I remember the heady days of the Internet bubble where everyone with a business plan on the back of a napkin was getting money from angel investors to launch their business.
Well, those days are long gone, but there are still many angels and early stage venture capitalists funding early state businesses. On Business Insanity Talk Radio today, I spoke with three important people in this area.
Bob Geras, one of the fathers of angel investing who over the last 40 years has made hundreds of investments in entrepreneurs.
Steve Miller, principal and co-founder of Origin Ventures who’s family sold their business to Staples in 1998.
Marianne Hudson, who leads two nonprofit organizations: the Angel Capital Association (ACA), the professional alliance of angel groups in North America, with 20 affiliates and 150 member groups representing 6,500 individual accredited investors, and the Angel Capital Education Foundation (ACEF), which provides education and research about angel investing to investors, policy makers, university leaders, entrepreneurial support professionals, and entrepreneurs.
We discussed:
1. What do angels look for when investing in businesses?
2. How do entrepreneurs find angels and early stage VCs to invest in their business?
3. What are the mistakes that entrepreneurs make in raising capital?
4. How entrepreneurs should leverage the capital that they receive.
5. How to find smart money.
