Wanted: List of angel investors - who are the "most likely suspects"
I received an email from a friend today about angel investors. I have excerpted it below:
"Nicole
I need a list of investors in technology in Utah. I'm working with a company...that needs about $100K-$200K while their next round of investment for $5M gets placed/completed. They have asked me for a list "most likely suspects". I'm going to meet with them this afternoon."
This is a common hope/misperception of entrepreneurs - that somewhere there is a magic list and all they have to do is wave a keyboard at it and "viola!" money will flow. This is not the case and an enhanced version of my reply to my friend is included below. I hope it will be helpful to you as you contemplate the fund raising cycle. Remember, you should HOPE that raising a round (ANY round, small or large) will take 6 months, but PLAN for 12 months!
"Such a list is not readily available anywhere! Angel investors assiduously protect their privacy and want a personal intro to any company that approaches them. Normally if a company has a round in progress (if it's a real round that's actually moving forward) they will get the "main round" completed before they can secure an angel round.
"Nicole
I need a list of investors in technology in Utah. I'm working with a company...that needs about $100K-$200K while their next round of investment for $5M gets placed/completed. They have asked me for a list "most likely suspects". I'm going to meet with them this afternoon."
This is a common hope/misperception of entrepreneurs - that somewhere there is a magic list and all they have to do is wave a keyboard at it and "viola!" money will flow. This is not the case and an enhanced version of my reply to my friend is included below. I hope it will be helpful to you as you contemplate the fund raising cycle. Remember, you should HOPE that raising a round (ANY round, small or large) will take 6 months, but PLAN for 12 months!
"Such a list is not readily available anywhere! Angel investors assiduously protect their privacy and want a personal intro to any company that approaches them. Normally if a company has a round in progress (if it's a real round that's actually moving forward) they will get the "main round" completed before they can secure an angel round.
Some suggestions for filling the gap: they can either look to
friends and family for the cash (suggest they make it a convertible
round that will convert at the price of the main investment round), a
bridge loan from the upcoming investors or their own pockets for an
amount of $100k-$200.
In addition they can think about cutting everyone's salary to minimum wage or $10/hour to cut burn rate - be sure to start with the founders and management team FIRST. They could look to borrow from a venture debt firm - the former UTFC (now Innoventures - see http://www.utfc.biz/) is one such firm that will lend and take warrants for a venture quality firm. However, that may also take as much time as a full round - it somewhat depends.
In addition they can think about cutting everyone's salary to minimum wage or $10/hour to cut burn rate - be sure to start with the founders and management team FIRST. They could look to borrow from a venture debt firm - the former UTFC (now Innoventures - see http://www.utfc.biz/) is one such firm that will lend and take warrants for a venture quality firm. However, that may also take as much time as a full round - it somewhat depends.
If they are serious about an angel round I can suggest they look into following groups:
FundingUniverse.com - I was just at one of their speedpitching events yesterday
Olympus Angels (http://www.olympusangelinvestors.org/ -
Grow Utah Ventures (http://www.growutahventures.com/index.asp - a good source of information on entrepreneurship including their online magazine Launch
Grow Utah also has a list of some other groups here http://www.growutahventures.com/toua.asp. However, a number of these other groups are still nascent and may be relatively new to the technology scene or, if they have experience in tech, have backed off of it (or occasionally, entrepreneurs have backed off of them!)"
Posted by StartupNotes at 8/31/2007 9:47 PM 
Categories: Raising Money, Angel Investors, Utah and Economy
Categories: Raising Money, Angel Investors, Utah and Economy
FundingUniverse is, IMO, really the only route to go if you don't know someone who can introduce you. Angels don't want to see every business, and I can't really blame them for that - if I were an angel I don't think I would want to filter through everything either.
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I posted a list of the Utah investor environment (link below) on my work related blog. For individual angels, this is tricky! A good route would be to talk to the VC firms and have them make introductions to the angels. However, an introduction will only be made if the VC feels that it is a good fit with the angel. Another route is FundingUniverse.
Blog link:
http://wasatchgirl.blogspot.com/2007/10/utah-private-equity-environment.html
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