Show #136 Listen (43:37) Download

Located in the Silicon Valley, he coordinates the activities for the original angel investors, the Band of Angels. Imagine the stories Ian Sobieski can tell!

And the whole world wants to know! Ian hosts interested parties from the world-over as anyone who's interested tours the Valley.

Since it's year-end, we'll hear just what kind of the year the Band enjoyed in 2007. Without ruining the punchline, if you're an investor you'll wish you were in the Band. Ian, as you might expect, has great advice for investors and entrepreneurs.

He's intelligent, articulate and handsome; you'll love him, you'll hate him. Here's a great interview to celebrate your year-end.

With just a week to go, can we call the year over? If you agree then here are the top 30 shows for 2007. Although I published the list last April, this list is normalized for greater accuracy. Any surprises? I'm happy to see that many of my favorites are at the top of the list, and I made the top 15 shows, my interview with Don Kasle as host for a day. Look for your favorites and visit the Archives to download any you missed.

1. Louise Wannier and myShape
2. Media Matchmaker: autopsy of a failed startup
3. John Harbison
4. Brad Jones, Redpoint Ventures
5. tie: Bootstrapping Broadcom: Henry Samueli
Fred Farina, Tech Transfer at CalTech
7. AIRSIS President Dean Rosenberg
8. LeisureLink CEO Erik Hovanec
9. Dave Berkus Uber Angel
10. Matt Ridenour, Momentum Venture Management

11. Angel Experts on Investing, Terms and Valuations
12. Green Dot's Steve Streit
13. Frank's Story (Frank Peters)
14. Incubator Innovators: Jeff Greenberg and Dave Schetter
15. Accruent CEO Mark Freidman
16. Angel Investor Frank Singer
17. Steve Weiss, The Coachella Valley Angel Network
18. UCR's Don Siegel on Tech Transfer
19. TCA Co-Founder Ken Deemer
20. Carol Fuller, CEYX Technologies

21. BIOCOM comes to Orange County
22. Z at USC (Krisztina Holly)
23. Kevin Scanlon
24. Fantasy Congress
25. MaMoCa's Gene Alexander
26. Jim Armstrong, Clearstone Venture Partners
27. YouLiveNow
28. Irvine Mayor Beth Krom
29. Inland Empire Optimists
30. Dave Berkus and Sid Mohasseb

Show #135 Listen (38:00) Download

What are the challenges to starting your own venture capital fund? What's "partner risk" and can Bill Collins assure his limited partners that he'll overcome this and many other hurdles as he kicks off Starboard Ventures. Starboard will target seed to early stage companies focusing on software, new media, hardware and new materials. How did he accumulate the wealth to become an angel investor? Working Sales for Intel certainly helped.

Today he's interested in software; back in 2005 he assisted Vigilistics take their startup through the Tech Coast Angels process. And what a process it was! Series A or convertible note and other issues caused the negotiations to bog down. Since then TCA has created a standard term sheet to avoid similar funding bottlenecks.

Newspapers are printing their best-of-the-year lists. Where has the year gone? I observe the passage of time in such a simple way, every podcast is date stamped by hand "2007". Yes, I'm sure I could do it automatically, but that's not the point. In just days I'll be learning new keystrokes for this rote task.

As I reflect on the year I'd like to mention a few milestones; of course the audience has grown tremendously this year, thanks for passing the word. This year I've perfected the art of the telephone interview which has allowed me to add multiple voices to many podcast shows, enriching the experience. This will continue in the new year.

For Most Frequent Guest on the show (4 times), the award goes to Dave Berkus; Dave's a fellow member of the Tech Coast Angels and a very experienced investor with much practical advice .

For the Podcast of the Year Award, one stands above the rest: the unraveling of Media MatchMaker #123. It was a big effort; my first show using multiple telephone interviews and what a controversy it generated! It was the most feedback I've ever received on any topic.

The podcast that had The Most Impact on the Host Award goes to Vantage Point's Craig Cooper #131. Yes, I was keen to meet the man with the billion dollar fund, but I got something I wasn't expecting that afternoon. As you know, I photograph most of the subjects that find their images on these blog pages and I know from experience that many professional people are sensitive about their image, so as I'm setting up the microphones and making chit-chat with my guest I will often hand them my dance photography book Dreams of Grace. You only have to flip a few pages to see that I can shoot and for many, this puts them at ease for the photo shoot that precedes the interview. When I handed the book to Craig he immediately replied, "I have a souvenir for you, too" and handed me The China Study. At first I assume it's his book, but a quick scan of the cover names authors Dr. T.C. Campbell and T.M. Campbell, so I'm a little clueless at first; when was the last time you were handed a book on nutrition and weight loss? I could loose more than a few pounds, too, but Craig didn't know that before my arrival at his office. As best as I can remember, he explained, "we're both enjoying such prosperous lives, it's important to assure a long and healthy life". Ok, fine, I thought. Then he gives me a great interview, one with a one-word sound bite, "transformative". Go back and listen to the show to get his complete meaning, but simply put, he's not investing in me-too deals, the opportunity has to be transformative. That's good advice for me and my investment strategy, but I was to get much more from my brief visit with Craig.

I don't get many souvenirs from my guests; this past year Fred Farina gave me a lovely glass paperweight. So that night I picked up the book to learn more; I was immediately sucked in. The book isn't a 12-step process, there are no fads; it's a science book about nutrition written by a frustrated detective novelist, well, not really. Dr Campbell is a Cornell University nutrition researcher. But it reads like great fiction, a real page turner. After 50 pages I became a vegetarian; it's been a month and I'm transformed, well, still a ways to go, but I am inspired. My family is, curious isn't the right word, why I've poured all the milk down the drain.

Show #134 Listen (37:55) Download

Travel & Leisure magazine and Money magazine both handed kudos for really cheap international airfares to Bill's portfolio company cFares.com. That's what got Bill and I thinking that it was time for a podcast. Garage Technology Ventures was a pioneer in the Valley and we discuss its impact both before and after the bubble.

Bill sits on the board of TCA portfolio company Vigilistics. Bill and his partner Guy have a long history of investing alongside the Tech Coast Angels, so when Bill offers some advice for angel investors, he knows what he's talking about.

Show #133 Listen (53:25) Download

She raised $3.3M from angels and a London-based VC. The products will be flavors, fragrances and insect repellents. Anti-viral and anti-fungal, terpenes are interesting but difficult to produce in commercial quantities. Allylix has a unique biologically engineered system that can bring them to market cost effectively.

Meet everyone involved! Bob Molinari of the Life Science Angels, Steve Block ran the deal for Tech Coast Angels, Tate & Lyle's Simon Barnes and Allylix CEO Carolyn Fritz. You'll hear all sides of the biggest deal of the year!