Angels Influence Public Policy: Liddy Karter
Could you use a tax break?
Do you feel that your early-stage investments are good for the economy and should be encouraged?
So does Liddy Karter.
Sandwiched between Boston and New York you'll find the Angel Investor Forum in Connecticut. Liddy sees a lot of activity in both cities and it's led to a year where "we've invested more in 2009 than ever before!". You haven't heard that on the show lately, so who better to be leading the Angel Capital Association's Committee for Public Policy?
Another $30 billion for General Motors as they enter bankruptcy, unbelievable! What would $1B do if it were spread around to angel groups? Liddy can imagine, but is anybody listening? Not in Connecticut according to Liddy. Instead head to North Dakota, Hawaii or Maine for the best tax incentives for angels. And what has Wisconsin done to earn her vote for the strongest example of public policy effectiveness?
Save the date: check out Liddy's New Angel Summit (angels from New Jersey, New York, and New England in New Haven, get it?) September 17th.
Show #232 (25:38) Listen
Events
I'll be a judge at the Fast Pitch at UC Irvine, June 9th
I'm the keynote speaker at the Digital Media Center's Growth Forum, June 11th
Comments
Finally found some quiet time to listen to you and Frank... wonderful! A great interview, indeed.
Posted by: John Huston | June 10, 2009 04:01 PM
Have passed that along to a bunch of folks locally (and with pub pol interests nationally)
Keep up the good work!
Posted by: Norris Krueger | June 12, 2009 01:58 PM
Tax breaks for Angels sure, but stimulus money? Certainly not.
First of all the political will is not there and never will be. Not all the bail out and stimulus money has been dispersed, the money that has been dispersed is not having the desired affect, and so people are already saying not to disperse the remainder as taking on the additional debt is not justified.
People make reference to the great depression and WWII but for that debt we employed well over a million unemployed people, got favorable trade deals with foreign countries, and marshal law controlled the costs of everything in the market from eggs to rent, there was also laws preventing employers from firing people. Today we give the money to large corporations and tell them to lay off thousands of people, and take people out of higher paying jobs and give them lower paying jobs in the military, so naturally it doesn't work. The ready reserves are people who are not in the military, reserves, or guard, but they were previously in the military. These people being called back to the military is called the backdoor draft.
Another reason Angels should not get stimulus money is their track record. Most of the jobs that are created are not lasting so they don't have a stabilizing affect on the economy.
Another reason to not give them the money is that so many of them are complaining about their venture portfolios not performing. So if the return is not there for the Angels then it wont be there for the government which has gone into debt in order to give out the stimulus money.
Posted by: Matthew Artero | July 11, 2009 05:20 PM
John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers has been saying that congress should increase funding to DARPA (a department of defense agency) and return it to its previous focus of research and development. He articulates his reasons very well and it makes a lot sense. He states some of the past enormous positive impacts on our economy.
Giving money directly to VCs and Angels makes less sense. That wouldn't ensure funding research of the needed breakthrough technologies.
Posted by: Matthew Artero | July 11, 2009 09:49 PM