links for 2009-11-05

• Tech Coast Angels honors late founder with fellowship
  The endowment for a UCI MBA candidate will bear the name of recently deceased entrepreneur Luis Villalobos.
  (tags: angel angelinvestor techcoastangels)

Late Founder of Tech Coast Angels Honoured

I am pleased to note that the late founder of Tech Coast Angels, Louis Villalobos, is being honored with a fellowship. Louis was an icon in the Angel group community and will be missed.

UC Irvine Merage School of Business and Irvine-based Tech Coast Angels, the largest angel investor group in the U.S., announced the formation of an endowed fellowship fund to honor one of its founders, Luis Villalobos, who died Oct. 1. The fellowship will be awarded to an MBA candidate at UC Irvine’s Paul Merage School of Business.

For more information, please see: http://www.ocmetro.com/t-TCA_honors_founder_with_fellowship_11_5_09.aspx

links for 2009-11-02

• Greylock Partners recruits LinkedIn’s Reid Hoffman, raises $575M fund | VentureBeat
  Reid Hoffman, the founder and chairman of popular professional networking site LinkedIn, is joining venture firm Greylock Partners as an investing partner. The firm also announced today that it has raised a $575 million fund, its thirteenth.

  More concretely, Hoffman said he plans to maintain the same level of involvement in LinkedIn, while shifting the time he spends on angel investing to Greylock. Sze pointed to Greylock partner Aneel Bhusri, who also serves as co-CEO at Workday, as a demonstration that these time-splitting arrangements can work.

• The Daily Start-Up: CIT Spells Bankruptcy – Venture Capital Dispatch – WSJ
  Time To Get That Halo – With commercial and venture capital lending drastically down (CIT case in point…), now may be the time to become an angel investor, according to The Wall Street Journal. Of course angel-dom is not for the faint of heart, as the Small Business Administration reports that roughly half of new businesses fail within their first five years, and researchers estimate that half of all angel investments lose money, with 48% of investments resulting in a 100% loss.
  (tags: angel wsj angelinvestor venturecapitaldispatch)

REMINDER: 26th Angel Forum in Vancouver November 24th

Founded in 1997, the Angel Forum ™ – Vancouver, Canada introduces emerging companies to private equity Angel Investors and Venture Capital funds. As the oldest & largest angel network in Western Canada with 60+ investors, their primary objective is to facilitate investment in emerging companies. They are supported by leading organizations in BC and belong to Canada’s National Angel Capital Organization and the Angel Capital Association (USA).  Presenting companies have raised over $26 million directly through the Forum. Since 1998, they have offered Investor Ready ™ workshops for companies and investors.

Register by November 7th for the 26th Angel Forum on November 24, 2009, and meet 20 to 30 companies (10+ already selected) while networking with other investors (30+ already registered).  If you have not received a registration confirmation, please reply.

Note:

• Annual Members register just once for all Angel Forums until August 31, 2010 for $175 ($100 for Nov.24 only).
• Annual Members can bring an investor friend (new to the forum) at no cost, to each Angel Forum.
• Annual Members can register for ~ 10% less for upcoming Angel Capital Overview workshop on Jan 19, 2010.

 

Wall Street Journal blog: Small Is Beautiful for VC 2.0 Firms

Some time ago, Russell Garland of the Wall Street Journal blog Venture Capital Dispatch posted an entry titled Small Is Beautiful for VC 2.0 Firms, which discusses the idea of small, capital-efficient venture funds among technology investors.  Highlights include:

“It’s a best-practices sharing in a collegial atmosphere combined with some co-investing, more or less based on people’s expertise and strengths,” said Arthur Marks, a general partner at Valhalla Partners, who founded the group along with Stewart Alsop of Alsop Louie Partners.

The VC2.0 model is a “small, focused firm that’s not trying to bend the natural rules of gravity around capital under management,” said Brian Jacobs, one of the organizers of the New York event and a general partner at Emergence Capital Partners, which is investing from its $200 million second fund.

links for 2009-10-30

• The Friday Five: Boston's Tech Super-Connectors – Innovation Economy – Boston.com
  The Friday Five is a list of five things worth knowing about… and in the comments, lots more things that you add.

  This week, it's five people I consider "super-connectors" in the Boston tech start-up scene. How do I define a super-connector?

