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Central Texas Angel Network Going Strong
The Central Texas Angel Network (CTAN) of Austin, TX (www.centexangels.org) has been in operation less than 18 months, but has made quick progress. The group ended 2007 with 50 members and more than $3.6 million invested in 14 deals.“Austin has a history of angel investing,” says Hall T. Martin, CTAN executive director. “We had some strong groups in the nineties, so there is a long history of people who are interested in taking risks in technology and doing angel investing in general.”
When the Internet bubble burst in 2001, the angel community in Austin fragmented, but Martin says that 2006 marked the beginning of new cycle. “Jamie Rhodes, CEO of Perceptive Sciences and CTAN chair, was going to angel meetings in Houston. He noticed that about a third of the members and presenters were from Austin,” Martin says, “so he and others founded an angel group here.”
The Austin Chamber of Commerce helped with press and publicity and provides a room for meetings. “We were able to set up a fairly low cost virtual model,” Martin says, “and it’s turned out to be synergistic with the Chamber. What we do also contributes to the community.”
CTAN is a member-managed network
Central Texas Angel Network is a member-managed group, with each member making his or her own investment decision and investing as an individual. “We learned the hard way from the groups in the nineties not to live off sponsorship money,” Martin says. “This time we followed the example of the Houston Angel Network. Each member pays $1,500 in annual dues.”
The group has about a 50 percent retention rate. “The biggest mistake people make,” Martin says, “is that they underestimate the time it takes to do angel investing properly. After a year people come to understand that, and some of them do drop out.”
CTAN invests in Texas-based companies and targets rounds of $1 to $2 million, preferring to participate in syndicated deals with other angel groups such as the Houston Angel Network and venture capitalists who invest in early stage companies. “If a trusted resource brings you someone, the quality is much higher,” Martin says.
“With off-shoring, the costs of doing business have gone down dramatically, and new companies are figuring out how to be more capital efficient,” Martin says. “What used to be a $5 million investment deal in the nineties might be a $500,000 deal today. I call it the Golden Age of Angel investing.”
Several local venture capitalists are commercial members of CTAN. “They pay annual dues of $3,000 and have two chairs per firm at our deal meetings,” says Martin. “The VCs who are part of our group want to fund early stage and emerging technology businesses and play nice with angels, so it all works out well.”
CTAN receives 30 to 40 business plans per quarter
An entrepreneur pays $250 to submit a business plan on www.centexangels.org. “Before we had our site up and running, we received calls and plans for a lot of non-angel deals,” Martin says. “Now we have people really thinking hard before they submit. About half the deals we see are the type and quality that we want. In 2007we saw at least 15 good deals every 90 days; in 2008, we are going to have six deal flow rounds instead of just four rounds.”
Martin and others review the plans that are submitted and select four to present at quarterly screening meetings where the entrepreneurs pitch their companies. CTAN then forms a due diligence team. Three of every four deals that are presented typically have a term sheet already, but if there isn’t one already, a lead angel is named to lead the term sheet team.
Two of the four vetted deals are typically funded. Once the two are chosen, the group holds an angel investing lunch to present the term sheet, valuation, and tax consequences to the membership.
CTAN looks for companies that have a complete product and an entrepreneur who has invested some personal capital in the business.
“Our sweet spot is to invest $500,000 to $750,000 in a $1 million round,” Martin says. “Because we have such good deal flow, if a company doesn’t yet have a customer, they aren’t likely to make it into our top four.”
The group is open to all industries and tries to be as diverse as possible
“In Austin, it’s easy to end up with software and web businesses,” Martin says. “They currently make up about half our portfolio, but we are also interested in medical devices and healthcare. Some of our members come from the film/video/media industry, and we also do consumer products from time to time.”
Some of the key deals funded last year were Perception Software, which provides electronic design automation software; Displaypoints, an at-the-restaurant table digital media device, and Minggl, which is social networking software.
Martin says that the CTAN membership seems to favor certain terms—such as preferred equity, redemption rights, accumulating dividends, and liquidation preferences, but that all those terms aren’t achievable in every deal.
“This year we are making it clear what a term sheet is and can do,” he says. “People are starting to understand what they really want. They are learning that if you really want preferred equity, don’t vote deals with convertible notes into the presentation meeting.”
The group is working on a standardized term sheet methodology. “As we close more deals, we will be working on a process to identify the top three risks in most deals and choose terms that mitigate those risks,” Martin says. “We don’t have it all worked out yet, but the idea is to match terms to the risk appropriately.”
