Angel Investing, Entrepreneurship & Learning

I just returned from Miami, Florida where we had our 6th successful Speedpitching Luncheon. While there, I met with a member of NuWorld Angels and had a terrific discussion about how their group works. It is quite interesting to see that a lot of groups are moving from the traditional angel “network” to a more non-traditional “committed capital” model.

Angel Network: a group of angel investors that meet together regularly to formalize their investments in start-up companies. These networks often pool resources and expertise to make wise investment decisions. The key characteristic is that each angel member may decide whether or not to put money into any given deal.

Committed Capital: very similar group features in that the members meet regularly and pool resources. The difference is that the members must committ a certain amount of money to a fund each year. Then, when the group decides to make an investment, it comes out of the fund that has already been collected.

One of the difficult aspects of an angel network is collecting the checks from all of the investors that commit to invest during a meeting; they may have to get permission from their spouse, accountant, attorney, etc. and when it comes down to writing the check, something else has taken precedence. With the committed capital, you will definitely not have that problem.

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So I ended up missing out on last week’s Utah Blog Conference put on by my good friends Ryan Money and Phil Burns — and I was pretty bummed. I heard that it was a terrific event and there were about 150-200 people that ended up attending. I even heard a blurp about it on KSL Radio’s morning show the day after.

The reality is that evening events are very hard for me to attend. It’s hard for me to justify being away from my family at night when I am usually gone all day at work. Since I moved to Davis county, my commute requires me to leave very early in the morning and come home late at night. That only leaves a couple of hours to spend with my boy and a few more with my wife.

Anyway, I wished that I could’ve been to the conference (maybe next time they’ll do it over lunch :)) — congrats to Ryan, Phil, and everyone else who contributed to it’s success!

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One of the things that we have been focusing on lately at FundingUniverse.com is being more effective through projects. In other words, sometimes companies are too task-oriented and forget how their project contributes to the overall success of the company. As a result, there is a lack of accountability and ownership.

Once we identified the concern, we have been trying to find a way to be more effective with our time by assigning very specific projects to various members of our team. Once the project has been assigned, that person will perform the preliminary research and then bring the concept back to the team for an idea/brainstorming session. During the brainstorming session, we try to flush out all of the ideas and decide on a concrete plan of execution. Once the plan of execution has been developed, we then depend on the project leader to execute on the plan.

To facilitate this process, we’ve decided on a more fixed schedule during our workday:

• 8 - 10 am = Professional development/learning, emails, project execution
• 10- 12 am = Team meetings/brainstorming
• 12 - 1 pm = Lunch
• 1- end of day = Project execution
• 2:30 pm = Office Shootout (each team member gets 10 shots on our nerf office bball hoop — whoever makes the most gets the prize watch for the day! You gotta have a little bit of fun.

I’m anxious to see how this goes. I’m excited about doing this because it will allow team members to take ownership of a project and really contribute to the team. I’ll keep you posted on how it goes. If any of you have figured out a more effective way of executing, let me know.

June 19th 2006 Posted to Leadership

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So I spent the last day and a half with a angel investing legend:  Bill Payne.  What a stud!  Bill is, bar-none, the nation’s leading expert on angel investing. No one else in the country has spoken at more events, consulted more startups, and advised more angel groups. He is the current Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and a regular speaker at investment conferences across the country.

Even though he has an incredible reputation, I like the guy because he is very down to earth.  When we weren’t talking business, I felt like we were long-time buddies hanging out.  We chatted about the the NBA Finals, the World Cup, and his personal life.

I really believe that he has become an expert because he really enjoys the subject of angel investing.  He spends a lot of his time doing research and writing on the subject.  In fact, he has just finished writing a new book and has asked me to review it for him:  The Definitive Guide to Raising Money from Angels.  I’m half way through it and, I’ll tell you what, this is a must read if you are an entrepreneur trying to raise money!

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