  - They have an amazingly vast network
  - They're not reclusive: you're likely to see them out and about at networking events
  - They're generous about making introductions for you if they believe in your idea

Financial Post column on Labour-Sponsored Funds: The Tail That Wags The Dog

On October 23rd, Jonathan Chevreau wrote a column in the Financial Post titled Labour-Sponsored Funds: The Tail That Wags The Dog.  With the phase-out of tax credits for such funds in Ontario, their generally negative returns and their high management expense ratios, controversy has arisen over them and the freezes on redemptions that some fund managers are imposing.  For anyone in the early-stage investment sector, this article is worth reading.

links for 2009-10-28

• Berkonomics – Business Insights from Dave Berkus -
  We must pause in this journey toward building an overwhelmingly successful business with an admonition that may seem obvious to some and completely sail over the heads of others. Most entrepreneurs arrive at the starting line of a new business with a vision for the future and some degree of experience from the past. Often, that experience comes from being employed within a business that was similar, but whose senior management may have missed or deliberately ignored what the entrepreneur sees as a great opportunity.
  (tags: angel integrity customerlists entreprenur employmentlaw)
• David B. Lerner: New York City’s Academic Institutions: A Stunning Engine of Innovation
  Many of us who have the distinct pleasure to live and work in New York’s entrepreneurial ecosystem and/or Silicon Alley have no inkling of the staggering role its local academic institutions play in the realm of innovation, licensing, and start-up formation. I can tell you that until approximately six years ago I had no idea of the sheer scale of it all. It is certainly true that the majority of this output is in the realm of health sciences/biotech, but much is being done to stimulate entrepreneurship from engineering, computer science departments, the undergraduate ranks and the business schools.
  (tags: entrepreneur entrepreneurship angelinvestor vc university)

Two New Books Published By NACO

Revised and updated versions of W. Daniel Mothersill’s guides for entrepreneurs have just been published to Lulu.com. You can buy them as print copies (3-5 days for delivery) or as downloads. They are:

• Start-Up! The Young Entrepreneur’s Guide To Starting A Successful Business (Newmarkets version)
  ($19.99 in print, $12.99 as a download)
• Taking Your Business To The Next Level: An Entrepreneur’s Guide To Growing An Investor-Ready Business
  ($29.99 in print, $16.99 as a download)

Both books are authored and copyrighted (2009) by our President, W. Daniel Mothersill.

If you know or are a budding entrepreneur and want to know how to get your business off the ground, do buy Start-Up!  If you have been in business for a little while and want your business to be growth-oriented, do buy Taking Your Business To The Next Level!

National Angel Summit: Photo Gallery

Enjoy these photos we took of the Summit emcees, speakers, panellists, award-winners, company presenters and delegates!  Here’s the link to Flickr.

Maple Leaf Angels and RIC Centre Partner to Create a Maple Leaf Angels West Chapter

Reposted, with permission, from StartupNorth.

Maple Leaf Angels and the RIC Centre are excited to announce a new partnership initiative.

Maple Leaf Angels is Ontario’s largest and most active angel investor groups having invested close to $6m in financings since its launch in 2007. Maple Leaf Angel’s membership base is largely in the core of Toronto and the partnership with the RIC Centre allows Maple Leaf Angels to establish a chapter to serve the western part of the GTA.

“In order to ensure that we have a large pool of investors who are looking to make deals, we were looking for a way to effectively tap into the Mississauga/Burlington/Oakville areas” says Rob Koturbash, managing director of Maple Leaf Angels. “The RIC Centre is an ideal partner as it allows Maple Leaf Angels to integrate with the start-up ecosystem they have fostered through their early-stage company mentoring and advisory services”.

The RIC Centre is based in Mississauga and is one of the Ontario government’s 12 regional innovation networks. The RIC Centre offers advisory, mentoring, networking, and industry outreach programs to help companies commercialize ideas in the aerospace, advanced manufacturing, life sciences, and emerging technology fields. RIC is currently active with more than 60 companies.

“We are excited to team up with the Maple Leaf Angels” says Pam Banks, Commercialization Director of the RIC Centre. “We feel this partnership offers an excellent opportunity for some of our promising clients, who are looking for funding, to have access to Maple Leaf Angels. We are also looking forward to being able to leverage the experience and networks of angels that want to get actively involved with helping and supporting their investee companies”.