Education for angels and entrepreneurs is a CTAN priority
CTAN has held five angel education sessions focusing on topics such as valuation, due diligence, financial due diligence, angel/entrepreneur interaction, and planning for successful M&A exits. They ask local and regional attorneys and other service providers to teach a session at no charge.
“This gives them the opportunity to do a good job and meet the angels while the angels receive training in things they need to know,” Martin says. “The group also participated with the Austin Technology Incubator in term sheet education for entrepreneurs.”
CTAN also provides an introduction to funding seminar once a quarter. “These sessions started out with 30 people and grew to 100,” Martin says. “These meetings have been very effective.”
Martin says the group is working with other organizations in Austin to create a four- to eight-week fee class for entrepreneurs to teach term sheet, business plan writing, and other relevant topics. He also writes a blog called Angel Investing in Austin (www.angelinvestinginaustin.blogspot.com).
Seven Steps for Start-ups
As a veteran business owner, I’ve taken my share of bumps and bruises. While starting and growing your own business can be an incredibly rewarding experience, it can be just as humbling. You can feel like Superman one moment and the village idiot the next. So, it’s important to have a solid foundation, a good business plan and some reliable resources.
1. Keep Your Ear to the Ground
By taking the time to read this issue of Website Magazine, you’re taking a good first step to the holy grail of business growth — knowing your industry. Particularly with the Web and IT, the business climate and technology are changing at a blinding rate.
While magazines and books are a great start, you need to do more. Blogs and forums are particularly good for finding new events and assessing the industry’s take on a breaking piece of news or new technology. But most of the time, this information is not edited and contains more opinion than fact. So, use your street smarts and be sure to feed your brain a steady diet from mainstream sources like magazines and established websites.
Magazines, blogs and forums are terrific resources for getting your daily dose, but getting out, pressing the flesh and attending conferences is a must. Meeting your contacts face-to-face and talking shop over coffee can take a relationship to a deeper level.
2. Feed Your Relationships
A lot of folks talk about networking as if it is the nexus of business. It is. However, if not done properly, your efforts will be wasted and you could even damage your credibility.
Networking with colleagues, vendors and other people important to your business should be seen for what it is — relationship development. And just as you need to work and feed other relationships in your life (i.e. friends, spouse, children), you need to be an active and giving partner in your professional relationships.
Understand the challenges your associates face and help them. As your professional network grows, you’ll have access to more and more people — all with their own skill sets and resources. So, when your Web host complains about dealing with charge backs, you can refer them to your credit card processing rep. As you understand your partners’ resources and problems, new avenues for networking will undoubtedly appear.
3. Honesty Counts
As with any relationship, honesty and good faith with your business partners, employees and vendors are crucial to preserving your business’ integrity. Sometimes, this means sacrificing your own needs in order to further a relationship. It’s a small price to pay in the short term, which ultimately will provide dividends by building a larger and more trusted network of colleagues.
4. Use Leverage
Leverage is a key principle of starting and growing a business. If you’re currently responsible for managing staff, then you know what I mean. As a business owner, I’ve drafted contracts, hired new staff, reviewed financials and cleaned the toilets — all within the same week.
Sometimes, we need to do these things to make the business work. However, as your business grows, you need to understand which parts of that business can be broken down and handed to other people. This could mean your staff, outsourcing to other companies or even hiring professionals, like accountants and attorneys.
As you find new opportunities to leverage the time and experience of others, be careful to clearly outline your expectations. Depending on the scope of the work (i.e. account reconciliation, sales, etc), it is helpful to establish a specific reporting routine and measure your progress against goals set forth by you and your staff. Once this is done, the hardest part for many business owners is simply letting go and allowing others to handle your work.
5. Have a Backup
A few years ago, I was working with a broker to sell a business I owned. After three months of interviewing potential buyers, we had a handful of possible deals to select from. As would be expected, several fell through right at the beginning.
A few weeks later, we had three deals on the table and entered due diligence with the highest bidder. The buyer placed funds in escrow and I began collecting information from my staff to provide to the buyer. Over the next week, the buyer becomes increasingly non-communicative but, according to the broker, is still interested. We kept trying to make contact.
Gut instinct told me that the buyer was no longer interested and an ultimatum was delivered. So when the buyer failed to provide a response, I knew it was time to go to my backup deals. Within 36 hours we had a deal with another buyer and, two weeks later, a completed closing on the sale of the company.
