Are you an entrepreneur with a great idea? Private equity funds not interested? More likely than not you are going to get some angel investors to kick it off. TiE Delegates were treated to a panel who spoke about the Angel Landscape.
Alan Milwidsky of BSI (left) set the scene and discussed the Angel Landscape in Australia and the USA. Who are these Angels, how are they defined, where do you find them, what are they looking for (money - lots of it), what type of Angel do you want in your business, what are some succesful deals that angels have invested in, angel syndication. Alan talked about the GAP thst the Angels fill between the entrepeneur using credit cards, fools, family and friends and the Series A round that VC's look to invest in. It is important to build an Angel network and Angel Syndications who are prepared to invest between $100k and $2m. The BSI Investor Forum was identified as an important link to bring Angels and Entrepeneurs together.
Ramin Marzbani told the audience that Angel Investing was not for the faint hearted. In fact he said that you had to be "NUTS" to be an angel investor. He stressed that receiving money from an Investor was a huge responsibility and that taking money for a project was a serious business. Nobody likes to lose money no matter how much money one has, or where that money cam from.
TIE had the honour of having Adil Adi of Worldlink Incorporated, a texan based entrepeneur andpast president of TIE Texas speak to the audience on the entrepeneur's perspective of Angels. He reinforced the seriousness of looking after other peoples money and gave his experiences of his dealings with Angels.
Andrew Arnold of Deacons identified 10 pointers that Angels need to look for and that Entrepeneurs should provide to ensure a healthy relationship between the parties.
These included:- Validating the Intellectual Property, A comprehensive Information Memorandum and Business Plan, Valuation Issues, The Structure of the Deal, the problems with a large share registry where deals have been done by providing equity in lieu of cash, employee and contractors contracts and Employee SHare Option Plans to retain the key asset of the group - the People!!
If you would like presentations of the panel, please contact me on ikaye@bsi.com.au
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