Category Archives: Angel Investing

BoomStartup Launches in Utah

Posted on April 19, 2010 by Brock Blake

I’m pretty excited about what’s happening with BoomStartup.  John Richards and Robb Kunz, 2 active investors here in Utah, have taken the lead on putting this program together and am excited to say that I’ll be involved as a Mentor-Investor. … Continue reading →

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FundingUniverse expanding across the U.S.

Posted on December 11, 2009 by Brock Blake

Great things are happening on the FundingUniverse front.  It’s been a while since I’ve provided an update so I figured that I would talk about some of the exciting things that are happening lately. Great team. As I’ve mentioned in … Continue reading →

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Early-Stage Venture Capital Market

Posted on August 29, 2008 by Brock Blake

While reading through my daily google alerts, I came across an article that grabbed my attention.  The article is about the Northwest-based venture capital firm Monster Venture Partners and Rob Monster’s thoughts on the early-stage venture capital market.  The quote … Continue reading →

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LivePitch + Chris Pirillo = LiveStream

Posted on June 20, 2008 by Brock Blake

I’m up in Seattle today getting ready for tomorrow’s Northwest LivePitch event.  Carolynn has been working her tail off up here to host the event and things are coming together quite nicely.  As of earlier today, we had around 100 … Continue reading →

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Props to “Hundred Dollar”

Posted on May 27, 2008 by Brock Blake

Any of you know the Hundred Dollar entrepreneur?  Those of you on twitter know her as @hundreddollar, and others know her by her real name (Carolynn Duncan).  No matter what you know her by, I’ll have to say that she … Continue reading →

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Rock Stars at University Venture Fund Conference

Posted on January 19, 2008 by Brock Blake

I’m here (written yesterday) at the rock-star-packed University Venture Fund conference in Salt Lake City. I didn’t even know about the conference until late last night when a fellow entrepreneur forwarded to me the conference agenda. As soon as I … Continue reading →

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Latest “Hot” Utah Deals

Posted on December 14, 2007 by Brock Blake

In keeping up with my latest tradition, I’d like to share a few companies that I have met with (through my role at FundingUniverse obviously) recently that, to me, are the latest and greatest Utah up-and-coming companies. In no particular … Continue reading →

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Argon Technologies, TabSling, LinkingUniverse, & Acceptx

Posted on November 14, 2007 by Brock Blake

We had another SpeedPitching luncheon a few weeks ago at the Davis eStation in Kaysville. It was a fantastic event with a huge turnout. As always, we have a few of the deals that stand out as the “HOT deals” … Continue reading →

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Latest & Greatest Utah Companies

Posted on October 13, 2007 by Brock Blake

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been thinking a lot about how we (at FundingUniverse) have a unique perspective in the Utah entrepreneurial community because we often get to see the upcoming deals before they are really known to … Continue reading →

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Want to know about Term Sheets?

Posted on October 1, 2007 by Brock Blake

By recommendation of Brad Feld, I installed the Lijit search tool onto my blog.  I enjoy the tool because it give me an idea of what my readers are interested in learning about.  Over the past few weeks, the #1 … Continue reading →

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The Entrepreneur’s Investor

Posted on August 31, 2007 by Brock Blake

I’m still waiting for a few responses to my last blog entry, but I’ve had some interesting thoughts about the question (I know… it’s kind of sad that I’m answering my own question ).  A few months ago, I went … Continue reading →

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What makes a good Angel Investor?

Posted on August 29, 2007 by Brock Blake

A friend of mine showed me The Funded website about 6 months ago and I always thought that it was a cool idea.  I liked how it flipped the tables and allowed entrepreneurs the opportunity to rate and speak out … Continue reading →

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New Invite-only Investor Network!

Posted on August 28, 2007 by Brock Blake

We’ve been quietly spending the summer working on a private, invite-only social network for angel investors and VCs — think Linkedin with a focus around deals. One of the things that we pride ourselves on (at FundingUniverse) is the quality … Continue reading →

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It’s heating back up

Posted on August 28, 2007 by Brock Blake

Summers are pretty dang slow in the investment world.  It’s weird that almost everything (including new deal introductions) almost come to a stand still during the summer.  Most angel investment groups don’t meet during the summer and personal meetings are … Continue reading →

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And finally… #10 — A Little Luck!

Posted on June 15, 2007 by Brock Blake

Some might call it luck, persistence, timing, confidence, talent, etc…. but whatever it is, you’ve got to have it. I’ve seen a lot of deals and a lot of flops. Sometimes you are just down right lucky. Other times, you’ve … Continue reading →

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#9 — Skin in the Game

Posted on June 12, 2007 by Brock Blake

This post can be summarized by the following questions: If you don’t believe in your business enough to put your own “skin in the game”, how can you expect investors to put their financial resources into your deal? Appropriate questions … Continue reading →

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The “Infamous” Valuation Question

Posted on June 7, 2007 by Brock Blake

Yesterday, we hosted another SpeedPitching Luncheon in Utah.  It was an incredibly successful event with nearly 40 early-stage investors in attendance.  I’ll write more about the event in a bit, but for now, I’d like to continue the discussion posed … Continue reading →

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Check out SpeedPitching Video

Posted on April 30, 2007 by Brock Blake

As mentioned in Jeff’s blog, we just released a pretty sweet video showing the excitement and value of our SpeedPitching luncheons. A lot of people have requested to attend as a spectator to see how it works, so here’s your … Continue reading →

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#8 — Identify Target Market & Marketing Strategy

Posted on April 28, 2007 by Brock Blake

Next on the list of “10 Signs of a Fundable Company” is 2-part:  1) Identify a target market, and 2) have a strong plan to penetrate that market. Too often, entrepreneurs make a mistake by saying, “We are entering a … Continue reading →

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LivePitch & Networking in Boulder

Posted on February 22, 2007 by Brock Blake

A few weeks ago, I blogged about the launch of TechStars and mentioned that David Cohen and I were trying to figure out a way to work together.  Over a few conversations, we decided to throw together a LivePitch and … Continue reading →

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