6. Always Pack Your Parachute
Hopefully, the aforementioned example shows the importance of having a backup for deals that you might have, or think you have at any given time. This includes deals for partnerships with vendors, clients and even employees. However, as a business owner you need to be conscious of the fact that you’re working without a net and, as a result, need a backup plan.
The best time to plan your escape is before you’re in danger. If things don’t turn out as planned, how much risk are you willing to tolerate while trying to turn the business around? New businesses need time to mature, but sometimes it takes more time and money than planned. Before launching your business, you need to think of some possible scenarios and how to deal with them.
As a professional in the Web space, you should already be keeping up with trends and maintaining and expanding your network. Both of these activities will help you and your business. If you need to close, sell or otherwise dissolve your business, maintaining your contacts and an intimate knowledge of the industry will only make you more employable.
7. Make Time For #1
Being a business owner makes you an executive. You need to have executive poise, presence, awareness and work ethic. As would be expected with any executive position, your role as business owner will place extraordinary demands on your time. Therefore, it is vital to find ways to renew and improve yourself.
Notice that I used the word ‘renew’ and not ‘rest.’ There is a difference. Simply sitting in front of the TV and watching re-runs of 24 doesn’t do anything to break the fatigue of running a business. You need to find a reason why. Running a business can be fun and exciting but it is simply a means to an end. Working five or six seventy hour work weeks in a row has the tendency to make anyone forget why they’re working hard in the first place.
Find something you love and work at it. This could be anything from woodwork to tennis. The stress of business is what drove me to my favorite hobby. Working day in and day out with little rest, I found that going out for a good 5k or 10k run a couple of times every week helped me deal with stress and gave my brain a break from constantly thinking about my business.
In the end, running a successful business is a monumental task. It takes emotional balance, strength, patience and stamina to make it to the finish line. So, whether you’re already a netprenuer or aspiring to be one; set a business plan, follow these time-tested guidelines and make the most of your available resources — one of the advantages of a Web-based business is having many valuable tools at your fingertips.
| About the Author: Josh Ewin has enjoyed a decade-long career in website development, planning, marketing and production. He led the startup development of three successful Internet companies before currently working on a yet-to-be released project. Find out more at www.mrewin.com. |
Entrepreneurial Traits Most Successful Business Owners Have
Thinking about becoming an entrepreneur, but unsure if you’ve got the right skills or mindset?
The dream of becoming an entrepreneur lies within many of us. Knowing that business ownership isn’t an easy or quick route to success is good, but actually understanding the personality traits, skills and background that goes into becoming a successful entrepreneur is a bit trickier.
What follows is a list of entrepreneurial traits common in many (but not all) successful entrepreneurs. How many of them do you possess already? Which ones should you work on more before taking the plunge and becoming an entrepreneur?
Successful entrepreneurs are risk takers, and they weigh every decision before committing. More so than the rest of the population, risk taking is an inherent part of business ownership, as staying ’safe’ rarely pays off in the long run. Still, these risks aren’t taken blindly: careful research and previous experience are all taken into account, first.
Most successful entrepreneurs became entrepreneurs at a young age. Whether it was from a paper route, babysitting, helping their parents run the family business, or working at the corner store down the street, successful entrepreneurs learned in their childhood and/or adolescence why money is important and how to earn it.
Tied to how money makes the world go round is the knowledge most successful entrepreneurs have with regards to spending and saving. They know how much money they have and how much they need to earn in order to break even, reach a goal, pay a bill or take their business to the next level.
Being professional is a key to successful entrepreneurship as well. No matter what their circumstance or situation - be it working from a small desk in a cubbyhole at home to the library or a rented space in an office building - business owners know that no matter what, professionalism is key. Even though they may have a kid screaming in the background, debts looming or other major stressors, their clients, the media and their suppliers would never know. Outside influences are not a distractor.
Another key trait of successful entrepreneurs is their competitive nature. Childhood pursuits such as high grades or sports are an indicator of this competitive streak, as is the need to excel in all aspects of their lives. In fact, many successful entrepreneurs sleep and eat less than their non-business-owning counterparts, making sure to focus on items that need their attention with dogged determination.
This dogged determination also lends itself to other important entrepreneurial trait: self-confidence. Spending a lot of time alone working is paramount to business success, and someone who isn’t sure and secure in who they are won’t do well in the world of business. This also means that most entrepreneurs understand sacrifice and how in the short-term hard work will pay off with long-term rewards.
