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Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Padmaja Ruparel, President, Indian Angel Network (Part 1)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

This is the eighth interview in our series on seed financing and angel investing. I am talking to Padmaja Ruparel, president of Indian Angel Network. She is based in New Delhi, India.

Irina: Hi, Padmaja. Let’s start with your telling us a little bit about yourself.

Padmaja: I have been in the early-stage entrepreneur ecosystem in India for over a decade now. It was something I did in addition to working for a software company as head of Indian corporate communications strategy. I operationalized The Indus Entrepreneur’s (TiE) Delhi chapter back in 1998. >>>

Seed Capital From Angel Investors: M. Todd Dean, Keiretsu Forum, Northwest Chapter President (Part 7)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Irina: Do you have a success story to share?

Todd: The one that stands out is Napo Pharmaceuticals, which went public in a 24-month time frame. The investors got a fifteen times return. That was nice.

We’ve had a lot of positive returns on the real estate over the past ten years. Obviously, that has not been the case over the past year and half to two years. But from 2000 to 2008, we had great returns on real estate. >>>

Seed Capital From Angel Investors: M. Todd Dean, Keiretsu Forum, Northwest Chapter President (Part 6)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Irina: Do you have a sector preference?

Todd: I’d say it goes across the board. But we sold more medical device companies last year. I don’t know why, but we haven’t seen as many this year. It was just kind of one of those years where for whatever reasons, we started seeing more medical device companies.

This year, I’d say it’s much more across the board. In previous years, we’ve looked at a lot more real estate. We’re just starting to look at real estate again. It’s a roller coaster; it goes up and down in different sectors. We haven’t seen as much clean tech and sustainability stuff lately. Two years ago, we saw a lot of it. >>>

Seed Capital From Angel Investors: M. Todd Dean, Keiretsu Forum, Northwest Chapter President (Part 5)

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 a grand slam, a home run, and the jury’s still out on that particular investment. >>>

Seed Capital From Angel Investors: M. Todd Dean, Keiretsu Forum, Northwest Chapter President (Part 4)

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 valuation range.

Irina: What percentage of a company’s equity do you usually seek?

Todd: It depends on whether we’re doing a bridge round or a price round, or whether we’re doing a finishing off round or starting a round. It’s across the board on that. Every company’s going to be different. Typically the companies are raising about $500,000 to $1.5 million to $2 million today, on valuations of $1 million to $5 million. >>>

Seed Capital From Angel Investors: M. Todd Dean, Keiretsu Forum, Northwest Chapter President (Part 3)

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 nine companies present in front of about 25–30 of our investors. They narrow that down to the best four companies. And, typically, one or two of those companies get funded. >>>

Seed Capital From Angel Investors: M. Todd Dean, Keiretsu Forum, Northwest Chapter President (Part 2)

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 you’re working with startup companies, they’re like kids.

They have all different personalities, and they make good choices and bad choices, and they need a lot of help and guidance. With that, because of who our members are – ex-CEOs, ex-CFOs, ex-serial entrepreneurs – we understand what these companies are going through. Oftentimes they’ll need an introduction to Microsoft, or they’ll need a VP of business development or a board member or some help on their financials. >>>

Seed Capital From Angel Investors: M. Todd Dean, Keiretsu Forum, Northwest Chapter President (Part 1)

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 divorce, I stumbled into a startup company. Some friends and I invested in the company, and I worked for the company for about a year and a half, and it went bankrupt. And the reason it went out of business was leadership and the CEO of the company. So, that was my first induction into angel investing, which was in 2002. >>>