It's Spring (almost) so it must be time for a regional angel conference. Angel Capital Association encourages these regional pow-wows and many are just a few years in the making. These smaller conferences have a more intimate feel compared to the mega-events. Here's where I'll be:

Seattle: March 11-12, the NW Regional Angel Summit hosted by the Alliance of Angels

Tucson: March 22, the SW Regional Angel Summit hosted by the Desert Angels

Istanbul: April 15-16, EBAN's 2010 Congress. Join me as I moderate a panel on angel investing and 'animate' the Awards ceremony.

Austin: April 21, the Texas Entrepreneur Funding Symposium. Come see Austin's vibrant entrepreneurial community for yourself; I'll keynote.

San Francisco: May 5-7, Angel Capital Association's Annual Summit. Come to this must-attend event of the year, finally in San Francisco where it should be every year! Expect a super line-up of noteworthy speakers and panelists.

Hope all is well and I will look forward to getting together with you in preparation for our "Next Big Thing" in Tucson.

I need to mention two scenarios: my daughter, Claire, in California was forwarded our podcast from Curtis Gunn the new leader of Desert Angels. She was quite impressed.

More interesting, we are finalizing a deal with O******** L*** out of Maryland. (Another of our "out of state", "syndications deals"). We have probably 10 investors for short money but syndicating as part of a $1.2M round.

Am I the last person to watch ABC's Shark Tank?

Thankfully I have better things to do on a Friday night, so through the miracle of TiVo and a rainy Martin Luther King Day, I waded through Episode 106. The popular appeal is easy to see, especially in this episode which was food oriented. I don't know many angel investors interested in food start-ups, the margins are poor.

What struck me was the small amounts the entrepreneurs were asking. What can even the best of them accomplish with $40, 50 or even $150K? Based on the 30+ early stage investments I've made I can tell you: very little. Which means they'll be back for more money, which will be more expensive, if they can get it, because the story won't be so glamorous the next time.

I was also surprised at how several of the investor bids were grabs for most or all of the equity. They'd be shooting themselves in the foot if the entrepreneur accepted these greedy terms, because without sufficient incentive for the entrepreneur, all that hard work without a substantial piece of the upside would eventually cause the entrepreneur's spouse to convince them to drop the whole thing. I'm surprised the investors made these brazen grabs for the whole deal; maybe it's just to add drama for the TV audience. No one at Tech Coast Angels would make such an offer.

It reminds me of the advice Palomar Ventures' Randy Lunn offered once, "never take advantage of an entrepreneur". Not as exciting on TV perhaps, but words to live by if you're a angel investor.

Seattle's Alliance of Angels has had a single executive leading the group for its 11 year history, Dan Rosen. Yes, succession problems come to mind and it reminds me of Duwayne Peterson of the Pasadena Angels who eventually found a successor after many years at the helm, but having strong leadership in an angel group has got to correlate with good deals, good relationships with entrepreneurs and even better returns.

Contrast manager-led groups, like the AoA, Band of Angels, Common Angels, Hub Angels and the NY Angels, versus all-volunteer groups like the Tech Coast Angels: differences come to mind. The manager-led groups are funding more startups this year. As the economic turmoil of the past year has roiled early-stage funding, manager-led groups can react more quickly, implementing changes as necessary. At the NW Regional Angel Summit last February I learned that AoA had already changed their pre-money valuation criteria, only letting in entrepreneurs that complied with the new guidelines; and why wouldn't an entrepreneur listen when 2 out of 3 presenting companies got funded the prior year? Think of the consistency in due diligence, term sheets, co-investing with nearby angel groups and dealing with follow-on rounds; having a strong executive with long term experience would be a great asset for an angel group.

All-volunteer groups spread the responsibilities around, probably a good strategy for long term survival. The succession plan here in LA is now a single year as Chairman. That rotates a lot of talented members through the leadership, creating more angel ambassadors in the local community, but at what cost? A one-year term means there's very little time to learn on the job; by the time you go through a single cycle, say arranging the annual business plan competition at the local university, coordinating a Fast Pitch, setting a plan for the website, and the like, your time is up and out you go onto the blogosphere, at best. Self-imposed term limits come to mind and remember the argument against? That power would shift from elected officials in Congress to the Executive or, worse, the military. I don't know where the angel power has gone, but longer terms for leaders of all-volunteer angel groups would be a step in the right direction.

