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Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Randy Williams, Founder and CEO, Keiretsu Forum (Part 7)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Irina: How much of a company’s equity do you usually seek?

Randy: It’s usually about 25% of the company is being given out in the form of equity for our capital.

Irina: What’s the typical return you seek and over what period of time? >>>

Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Randy Williams, Founder and CEO, Keiretsu Forum (Part 6)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Randy: Speaking of exits, one of the reasons why we’re growing internationally is because we really want to look at other indexes. We want to look at other exits past, above, and beyond NASDAQ and our indexes here. For instance, we went on a small IPO at £30 million in AIM several years ago, in a pharmaceutical company. >>>

Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Randy Williams, Founder and CEO, Keiretsu Forum (Part 5)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Randy: I think we’re very interactive, a very gracious community, and we care deeply about the entrepreneurial community and we want to give them as much information as possible for future success. And it’s not easy making the forum and if you do the math, if only four or five companies are making it out of 50, it’s still tough to get to Keiretsu Forum. Especially in Northern California, where, obviously, we’re the oldest chapters throughout the three continents and where there is a lot of capital. In fact, I would say that we’ve probably done at least over $100 million in just the past seven years here in Northern California, in capital. >>>

Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Randy Williams, Founder and CEO, Keiretsu Forum (Part 4)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Irina: So, let’s talk about how entrepreneurs can reach Keiretsu Forum.

Randy: The best way, if they’ve never been to Keiretsu Forum, is to go online. We have a very simple process to apply, and then what happens is we then introduce them to a committee that is in their vertical. For instance, software, that would go to our software committee, if it’s a clean tech opportunity, it goes to our clean tech committee, and so forth. >>>

Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Randy Williams, Founder and CEO, Keiretsu Forum (Part 3)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Randy: So, getting back to our revenue model, it’s membership, renewals, and then we rely on sponsors to help us grow and underwrite our employees. Finally, we charge an administrative fee for companies to present, and that fee – in smaller chapters it’s less and in robust chapters it’s more because of the employees and the cost of growing the forum – is approximately $1,500. That’s to present to one chapter. The results we’ve created through this model are, first, it’s a sustainable model, and second, it’s a repeatable model; there is money that is made to underwrite our growth and our employees. And we take a little bit of money from the myriad of sources to which I just alluded – sponsorship, membership renewal, and an administrative fee when a company presents of $1,500 at the forum. There’s no charge for presenting at screening day. And that [fee] can be much less for a newer chapter. For instance, if we just opened a chapter – pick anywhere in the United States – we may have a free component for a year for companies to present to us. So that’s the revenue model of Keiretsu Forum. >>>

Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Randy Williams, Founder and CEO, Keiretsu Forum (Part 2)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Irina: How do these local chapters operate?

Randy: They have great autonomy, but conversely, they enjoy the structure and the model that we’ve developed over the past ten years. It started off in the East Bay of Northern California. Keiretsu Forum started in September 2000, and the tipping point was 150 members in our East Bay chapter. >>>

Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Randy Williams, Founder and CEO, Keiretsu Forum (Part 1)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

This is the fifth interview in our series on seed financing and angel investing. Our guest today is Randy Williams, founder and CEO of Keiretsu Forum, a growing angel network that currently has 850 investors in 19 chapters around the world. The forum has made 265 investments since its inception in 2000. >>>

Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Malvern D. Lusky, Individual Angel, Houston Angel Network (Part 5)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Irina: What is your preferred investment type?

Malvern: I usually receive preferred stock but have also done straight stock or LLC deals.

Irina: Do you do debt financing? Convertible? Non-convertible? Terms?

Malvern: Most of my deals are preferred stock deals or a combination of preferred or common and convertible debt with warrants. I do not like straight financing.

Irina: What is your preferred exit strategy?

Malvern: My preferred exit strategy would be a straight cash sale at a high multiple. >>>