Show #140 Listen (51:45) Download

About a year ago Klaus Koch at KH Growth Equity Fund funded a $4M Series A round into Sendio which manufactures a network appliance that delivers "Email Integrity". How? They use sender address verification, all the sender must do is hit reply; it's simple.

Then Matt Ridenour of Momentum Venture Management joins us. His interview made the Top 10 Most Popular for 2007. Matt's a great public speaker; come out to see him at TCVN on May 22nd, "Business Plans Don't Raise Money...What Does?". Register here and read his blog.

The Tech Coast Angels host Fast Pitch at UCLA. Twelve entrepreneurs get 60 seconds each to pitch to a panel of experts. It's not easy. Last year I was given 60 seconds to describe TCA; I wasn't halfway through when the buzzer went off and cut my mic.

This year I was asked to introduce the keynote speaker, YouMail CEO Alex Quilici, so of course I had to memorize his bio. Then on the long drive north from Orange County, I kept thinking: maybe the best way to introduce Alex would be to roast him...

And the winners are...

Show #139 Listen (51:59) Download

David has a knack for starting things. First, he's the founder of the New York Angels. Once they got up and running he realized they needed something to organize the members and the deals; that something became Angelsoft.

What's a Bozo filter and should every angel group use one?
How do angel groups organize all the submissions they receive each month? They must get buried.

Running an angel investing organization starts off simple, but if you're like the Tech Coast Angels with 280 members and getting 400 applications a year you have a lot to organize. When TCA began there were no options, Ken Deemer designed and built a website which has grown over the years. Angel groups starting today have an alternative in Angelsoft. Adoption of the system has been encouraging; since it's free there aren't many barriers to entry. Angelsoft's Mark LaRosa describes the system and the customer base.

Events
I'm speaking in Corona on Feb 25th at 10am "How to get funded in 90 days" sponsored by TriTech. Register

Register for the Angel Capital Association's Annual Summit in San Diego May 7-8-9, details

Show #138 Listen (37:37) Download

Bill's been a member of the Tech Coast Angels and now the Vegas Valley Angels. When he's not in Vegas he's an active board member of the Frontier Angel Fund in Whitefish, Montana (33 members organized in 2005); they have made five investments in companies in the inland Pacific Northwest. He's involved with the Angel Capital Association and the Kauffman Foundation and has led seminars on the Power of Angel Investing for more than a little while; he's an expert on angel investing.

We had a conversation with Bill just a few days ago; the subject was Screenings and giving entrepreneurs immediate feedback. The subject holds great appeal for many of us at Tech Coast Angels (TCA).

Can we improve our screening process? Would immediate feedback after a Screening presentation help our reputation? Would an alternative approach take a load off of our administrators and have a better result? Could we salvage even one deal a year if we revise our Screening process?

As we all know, they do things differently in Las Vegas and Bill Payne is eager to share best practices of the Vegas Valley Angels. On the call with Bill are Tech Coast Angels Marc Guren who runs pre-Screenings in LA, Sid Mohasseb, President of the Orange County network, and Richard Sudek, OC Screening chair. Join me as we discuss opportunities to innovate the Tech Coast Angels Screening process.

Events
It'll be a sellout! Register now for the Tech Coast Angels Fast Pitch at UCLA on Monday Jan 28th.

Save the Date: May 7-8-9 when Angel Capital Association holds its Annual Summit in San Diego. This is a must if you're an angel investor. Bill Payne will be there and so will Sid, Marc and Richard.

I was introduced to Professor Scott Shane at Case Western Reserve University by Tate & Lyle's Simon Barnes, see the Allylix podcast. Scott took awhile to return my email... because he's recently published a new book: Illusions of Entrepreneurship. My copy is on its way.

Scott tantalized me with his Entrepreneurship Quiz, especially his taunt: "perhaps you can do better than Guy Kawasaki's 40%".

So my taunt to you, see if you can do better than my 55%! Post your scores in the Comments, below.

Fewer, but better? Alex Quilici and I pose for a photo at YouMail's head- quarters. The Orange County Register's Jan Norman quotes TCA's Luis Villalobos, Vantage Point's Craig Cooper and myself as we describe a different kind of year for Tech Coast Angels fundings. In 2007, as we close the books we funded 11 companies, about half of our previous two year average. "Is deal quality a problem? Is it member fatigue? Are the members becoming increasingly choosy?" Read the full story here.

Show #137 Listen (33:42) Download

Picture this: trucks everywhere leave a factory full and return empty; XSCapacity has a plan to cut the costs of dead-heading empty trucks. CEO Steve Krubinski is attempting to create a Match.com-like system that allows shippers to bid on trucks with excess capacity. He's got it up and running with 40 customers, but he needed a little venture capital investment.

Venture Farm's Sid Mohasseb will go anywhere for a good investment. In this case he went all the way to Alabama to find XsCapacity. Sid joins Steve and the three of us cover all the bases.

Coincidentally, I'll be visiting Tuscaloosa in April when Steve and I will meet in person. I'll be attending the University of Alabama's speaker series ALLELE, Alabama Lectures on Life's Evolution. Just the place to be for a CA Freethinker like myself. What's the connection? One of my former board members and a long term friend, Lou Perry, developed a curriculum based on his book, Jefferson's Scissors: Conflicts of Religion, Science and Democracy. Lou's alma mater is Univ. AL, and when he asked me to sponsor the speakers program, well, I couldn't resist an opportunity to branch out.