Bicycling with Inland Empire angel investor John Tillquist the day after Thanksgiving, see route, I asked him what issues he'll bring to the Tech Coast Angels' offsite planning meeting this week. Usually a better listener, let me confess I can't remember more of John's marketing concepts, but it did trigger a mad scribble on my part.

Let's take deal flow. Angel groups in smaller metropolitan areas, like the Desert Angels in Tucson and First Angel Network in Halifax, Nova Scotia see modest deal flow compared with the "drinking from a fire hose" mode, the hundreds of funding applications seen in LA, Seattle, Boston and New York City. There's a different approach in a smaller city with a smaller funnel. When a good deal comes along it's treated accordingly, lots of time can be spent grooming the entrepreneur and polishing the PowerPoints if you only meet quarterly. This more modest deal flow has its advantages: at the less frequent screening meetings these more polished deals may get a warmer reception, something that both the entrepreneur and the angels will appreciate.

Chairman-elect Richard Sudek has sent each of the TCA board members a copy of Spencer Johnson's Who Moved My Cheese prior to our 2nd Annual Offsite Strategic Planning Session at Chapman University. Hopefully the message in the book will lessen the natural resistance to change that an offsite planning meeting is trying to counter. There are so many issues to address, especially since we're a 12-year old organization that's just lost its founder.

Why name this post after Cassandra, the beautiful daughter of Priam, King of Troy? Remember, Apollo gave her the gift of prophesy, accompanied by the curse that no one would listen. Such is the fate of a podcaster after interviewing 265 of the world's experts in angel investing. It's the same when we prognosticate on deals as when commenting on alternative approaches to angel investing in these turbulent economic times, like angel investors everywhere, my opinions are no more valid than any of my fellows'.

I was astonished to receive this somewhat threatening letter from this well known and highly respected Silicon Valley law firm. To me, as a journalist, the letter appears to limit my ability to conduct candid interviews and to report them. Since I am not an attorney, I would appreciate any suggestions from my readers and listeners in regard to this most amazing letter. How would you respond?

Notable commentary: TechCrunch, Why I Laugh by Chris Lindsey, Amateur Hour at James Hatch and Podcasting News.

Who would've thought Wilson Sonsini would threaten a blogger?

They're famously smart people who've contributed hugely to the success of Silicon Valley and the venture capital industry, so why would they kick sand in my face over a split-up at TweetPhoto? Read their complaint below.

Of course, the whole issue is a joke. How do you remove a podcast from the internet?

It was a standing-room-only crowd yesterday at the OC Business Growth Forum hosted by the Digital Media Center in Santa Ana.

My keynote may have surprised the local politicians in the audience: "Relocation Recommendations: Where to Find the Money", but not those of you who listened to Liddy Karter talk about her efforts to influence public policy for angel investors.

I shared the highlights from Liddy's remarks, so we'll see if these entrepreneurs in attendance pack off for Honolulu or Milwaukee to find more welcoming tax policies and therefore more investment dollars.

There's new leadership in Washington at the SBA and new sensitivities on potential conflicts of interest. I've served on the TriTech Small Business Development Center Advisory Board for at least 3 years, first in Orange County then followed them when they moved to Riverside. Early in my career I was a consultant and I remembered the thrill of making that kind of contribution. I started working on getting invited onto their Advisory Board.

The show crosses another milestone in audience numbers for May: biggest daily audience >1,500, biggest week >10,000 and month >42,000 at 11 minutes each. "Thanks so much for listening!"

I'll be at 2 big events coming up next week:

I'll be a judge at the Orange County Fast Pitch hosted by the Tech Coast Angels at UC Irvine at 5:30pm on Tuesday June 9th. Twelve entrepreneur finalists get 90 seconds to pitch to a jury of angels and VCs with hundreds of onlookers in the audience; it's always lots of laughs and educational, too. The winners get to pitch the angels for real.

Then at noon on June 11th I'll be the keynote speaker at the Orange County Business Growth Forum at the Digital Media Center in Santa Ana. Join me.

It was nice to catch up with Permjot Valia in Madrid last week; he's the London-based Business Angel blogger. Now he announces his first angel investment in a year. Why now? Is it the bottom of the market? He says so. Read more...