and anywhere from ten to thirty people come for these workshops. We spend a full day on going through exercises, question and answer periods, and personal discussion. We guide them on early-stage business concerns and how to proceed. >>>