The first Maple Leaf Angels – West chapter meeting will be held on November 19th and is open to all current or potential angel investors. The meetings will be held at the RIC Centre and will provide a convenient location for angel investors in the western GTA to access Maple Leaf Angels’ deal flow and leverage the due diligence expertise of the existing 40+ members to help evaluate deals. Maple Leaf Angels has provided its members access to early round investments in some of Canada’s leading start-up companies such as Well.ca, Homestars, Regen Energy and Streamlogics (acquired by Thomson Reuters).

craig at mapleleafangels.com

links for 2009-10-27

• Angel Investor Market Declines in First Half of 2009
  Newswise — Angel investors pulled back in the first half of 2009, although the overall market experienced a slight increase in the number of investments, according to the Angel Market Analysis for the first and second quarters of 2009 released by the Center for Venture Research at the University of New Hampshire.
• Entrepreneur.com – Blog Network – Making it Legal
  Inc. magazine swears that there’s still angel investment funding out there for the right businesses. Well, OK, maybe “swear” is too strong a word. Still, the articles “Angels Are Still Interested” and “Angel Investing 2009” paint the picture that, while perhaps not quite roaring like a mighty river, angel investor financing is more than just a pathetic trickle.
• Redeye VC: Company Math vs VC Math
  Fred Wilson has a great blog post today entitled The 'We Need to Own' Baloney. In it he discussed the fact that many VC's apply arbitrary ownership thresholds to investments. I couldn't agree with Fred more – but I'd take it even further. This is not just limited to ownership requirements.
  (tags: vc funding investing startup startups venturecapital business entrepreneur)

Report Published: Understanding the Disappearance of Early-Stage and Start-Up R&D Performing Firms

In collaboration with the National Angel Capital Organization, Dr. H. Douglas Barber and Dr. Jeffrey Crelinsten have just published Understanding the Disappearance of Early-Stage and Start-Up R&D Performing Firms. It is available from The Impact Group via this link.

Here are some quotes to whet your interest:

“Of approximately 9,000 R&D-intensive firms in Canada in 2001, almost half were small firms (average revenue of $2.7M) that were not growing” (Page 9). What is wrong? Do we have bad technology? Is there a lack of funding? Why are we, as a country, so bad at growing technology companies? The report “Understanding the Disappearance of Early-stage and Start-up R&D Performing Firms” went looking for answers.

Dr. Barber and Dr. Crelinsten, with the collaboration of the National Angel Capital Organization, reviewed the experiences of 18 R&D intensive companies that had disappeared. They interviewed 28 people including the CEO and the original investors. The average life span of the researched companies was 7.2 years. At their peak they employed a combined total of 2480 people.

Surprises

Many of the findings are surprising. For example, all 18 companies were able to raise the investment necessary to get started. The combined total was more than $450 million, so funding was not the problem! In addition, this funding almost always extended past one round. “It was remarkable to learn of investors’ willingness to keep putting money into these ventures, despite the stumbles and wrong guesses.” (Page 21)

If it was not a shortage of financing to get started, why did these businesses eventually disappear?  Download the report to find out!

Teleforum November 5th: Accessing the Blackberry Partners Fund for Mobile Software, Infrastructure

A one hour Teleforum sponsored by CATAAlliance and the Networked Vehicle Association will take place on Thursday, November 5th at 11:00 a.m. EST.   Register now as space is limited.

Your local call in number and access code will be sent to you via email. Note that the Call-in Registration fee is $25 for CATA members and $45 (plus gst) for Non Members.

In a time when money is in short supply, especially for technology-based firms, being able to tap into special funds is more important than ever. The $150-million Blackberry Partners Fund, co-managed by RBC Venture Partners and JLA Ventures, is focused on investing in mobile applications and services in the growing Smartphone ecosystem.

Join us for this informative one-hour Teleforum and find out from experts how to tap into this pool of capital. The BlackBerry Partners Fund will focus on evaluating companies in all regions of the world and investing in the long term success of those that demonstrate market leadership and unique differentiation. Whether it’s access to corporate data or the latest craze in mobile entertainment, The Blackberry Partners Fund seeks companies that are forerunners in driving adoption and further enriching the mobile experience.

