Angel Investing, Entrepreneurship & Learning

Today, I had the incredible opportunity to eat lunch with Steve Mercil, President & CEO of RAIN Source Capital.  I was completely impressed with Steve and his vision for RAIN.  I believe that they have already formed 17 angel groups throughout Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, etc. — and aren’t about to stop!

Here are a few interesting facts about Steve and their model:

• Their angel groups are formed with a hybrid model; a mix between a committed capital model and a network model.   In other words, they require a certain investment amount up front from their members that is allocated to the group’s fund.  The group then makes a decision whether the funds will be invested into the company or not.  In addition to the group’s investment, individual angels may also contribute more of their own cash if they really like the deal.
• The RAIN network has it’s own fund.  If any one of the formed angel groups is in need of more funds to do a deal, they can always turn to the central RAIN fund.
• I like how they are in the process of recruiting and training angels.  Part of their recruitment process is to provide training and other resources to help the groups become successful.

Steve and I plan on spending some more time together tomorrow.  I look forward to seeing if there are opportunities for synergy.

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A few weeks ago, I decided that I would start posting various business ideas to my blog. These ideas will be those that I believe are great ideas, but don’t plan on pursuing them any time in the near future. I’d love to hear your comments and thoughts regarding the potential; it would also be nice to know if you have heard of someone that is already trying to accomplish the idea or if would be seriously interested in pursuing the idea.

So here’s the first idea: Electronic billboards on Stop lights.

We’ve all seen the newest/latest electronic billboards on the side of our local interstate highways — large plasmaTV-like billboards that grab your attention and flash several advertisements on the screen. This idea would use a similar screen with flashing advertisements and place it up on the stop lights of your city. Now… before you get upset with me thinking, “Brock, that’s a stupid idea — way too many accidents would happen because drivers would be distracted by the advertisement and wouldn’t pay attention to the changing lights!”, here me out for a second.

The electronic billboard would have to be connected to the timer of the stoplight and only flash advertisements when the light is red. When the light is green or yellow, the billboard would display the name of the street — removing the distractions that might otherwise occur.

The owners of the billboard could charge a premium for the advertising spot because it is gauranteed that you will have a captive audience! What else can people do when they are waiting for the light to change other than stare up at the stoplight?!

This idea would be very difficult to implement because you would have to work with the city/county governments (and we all know how difficult that could be). But, if you could get over that hump…I really believe that you would have a VERY successful business. What do you think?

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Well, I’m in the middle of my flight from Chicago to Rochester, NY and I figured that it’s time to get caught up on some blog entries.  I’m stoked to be attending this year’s National Association of Seed & Venture Funds conference and look forward to meetings with some big players in the angel investing space.  As of now, I’m scheduled to meet with Marianne Hudson (Director Entrepreneurship, Kauffman Foundation’s Angel Initiative) and John May (Chairman of the Angel Capital Association).

I’ll keep you posted on the meetings, announcements, and event details.

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Ok, I’m going to come clean: I am a college drop-out!

But, on the other hand…aren’t you?

Don’t get me wrong, I loved my college days; probably some of the best times in my life. But, as soon as I caught the entrepreneurial bug, school was the last thing on my mind! I’m not down-playing the importance of going to college and getting a degree (Most of the education that is taught is very valuable). But at the same time, entrepreneurship is AMAZING!

One of the things that I like most about entrepreneurship is the opportunity to learn. If you can’t tell by the title of my blog, learning is a very important part of my life and career. Honestly, I think that I dedicate about an hour each day to formal learning and then enjoy the informal learning that occurs throughout the rest of the projects and experiences that I am having. My job is fulfilling. I love to go to work each day because of the challenges that I face.

(I’m getting off topic…back to school). Even though I got the entrepreneurial bug, it is important to me that I graduate from college. As a result, I have been spending the last 1.5 years working on independent study and night classes. To be honest, I can’t stand it (I would rather be spending time with family, working, playing, blogging, or even sleeping!) but for the sake of finishing that which I started — I will finish.

All of this brings me to: I finally walked a couple of weeks ago! All of my projects and course work is complete with one final left to go. I’m glad that it’s coming to an end and am grateful for my wife’s motivation to help me finish.

Are there any others out there that wish to come clean? If so, I’d like to hear your story!

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A few weeks ago, I attended an impressive lunch conference that featured David Thompson, the author of the new book Blueprint to a Billion, as the keynote speaker. Going in to the event, I was interested in the topic but I hadn’t really heard too much buzz concerning the book — so I didn’t have too high of expectations. Coming out of the event, I was completely impressed with David, his research, and (now) his book.

