Dave Berkus and I had a great turnout and we're getting some positive feedback after presenting "Angel Investing 101", a training class for new angel investors.
Thank you for such a wonderful presentation. Your professional delivery and ability to correlate your own personal experiences made for a truly great learning experience.
I sure wish I had you as a professor in business school. My only regret is that I did not have the benefit of your knowledge twenty years ago.
Truthfully, I would have canceled every appointment and spent another 5-10 hours.
So I can't remember the last time I saw a presenting entrepreneur get kissed after his presentation. No, not by the investor, by his wife; still it was just one of many stand out moments at the Founder Institute's graduation in La Jolla tonight.
The Funded's Adeo Ressi created FI to groom entrepreneurs and tonight he graduated 10 teams from the 4 month intensive. Local angels serve as mentors.
The results? Pretty impressive, and romantic at times.
Here's a snippet of Angel Investing 101, Part II. Dave Berkus and I teamed up to present this training class for new Tech Coast Angels members in Orange County. I feel like Bruce MacCormack of the Bellingham Angels shamed me into doing this!
We had a great turn out with members traveling from Los Angeles and San Diego to attend.
The Tech Coast Angels rejoice as Green Dot (NYSE: GDOT) goes public. The original investors waited 9 years for this IPO, but it's worth it: as much as 110x returns for those who jumped in originally! Congratulations!
Take a trip back in time, 200 interviews ago, to listen to Steve Streit tell his amazing story.
[The] Tech Angels have been very responsive to us. Wanted to pass on this news release. Ginny Creighton KGTV 10News:
San Diego Police Department
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Lieutenant Ernie Herbert
Date: July 21, 2010 (Wednesday) Homicide Unit
Time: 0900 hours (619) 531-2275
ARREST MADE IN JUNE 8, 2010 MURDER
San Diego Police Department Homicide Unit detectives have arrested Kent Thomas Keigwin for the June 8, 2010, murder of La Jolla resident John G. Watson.
It's a small world when it comes to early-stage investing. That's what you'll think after meeting Mumbai Angels' Prashant Choksey. Educated in San Diego he returned home to eventually organize one of only two angel groups in India.
In any group you'll see the 80-20 rule: most of the work done by a subset of the membership. Listen to Prashant's plans to incentivize these big contributors and keep them active.
"You guys have been hurt," the entrepreneur was telling me. "I get the
sense most angels have a $2-3 million dollar net worth and this downturn
in the market has hurt you."
These were astute insights from a
frustrated entrepreneur who invested a lot of time pursuing angel
investors. He was smart, articulate, funny and dedicated; he just had
lousy timing.
Ten days ago I was nervous, only 5 people had signed up and that included me and Dave Berkus. I needn't have worried because now we're oversold for the first presentation of Angel Investing 101: A Training Class for Angel Investors.
Stu Roberts, Orange County president of Tech Coast Angels, had the idea after listening to Bruce MacCormack talking about the benefits of the training he does for members of the Bellingham Angels. Why don't we do the same here at home where we've seen a surge in new members? I took the liberty of volunteering Dave; I'd "carry his bags" and cover the basics if he'd cover leveraging our
angel strengths into growing companies, including board service and
coaching, of which he is expert.
Maybe because the price is right (free), or maybe there genuinely is serious interest; whatever the case, we're over capacity for the conference room. We're over sold!
Angel investing from a world-wide perspective, that's what you get from the 2010 Hans Severiens Award recipient and Angel Capital Association Chairman Emeritus, John May.
JumpStart Inc.'s 
