"Third time is the charm" as the old expression states and it was true last night at the AeA 15th Annual High-Tech Innovation Awards dinner in Irvine. A perennial candidate, I was nominated in 2006 and 2007 and finally wore down the competition. Thank you to the AeA for the recognition.

Last year's winner was OCTANe's Gary Augusta. This year SYSPRO President Joey Benadretti was named a finalist for High-Impact and his company was a finalist in the categories of "Outstanding Private Company" and "Outstanding Software." See the full list of award recipients here.

The birds are singing, it's a beautiful day in southern California so I meet over coffee with USC Executive MBA students: Sasha Zubatov, Mario Robles and Andy Meyer. They wanted to interview me, for some extra credit I'm sure, so I oblige and it's an upside down podcast where I do all the talking. Together we dig deep into entrepreneurship in the real world.

Show #154 (01:00:09)

Events
May 7-9 Angel Capital Association's Annual Summit in San Diego, register now
May 19 the Tech Coast Angels host Fast Pitch at the Anaheim Marriott, details.

The show is Live and it combines art and technology at the Beall Center at UC Irvine. How are these artists like entrepreneurs? Besides all of them needing money, you'll hear many similarities. For seed funding some applied to Creative Capital in NYC. They're building prototypes, pitching their concepts and some won't know until opening night if the "dogs will eat the dog food".

Technology + Art, it's entertainment for investors interested in creative, high-tech, artist entrepreneurs.

Show #153 (59:03)

Welcome my new sponsor, David McNeil with TechRiskPro.com

Events
May 7-9 Angel Capital Association's Annual Summit in San Diego, register now
May 19 the Tech Coast Angels host Fast Pitch at the Anaheim Marriott, details.

Recently the Pasadena Angels and the Tech Coast Angels teamed up to fund Kim Kovacs' OptionEase. What is OptionEase? It's software as a service, to value your company's options, a compliance tool.

Not all investors like husband and wife teams; listen how Kim answered their concerns.

Show #152 (40:48)