Honestly, I could not believe the amount of research that David and his team had performed before writing the book. They spent “3 years of in-depth research to provide a quantitative assessment of the success pattern common across a distinct group of 387 blueprint companies that have grown to $1 billion in revenue.” If you’ve read Good to Great, I would compare it to that book.

Since that day, I have purchased the book and read most of the principles held within. One of the topics that I really enjoyed was that of Inside-Outside Leadership. The basic concept is that most of these successful companies had a dynamic duo at the head. One of the leaders (usually the COO) is completely passionate about leading the company from the inside (i.e. operations, innovation, product development, etc.), while the other (usually the CEO) is completely passionate about leading the company to the outside world (marketing, sales, biz dev, vision, etc.). “Their relationship was dynamic in their use of their complementary strengths” and “as a pair, they were the highest of performance teams.”

Examples included: Jeff Mallett & Tim Koogle (Yahoo!), Bill Gates & Jon Shirley (Microsoft), Meg Whitman & Maynard Webb (eBay), etc., etc.

I love this concept! Personally, I know that I have a weakness when it comes to details and operations. I need a person that can take a vision or strategy and develop the detailed process to completion. On the other hand, (not to toot my own horn) I feel like I have some strengths when it comes to vision, strategy, and business development.

Anyway, if you haven’t had the chance to read Blueprint to a Billion — I highly recommend it.

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Last week, I had a great meeting with Jason Perry, the Executive Director at Utah’s GOED.  It was fun to be able to discuss some of the initiatives that the Governor’s office has to stimulate and foster entrepreneurship in the state of Utah.  Personally, I have been completely impressed with Governor Huntsman and his desire to spur economic development in the state.

Some of the things that we talked about were:

1. Centers of Excellence:  encourages commercialization of the leading-edge technologies developed at Utah’s universities.
2. Each of the funds that have been established to help local businesses including:  Industrial Assistance Fund (Grant & loan fund), Economic Development Tax Increment Fund (EDTIF), other Rural Money projects.
3. Working together to support Utah’s angel investor market:  The GOED is very supportive of the current growth in Utah’s angel market.  They are very familiar with our Speedpitching luncheons and are highly supportive.  In the near future, we are planning to find opportunities in which we can work together so that no one is recreating the wheel.

I’ll tell you what… as entrepreneurs, we are lucky to live in the state of Utah!

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I didn’t have a chance to write about it last week, but I wanted to mention the grand opening of the 2nd Grow Utah Utah Ventures eStation.  Alan Hall and Craig Bott have teamed up with the Davis Applied Technology Center and Roy Simmons (the late founder of Zions Bank) to build an amazingly gorgeous building/incubator in Kaysville, UT.

FundingUniverse.com is anxious to establish a presence in the eStation because it will be an entrepreneurial mecca.  If you are interested in brand new, state-of-the-art facilities and an ideal incubator opportunity in Northern Utah, be sure to contact Craig Bott at Grow Utah Ventures.

I’m also anxious to blog about the opening of Provo Labs new incubator in Provo.  Stay tuned.

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Over the past month, I have had the pleasure of recording a series of podcasts with angel investor & industry expert Bill Payne.  Our series (produced for FundingUniverse.com) will cover an array of topics on starting a new venture and obtaining the capital necessary to succeed.  Currently, we are launching a new show on a weekly basis (usually every Monday).

Here are some of the topics that we have covered or will cover over the next few months:

• The Capital Food Chain:  Self-Funding, Bootstrapping, Raising $ from Friends & Family, Debt vs. Equity, Raising $ from Angel Investors, Raising $ from VCs, Investment from Public Markets, Using business brokers & consultants to raise money, Using your attorney to Raise $
• Business Plans:  Forms & Uses (Elevator Pitch, Executive Summary, PowerPoint Presentation, & Full Business Plan)

As you can see, we aren’t lacking in topics/content to cover.  The above list is only the tip of the iceberg.  We will also include interviews from successful entrepreneurs and angel investors.  In the next few weeks, we’ll release an interview of Will West (CEO of Control4 — has raised over $250M from VCs in his lifetime) and John May (the Chairman of the Board for the Angel Capital Association).

What other topics would you like to see covered?  Who else would you like to hear interviewed?  Feel free to make suggestions and I’ll do my best to make it happen.

Oh yeah…one more thing:  make sure to subscribe to the FundingUniverse.com Blog, that’s where we’ll post the latest shows!

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