A new member of a brand new VC fund, Richard Yen commutes from San Francisco to Century City. The fund is Saban Capital Group; it brings strong ties to music, television and media markets. Founder Haim Saban's big hits: the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, ABC's Family Channel and UNIVISION. How new is Saban? No fundings yet, but they do have a term sheet out.

Richard was placed at Blueprint Ventures through the Kauffman's Fellows Program. While there he focused on digital media and the internet space which he's putting to use at Saban.

How did we meet? A common friend, Greg Galant who produces the Venture Voice podcast was recently visiting from NY and introduced us.

Show #165 (38:26)

Pre-order your copy of Scott Shane's new book, Fool's Gold: The Truth Behind Angel Investing in America.
Here's the spin:

"Finally, the truth! Follow the facts in Fool's Gold. It is the entrepreneurs' guide to angel investing."
Barry Moltz, Angel Investor, Entrepreneur, and Author of Bounce

"Venture capitalists, policy makers and entrepreneurs should read this book and take note. Scott Shane has uncovered the mythology surrounding angel investing by examining the facts and drawing crystal clear conclusions. I would thoroughly recommend this book to anyone, especially VCs, aiming to understand how they should engage with business angels in the future"
Simon Barnes, Venture Capitalist with Tate and Lyle Ventures

"The story of angel investing is long on opinion and short on data; this book does the opposite and makes a valuable contribution to this emerging financing niche with a practical and skeptical data centric approach to understanding what is going on in the world of angels."
Ian Sobieski, Managing Director, Band of Angels

"There is so much confusion today in the market place regarding start-up and angel financing. Having a definitive, factual based book about the subject is not only refreshing but a 'must have' if you are contemplating using this form of financing for your new company. Understanding how to finance your new company is such an important decision, learn as much as you can about that process by owning this book."
Randall Bambrough, Silicon Valley CFO and Lecturer at Santa Clara University

"What do we think we are doing? Scott Shane shows that we're not consistently targeting the best investments, or the best terms; that we're not as professional as venture capitalists--and our results reflect this lack of focus. Become a professional angel investor; start here to first learn the mistakes and omissions that angel investing is fraught with."
Frank Peters, Chairman, Board of Governors, Tech Coast Angels

Shane, the A. Malachi Mixon III Professor of Entrepreneurial Studies at Case Western Reserve University and author of The Illusions of Entrepreneurship, was my guest for show #148. He'll be back on the show in November.

WebVisible, is it a double entendre, a play on words? Co-founder Kirsten Mangers suggests it could be called WebInVisible, because of the subtle behind the scenes work they do for others. It's a story of a not-so-small startup, she closed her B-round in March and just hired employee #89. That's a lot of growth! What's changed? Plenty, but especially Kirsten. She doesn't behave like a founder anymore; she's grown into the role of CEO, working towards a potential exit.

So what is WebVisible? If you're an investor you've seen lots of business plans to bring the web to local businesses, like the plumber, the pizza parlor and the carpet cleaner. For myself personally, I've lost more money on these schemes than anything else. So who is making the web work for local business? WebVisible.

Who's on the board? Redpoint's Brad Jones, FieNet's Ted Smith and Sutter Hill's Jim White.

Show #164 (41:58)

Amplyx Pharmaceuticals got its initial funding from the Life Science Angels then they were introduced to Jack Florio and the Tech Coast Angels. Founder Andre Marquis describes how they're out to improve drugs that already have large markets; think Lipitor. Addressing big markets is sure to attract lots of angel investors, so that's where this show goes.

He's got a simple presentation for a complex product; he's a serial entrepreneur and he has the support of a former Eli Lilly exec. It seems like it's all coming together; he's almost funded.

Show #163 (48:39)

The Tech Coast Angels have just crossed the $1B threshold, attracting third party and venture capital funds to their portfolio companies.

Sometimes it's said that due diligence takes too long. We've all heard of companies that begin the due diligence process and never close. Is it a fault of the process, or is there more to it?

Tech Coast Angels founder, Luis Villalobos, describes one critical part of DD as a transformation process; it's not just getting answers to a 9-page checklist, it's helping to focus an efficient strategy on the startup's most promising market. TCA deal lead Steve Block liked what he heard about eGuardian before they even presented! He had another company that was dealing with children online. Steve would put the two companies together and bring the critical focus to transform eGuardian.

Attorneys General from 49 states are pressuring social networking sites to protect kids. eGuardian partners Ron Zayas and Robert Patrick have a new approach to protecting children while they're online. Robert's the technical one, Ron is Mr. Marketing; now they're back to complete the funding cycle.

It's been a long process, has that initial group of interested angels grown cold? How will the company regenerate some buzz in the investor community?

It's Part 1 of a Series: Almost Funded.
Show #162 (36:46)

Today's new sponsor: Vencore Capital