Source: http://suite101.com. Nov 3, 2007.
Are New Marketers Better Than Experienced Marketers?
by David Rodnitzky. November 19, 2007.
I remember the day I launched my first paid search campaign. It was in the fall of 2000 and I had only been an online marketer for a few months (having been thrust into the job at a start-up after the lone marketer abruptly quit). I had no idea exactly what this whole “GoTo.com” thing was, but I liked the fact that I could pay a few cents to get a visitor to my Web site. It felt like - for that price - it had to work! When the daily clicks went from 10, then 100, and then 1000 a day, it was a rush. I was hooked.
Fast forward to today. I’ve been doing search marketing for seven years and I’m sure I’ve bought at least 50 million clicks in that time period. In many ways, I’m jaded. Driving millions of dollars of revenue is still exciting, but it’s also become par for the course. Finding the next big keyword is still fun, but my colleagues and I aren’t giving each other high fives every time we uncover a new winner.
Over the last year or so, there have been a lot of changes in paid search. Google alone has launched multiple new products/tools that could become major parts of future ad budgets (Audio Ads, Video Ads, Print Ads, etc). I know that there is a lot of value in testing out these products, not only because they’ll be important in the future, but most likely because there are some arbitrage opportunities today while usage is still low. But I can’t seem to find the time to fully test these. I suspect that there are two reasons behind this.
First, I know the ‘vanilla’ paid search well-enough to know that I still have lots of optimization opportunities left just by focusing on my standard search campaigns. Every second I spend trying to discover the secret sauce for Google Print Ads is one second less I could spend adding another hundred keywords to an existing campaign. So until I feel like I have truly maximized the revenue from my regular Google campaigns, the opportunity cost for trying something new is too high.
Second, I’ll admit again that I’m jaded. Over the years, I’ve tested a lot of alternatives to basic search - everything from “site targeting” to “PPA ads” to 3rd tier search engines, in-text advertising, and so on. Most of these tests have gone nowhere - despite sales promises to the contrary, either the traffic has been non-existent, the quality has been poor, or both problems have occurred. So when someone approaches me with a great new advertising opportunity, my brain is now wired to say “no” until proven otherwise.
So I think back to 2000 - when I launched my first paid search campaign - and I wonder what I might have done differently had I had seven years of online marketing experience then. At that time, the “in” online marketing mediums were basically display banner ads and email marketing. I suspect that I would have looked at the GoTo.com paid search opportunity and concluded that the risk was too high and the traffic too low to spend any time on it.
And I probably would have continued along this path for a few years - until Google became a household name, GoTo started distributing clicks to MSN and Yahoo, and all signs pointed to paid search as a driving force in online marketing. As noted above, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing - it’s just a conservative “wait and see” approach to a new marketing channel. Just as WalMart didn’t start selling MP3 players until there was a clear consumer demand, an experienced online marketer probably shouldn’t jump into a new marketing channel until it’s clear that the channel has legs.
On the flip side, however, there are definitely advantages to taking risks on new opportunities. Being an early adopter has arbitrage advantages, learning curve advantages, and can sometimes even have contractual advantages (for example, in 2001, I negotiated a one year fixed-rate #2 position on the word “lawyer” with one of the top three search engines for $.25 CPC. When the contract ended, the bidded rate was at $1.60).
This leads me to two thoughts. First, if you are not a WalMart, that is, if part of your success depends on finding arbitrage opportunities to squeeze out a few extra dollars of profit, spending the time and money to test lots of new opportunities is probably a good idea. Second, the best way to test new ideas is to hire young and somewhat naive marketers who a) aren’t set in their ways; b) don’t quantify the ‘opportunity cost’ of a new channel versus an existing channel and c) get really excited just trying to figure the new channels out.
So to answer the question posed in this post’s headline, new marketers are probably better at finding new opportunities than experienced marketers, while experienced marketers are better at making smart resource and budget allocations that ensure that your marketing budget drives the expected revenue and traffic volume. If you accept these two statements as being true, the logical next step for any marketing team is to hire a young marketer and have him spend some of his time testing new opportunities (these days, the biggest ones would seem to be social media, video, and mobile), but under the guidance of one of us jaded oldies.
Posted by: HHolmes. Source: http://www.searchmarketingstandard.com/. November 19, 2007.