Who should attend?

Anyone involved in obtaining partnership capital, acquiring cash or increasing business growth within a technology firm focused on applications and services including mobile commerce (payments, advertising, retailing and banking), vertical and horizontal enterprise applications, communications, social networking, location-based applications and services (navigation and mapping), media and entertainment, and lifestyle and personal productivity applications. The Fund will consider all stages of development.

Your local call in number and access code will be sent to you via email. Note that the Call-in Registration fee is $25 for CATA members and $45 (plus gst) for Non Members.

Media Advisory: Mike Volker of VANTEC named 2009 Canadian Angel of the Year

Media Advisory: Mike Volker of VANTEC named 2009 Canadian Angel of the Year

Mike Volker is Director of Simon Fraser University’s Industry Liaison Office; President and Founder of the Western Universities Technology Innovation Fund (WUTIF Capital); and Manager of the Vancouver Technology Angel Network (VANTEC).

Thanks to the support of HKMB Hub International, the National Angel Capital Organization was able to host an award ceremony to recognize Mr. Volker at the conclusion of Canada’s 9^th Annual National Angel Summit (October 15^th at the Hilton Toronto), in which Mr. Volker participated on the panel titled Angel War Stories: The Highs and the Lows.

October 26th, 2009

Toronto, Ontario – People are the critical factor in technology investment opportunities, not the technology nor the capital raised.  Mike Volker argues that many of the “lows” in Angels’ war stories arise from missing this key point.

Mike Volker is a high-technology entrepreneur and investor involved in the development of technology-based businesses for more than 40 years.  He received the University of Waterloo Alumni Achievement Medal in September, 1995.  He served a maximum term as a Governor of the University of Waterloo from 1987-1993. His business career started in 1973 when he founded Volker-Craig Ltd., a computer terminals company acquired in 1981. Since then he has been active in various early-stage businesses as a founder, investor, director, and officer.

As Canadians show increasing concern about how economic growth will be rekindled in the months to come, we will benefit from access to the experienced perspective of our 2009 Canadian Angel of the Year!

Media Contact:

Paul Connor
Email:  pconnor@angelinvestor.ca
Phone:  416-581-0009
Web site:  www.angelinvestor.ca

This press release was issued by The National Angel Capital Organization.  For more information, please visit http://www.angelinvestor.ca.

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Mike Volker accepting 2009 Canadian Angel of the Year award from Ed Alfke, NACO director and fellow British Columbian

Media Release – RealTech voted RBC Top Canadian Angel Capital Company

Media Advisory: RealTech Voted RBC Top Canadian Angel Capital Company at the National Angel Summit

Real Tech Inc. has developed patented and patent pending core technologies that form the basis of an award-winning product line of water quality testing instruments that have strong and sustainable competitive advantages, and serve a large and rapidly growing worldwide market opportunity. With sales already in over 23 countries and many high-profile leading industry customers, Real Tech is poised for rapid growth.

Thanks to the support of RBC Royal Bank, the National Angel Capital Organization was able to host an award ceremony to recognize RealTech Inc. at the conclusion of Canada’s 9^th Annual National Angel Summit (October 15^th at the Hilton Toronto), where RealTech CEO Jodi Glover participated in the Fast Five Company Presentations to the Angel and private equity investors present.

October 23^rd, 2009

Toronto, Ontario – Everyone needs clean water, and a technology that provides greater assurance of this vital resource to people around the world can become an unparalleled investment opportunity, when presented at the right time in the growth of the company that is developing it.

Jodi Glover is a clean-technology entrepreneur who has been growing RealTech for over 5 years. She and her fellow management team members all have past entrepreneurial experience, and combine an aptitude for innovation, new product and technology development, with an excellent understanding and knowledge of the water industry and marketplace. These powerfully motivated entrepreneurs have joined passion and enthusiasm with solid vision and commitment, empowering Real Tech Inc. to deliver an award-winning investment pitch!

Early-stage companies in Canada are growing more skilled at creating and pitching new opportunities to investors and stakeholders, but this Toronto-area company is leading the pack!