Using PPC to Promote Online Stores
Not all Pay-Per-Click campaigns are created equal. Or at least they should not be. The basic elements of a campaign can be fine-tuned according to specific business models designed to achieve maximum return on investment from Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising efforts. For online storefront owners, these adjustments can come into play during the many facets of campaign creation, ranging from modifying keyword submission strategies to developing more effective landing pages.
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Initially, online storefront owners can adjust main campaign elements including keywords and listings to best fit their business needs. The keywords submitted must be relevant to their industry and include terms that revolve around the business’ main product line. In addition to bidding on main product-focused keywords, submitting additional relevant keywords, depending on the selling cycle for a product, PPC can help align Internet advertising strategies with the offline world. |
Take, for example, an online storefront selling stationery, business cards and other related printing products. The storefront’s main keyword list can include products such as “greeting cards” and “business cards”. In December, the storefront’s campaign can add terms like “holiday cards” and “corporate Christmas cards” to the list of keywords that have been bid on from many different PPC advertising networks such as Searchfeed, Miva, 7Search, Kanoodle and Enhance. This can ensure increased traffic from quality seasonal leads.
While compiling advertising listings, online storefront owners can capture a visitor’s attention by providing clean, targeted titles and descriptions. This includes a keyword within the title that helps highlight an ad among a set of search results. Descriptions should include phrases directed at assisting online consumers to act quickly, simplifying the buying process. To further differentiate ads from their competitors, the inclusion of more sales-focused phrases like “free shipping” or “free gift with every purchase” could also motivate online consumers to click on an ad over their competitors, thereby boosting online sales.
Landing pages are often overlooked as a main campaign component but they can be the centerpiece of an effective campaign if properly developed. Since a potential customer has already expressed interest by clicking on a PPC ad, this page must be used to convert that lead time into a sale by including information regarding the exact product or service mentioned in the PPC ad. For instance, if an Internet user clicked on an ad for roller skates and was then directed to a general page on children’s toys, it would be less likely for that lead to be converted into a sale because the link did not provide the user access to the specific information that was queried in their original search.
“Having a landing page that includes specific product information and a means to purchase that product such as a dedicated product page with the information and online shopping card can help online storefront owners convert more efficiently PPC sales leads,” said Elena Krivoruchko, Searchfeed.com’s Advertiser Relations Director.
Overall, there are many tactics that can be utilized by online storefront owners to help receive the best possible results from PPC campaigns. This includes adjusting each part of the campaign to meet specific sales models and incorporating retail trends to reflect business goals in hopes of achieving maximum results from online advertising efforts.
Tiffany M. Guarnaccia, Searchfeed.com Corporate Communications
Tiffany is the Public Relations Manager for the Pay-Per-Click search advertising firm, Searchfeed.com. In her position, she helps promote Pay-Per-Click (PPC) technology and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) to the general public and media on subjects relating mainly to small-to-medium-size industry specific websites and portals. Tiffany has authored many articles and spoke at online educational seminars on web PPC advertising methods, highlighting Searchfeed.com’s mission to enlighten the Internet community on topics related to searches.
Tiffany Guarnaccia can be reached by phone at: 908-722-9951, ext. 205; by fax at : 908-722-9953 or by email at: pr@Searchfeed.com.
Article posted by: HHolmes
Source: www.websitemagazine.com. December 14, 2005 .
Angel Investors Finance Small Businesses
May 30, 2007 10:57 AM , By Gary M. Stern
Angel investors may be an alternative to banks and venture capitalists for some cash-strapped small businesses.
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The banks rejected your loan application because your business didn’t show three years of growth. Venture capitalists won’t return your call because your revenue hasn’t hit $20 million a year. And yet you need an injection of capital to grow your business. Some entrepreneurs are getting the funding they need by turning to angels—not the mythic kind—but angel investors, high net worth individuals and groups who invest capital in start-ups and fast-track businesses.
In 2006 alone angel investors infused $25.6 billion in companies, almost as much as the $26 billion invested by venture capital funds, according to the University of New Hampshire’s (UNH) Center for Venture Research. However, venture capitalists funded only 4,000 U.S. businesses while angels put money into more than 51,000 companies, and expect that number to continue growing, according to the Center’s director, Jeffrey Sohl.
Angel investors operate differently than more traditional income sources. They don’t make loans like banks; they provide capital in return for equity in a business. Unlike venture capitalists, which start investing in the $2 million range, angels usually capitalize from $50,000 to $1.5 million, with an average in the $300,000 range. All require different degrees of due diligence, but Angels base their investments on a more visceral connection with the business in which they fund.
Growth Potential is the Key to Attracting Angels
Most angels are looking for “start up and early stage firms and companies that can grow in value quickly,” explains Marianne Hudson, executive director of Kansas City, MO-based Angel Capital Association (ACA), a professional alliance of investors. Angels look for innovative firms in a broad range of industries. Medical devices, biotechnology, software; business products and services; electronics and instrumentation; healthcare services; industrial/ energy; IT services; networking and equipment; and, telecommunications are all currently quite popular among investors, according to a recent ACA report.
Vegas Valley Angels for example, capitalizes in early and mid-stage companies with $1 million to $3 million in annual revenue that are poised to “grow to a minimum of $30 million in five years,” according to Bill Payne, one of its founders. “If they have a better mousetrap, know how to sell to a customer, have intellectual property and a management team that can start and grow the company, it will be considered.”
Angel investors appeared to be the only viable funding option for Mike Knight, founder and chief executive officer of Vanguard Mortgage & Title (Denver, CO), when he decided to seek a $1 million infusion to expand his business. “We didn’t have operating history because we’re in our 16th month of operations and therefore weren’t bankable (most banks require three years of financials). And, I didn’t want to relinquish 51% of my company forever to venture capitalists,” he says. Instead Knight turned to Gathering of Angels.
Gathering of Angles and Vegas Valley Angels are just two of a growing number of investment groups. Most angel investment clubs charge a modest $100 to $200 fee for the opportunity to solicit them for funds. However, these fees can run as high as $2,000+ for businesses also interested in consulting services to help investment seekers find angels and structure equity partnerships.
Knight attended Gathering of Angels’ monthly meetings in which the organization brings together 20 to 40 high net worth investment seekers. To stimulate interest and confidence in his business he provided financial documents and gave a PowerPoint presentation detailing the current state of operations and future plans for future growth. In turn, investors queried him regarding his background, track record, revenue and profits and qualifications for capital.
Knight spent $10,000 for four meetings (a $3,000 first-time fee plus $2,500 for each subsequent get-together). The time and money was well spent, says Knight. “If you measure the impact on my bottom line it was very effective for my mortgage business,” Knight says. He raised $100,000 (minus fees). Knight used the money for general working capital and lines of credit, which enabled him to acquire licenses in more states and expand his business.
Is Angel Funding Right for you?
Like any other funding agreement, there are strings attached. So, before you start praying for an angel, there are key issues to consider:
Angel investors make equity deals. That means they give you money and in turn own part of your business. The owner sells stock in their business to angels, just the way public companies sell stock to shareholders. If the business is valuated at $1 million, and the owner is looking for $200,000 in capital, the owner is selling a 20% stake in the business.
Investors acquire an average 23% equity and often obtain two or three board seats. Even though they don’t own a majority share they can still exert considerable influence on policies and direction, says Sohl.
However, many angels are former entrepreneurs themselves and invest in businesses in which they have expertise. Some small business owners enjoy these new partners and profit from mentoring, advice and connections as long as they share a similar vision, says Sohl .
But beware, once an entrepreneur accepts funding, “there’s no divorce and no exit,” Sohl says, suggesting that the company will be sold or go out of business if it’s not successful.
Individual angels and groups all have one thing in common: they are writing you a check, and surely want a return on their investment. Terms of each deal are unique, but often require the owner to take the company public or sell it to pay their “debt.” The idea of potentially parting with their businesses— no matter how lucrative that may be— is one deterrent for some business owners.
“I’ve had one company sell in 18 months. We usually aim for 5 to 7 years, but sometimes it takes longer,” says Payne. There are also long-term investments. For example, Payne and two investors at San Diego Tech Coast Angels put $500,000 in Vista Staffing Corp., a physician placement service. After 16 years and considerable growth Vista was sold for $70 million.
Resources:
· Professional organizations like the Angel Capital Education Foundation and Angel Capital Association offer directories of angel investors along with links to their websites. They also provide additional resources for business owners.
· Angel Investor News produces a monthly e-newsletter with articles, book reviews and additional resources for investors and business owners alike.
· The National Association of Seed & Venture Fund offers research, events, and other resources for business owners and those who wish to invest money in their local communities.
Article posted on AngelNetwork.com Blog by HHolmes.
Source: http://smallbusinessreview.com/finance/angel_investors_finance_small_businesses/. Small Business Review is published by Penton Media for successful small business owners and executives.
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