Media Contact:
Paul Connor
Email:  pconnor@angelinvestor.ca
Phone:  416-581-0009
Web site:  www.angelinvestor.ca

This press release was issued by The National Angel Capital Organization.  For more information, please visit http://www.angelinvestor.ca.

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National Angel Summit Keynotes’ Slides Available

Over the next few days all the great results and accounts of our recent National Angel Summit will be provided in this blog and in our e-newsletter.  For starters, here are links to our keynote speakers’ slide presentations for your further consideration:

• Dave McClure’s Startup 2.0: A Silicon Valley Story
• Dr. Basil Peters’ Selling a Business: A Guide for Angels and Entrepreneurs
• Professor Alan Barrell’s Business Angels and a World Without Borders

We hope you enjoyed their keynote addresses as much as we enjoyed hosting them!  Do provide your feedback and further questions by commenting on this blog entry; alternatively feel free to join us on our LinkedIn group!

We also thank our sponsors for helping us bring these gentlemen to Toronto last week, including Angelsoft and the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (Dave McClure); First Angel Network and the City of Toronto (Dr. Basil Peters); and Deloitte (Professor Alan Barrell).

Welcome Rogers Ventures

We were a bit busy, here at NACO, with the National Angel Summit last week, so missed the fact that Rogers Ventures launched. Their mandate?

We invest in technology, entrepreneurs, and Canadian innovation. Rogers Ventures is a venture-style funding mechanism for start-ups with lots of value add. We invest our money, our leverage, our experience, and other strategic contributions to get Rogers Venture portfolio companies on the path of accelerated development and market growth. Technology innovation was fundamental to our founder, Ted Rogers, and remains a strategic pillar of our company today. Rogers Ventures is also committed to supporting community-level programs and initiatives that accelerate innovation momentum in this country. We look for great talent and powerful ideas and invest in their success. We work with the community to support a healthy innovation funnel. We believe that the start-up community and Rogers Ventures need each other right now. It’s about our collaborative success.

If what they say is true, and given their actions so far, Rogers Ventures could be quite a nice addition to the entrepreneurial ecosystem as a partner and co-investor with Angel investors. Welcome!

links for 2009-10-21

• Blog – Rogers Ventures Launches
  Welcome to the official launch of Rogers Ventures.

  The launch of Rogers Ventures marks an exciting new chapter for the company that my father, Ted Rogers, started more than 40 years ago.

  So why have we created Rogers Ventures? And why now?

  We’re living at a time when technology innovation, new online services and shifts in consumer behaviour are being adopted faster than any other time in history. We want to be part of this innovation and opportunity.

  Rogers Ventures is our way of looking beyond the walls of Rogers for outside talent and ideas to fund. We believe that this will broaden our innovation horizons and keep us closer to the forefront of next-generation technology.

  (tags: vc angel coinvestment)

Media Release: Reaching For and Recognizing Excellence – National Summit in Toronto Shows Angels Can’t Be Stopped

For immediate release

Reaching For and Recognizing Excellence
National Summit in Toronto Shows Angels Can’t Be Stopped

Toronto, October 22^nd, 2009 – Angel investors, the providers of independent venture capital who help Canada’s growth-oriented startups become our economic champions, gathered in Toronto October 14^th and October 15^th, 2009 for the ninth annual National Angel Summit.

This Summit convened leaders in Canada’s Angel investment community, along with representatives from across the innovation commercialization eco-system. With the help of Angels, entrepreneurs and scholars from across Canada and the globe, the potential of this annual event to boost Canadian investors’ and entrepreneurs’ competitiveness was realized more fully than ever before.

The 2009 National Angel Summit consisted of nine major elements: three keynote speakers; three expert panels; a presentation of five high-growth-potential companies followed by ceremonies recognizing great enterprises and great Angels; and three associated off-site events that gathered policy experts and early-stage entrepreneurs for discussions.

All keynotes’ slide presentations will soon be made available on the NACO website.  As well, video footage of the Summit expert panels and two keynotes will soon be made available on the NACO website.  Media advisories will be issued upon posting of these videos and presentations.

• Dave McClure, Master of 500 Hats, gave a keynote speech titled Startup 2.0: A Silicon Valley Story, with the support of Angelsoft (http://www.angelsoft.net) and Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada (http://www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca/).
• Dr. Basil Peters, author of Early Exits: Exit Strategies for Entrepreneurs and Angel Investors (But Maybe Not Venture Capitalists), delivered a keynote address titled Selling A Business – A Guide for Angels and Entrepreneurs.  This keynote was supported by First Angel Network (http://www.firstangelnetwork.com) and the City of Toronto (http://www.toronto.ca)
• Professor Alan Barrell, Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Cambridge University’s Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning, conveyed a keynote presentation titled Business Angels and a World Without Borders. This took place with the support of Deloitte (http://en.fast50.ca).
• Three expert panels were convened on the subjects of Angel War Stories: The Highs and the Lows; Co-Investment: Taking It To The Next Level; and Early-Stage Capital: Angels Challenging the Model. Their discussions showed how venture capital and Angel investing are evolving in response to the explosion of start-ups, each requiring less capital for takeoff, and how effective checks and balances within start-ups can protect and promote Angel investments therein.
• The Fast Five Company Presentations were the most captivating hour of this event, in which five competitively-selected Angel-backed companies pitched for capital.  This interval was backed by Gowlings (http://www.gowlings.com) and Sustainable Development Technology Canada (http://www.sdtc.ca), and moderated by Dr. Tony Rahilly, Director-General of the National Research Council’s Industrial Research Assistance Program (http://www.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/eng/ibp/irap.html).
• RBC’s Top Canadian Angel Capital Company Award was conferred upon the last company to present, RealTech, by vote of investors present (http://www.rbcroyalbank.com/kbi/new.html).
• The 2009 Canadian Angel of the Year award recognized Mike Volker of VANTEC. This award, supported by HKMB Hub International (http://www.hkmb.com), bespeaks the increasing professionalism and accomplishments of Canada’s Angel investment community, and NACO is committed to ensuring that individuals making significant contributions to the development of Angel investing receive the credit they deserve.
• Our invitational policy roundtable was moderated by Dr. Jeff Sohl, Director of the US Centre for Venture Research (http://wsbe.unh.edu/cvr) which provides many statistics on Angel investment.  This roundtable was supported by Industry Canada (http://www.ic.gc.ca/) and hosted by the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development and Trade (http://www.ontariocanada.com/ontcan/1med/en/home_en.jsp).  A white paper will be issued as a result of this discussion.
• A special edition of StartUpDrinks, in association with StartUpNorth.ca, featured Summit keynote speaker Dave McClure and convened Toronto-area entrepreneurs to network and trade war stories with the Master of 500 Hats at the Duke of York pub.
• The first Office Hours event for Toronto-area entrepreneurs was hosted at Espresso Etc.by Chris Fralic of First Round Capital (http://officehours.firstround.com/), who participated as a Summit panellist as well.

“We originally envisioned a condensed Summit, anticipating that support and attendance could decrease in response to the economic downturn.  I am extremely grateful to be able to say that attendance increased, sponsorship held steady, and considerable support was received from a wide variety of organizations to ultimately develop a full two-day agenda for this event,” said Patricia Lorenz, incoming NACO board member and Co-Chair of the National Angel Summit.

“I also want to thank the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation, Avrio Ventures (http://www.avrioventures.com/), Business Development Bank of Canada (http://www.bdc.ca/), CNSX (http://www.cnsx.ca/), Cognition LLP (http://www.cognitionllp.com/), Export Development Canada (http://www.edc.ca/), Growthworks (http://www.growthworks.ca/), the Investment Accelerator Fund (http://www.oce-ontario.org/Pages/CInvest.aspx), and the Ontario Venture Capital Fund (http://www.ovcf.com/), whose collective support and participation in the Summit has brought our community to new heights of achievement,” said W. Daniel Mothersill, NACO President and Co-Chair of the National Angel Summit.

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Media Contacts

W. Daniel Mothersill                                                              Bryan Watson
NACO President                                                                      NACO Executive Director
T : 416-581-0009                                                                    T : 416-581-0009
E: dan@angelinvestor.ca E : bwatson@angelinvestor.ca

The NACO thanks its National sponsor, RBC Royal Bank (http://www.rbcroyalbank.com/kbi/index.html) and its Lead sponsors, Deloitte, First Angel Network, and the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development and Trade.