The Tech Coast Angels broke with tradition this morning and expanded the field of Fast Pitch finalists from 12 to 14. According to Orange County Fast Pitch Chairman Don Kasle, "the results from the coaching sessions were very, very close this year. In fact, they were so close that the coaches have continued to discuss this fact over the last couple of days and, after much deliberation, the coaches have decided to do something unique. Since the differential between the companies, from 11th to 14th, was so very slight, the coaches decided to include two more companies as finalists. That means that 14 will compete for the 4 prizes."

Don assures me that the open bar will not close early to accommodate the larger field; come hungry and thirsty, "we will have 3 wine bars, a roast beef stand, a pasta station, a pizza bar, and a veggie table".

Where else can you network with a room full of angel investors and VCs? Only at Fast Pitch. It's not too late to register for the 6pm Monday May 19th Fast Pitch, details.

"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.

Yesterday my friend Steve Curtis pointed me to a great site that aggregates VC blogs, check out: http://venturecapital.alltop.com/.

Today Guy Kawasaki added me to the list.

Jan Norman scooped me when she broke the story about Craig Cooper leaving Vantage Point Venture Partners for Saban Capital Group.

Is he now OC's most notorius VC?
Where does this leave YouMail? The smallest investment in Vantage Point's portfolio.
Craig's keeping his Fashion Island digs, so we should be happy that he'll have an OC focus with his new fund.

Think he'd make a good Fast Pitch judge? We'll find out! He's agreed to join us at the May 19th event.

If you haven't listened to his podcast interview, it's a good one: "transformative deals" are what he's looking for. Listen.

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.

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.

With just a week to go, can we call the year over? If you agree then here are the top 30 shows for 2007. Although I published the list last April, this list is normalized for greater accuracy. Any surprises? I'm happy to see that many of my favorites are at the top of the list, and I made the top 15 shows, my interview with Don Kasle as host for a day. Look for your favorites and visit the Archives to download any you missed.

1. Louise Wannier and myShape
2. Media Matchmaker: autopsy of a failed startup
3. John Harbison
4. Brad Jones, Redpoint Ventures
5. tie: Bootstrapping Broadcom: Henry Samueli
Fred Farina, Tech Transfer at CalTech
7. AIRSIS President Dean Rosenberg
8. LeisureLink CEO Erik Hovanec
9. Dave Berkus Uber Angel
10. Matt Ridenour, Momentum Venture Management

Newspapers are printing their best-of-the-year lists. Where has the year gone? I observe the passage of time in such a simple way, every podcast is date stamped by hand "2007". Yes, I'm sure I could do it automatically, but that's not the point. In just days I'll be learning new keystrokes for this rote task.

As I reflect on the year I'd like to mention a few milestones; of course the audience has grown tremendously this year, thanks for passing the word. This year I've perfected the art of the telephone interview which has allowed me to add multiple voices to many podcast shows, enriching the experience. This will continue in the new year.

For Most Frequent Guest on the show (4 times), the award goes to Dave Berkus; Dave's a fellow member of the Tech Coast Angels and a very experienced investor with much practical advice .

For the Podcast of the Year Award, one stands above the rest: the unraveling of Media MatchMaker #123. It was a big effort; my first show using multiple telephone interviews and what a controversy it generated! It was the most feedback I've ever received on any topic.

The podcast that had The Most Impact on the Host Award goes to Vantage Point's Craig Cooper #131. Yes, I was keen to meet the man with the billion dollar fund, but I got something I wasn't expecting that afternoon. As you know, I photograph most of the subjects that find their images on these blog pages and I know from experience that many professional people are sensitive about their image, so as I'm setting up the microphones and making chit-chat with my guest I will often hand them my dance photography book Dreams of Grace. You only have to flip a few pages to see that I can shoot and for many, this puts them at ease for the photo shoot that precedes the interview. When I handed the book to Craig he immediately replied, "I have a souvenir for you, too" and handed me The China Study. At first I assume it's his book, but a quick scan of the cover names authors Dr. T.C. Campbell and T.M. Campbell, so I'm a little clueless at first; when was the last time you were handed a book on nutrition and weight loss? I could loose more than a few pounds, too, but Craig didn't know that before my arrival at his office. As best as I can remember, he explained, "we're both enjoying such prosperous lives, it's important to assure a long and healthy life". Ok, fine, I thought. Then he gives me a great interview, one with a one-word sound bite, "transformative". Go back and listen to the show to get his complete meaning, but simply put, he's not investing in me-too deals, the opportunity has to be transformative. That's good advice for me and my investment strategy, but I was to get much more from my brief visit with Craig.

I don't get many souvenirs from my guests; this past year Fred Farina gave me a lovely glass paperweight. So that night I picked up the book to learn more; I was immediately sucked in. The book isn't a 12-step process, there are no fads; it's a science book about nutrition written by a frustrated detective novelist, well, not really. Dr Campbell is a Cornell University nutrition researcher. But it reads like great fiction, a real page turner. After 50 pages I became a vegetarian; it's been a month and I'm transformed, well, still a ways to go, but I am inspired. My family is, curious isn't the right word, why I've poured all the milk down the drain.

The Angel Capital Association, at its Annual Summit in Chicago today, has named Luis Villalobos, founder of one of the largest angel investor groups in the country and a founding member of the ACA, as the recipient of the 2007 Hans Severiens Award. The award recognizes individual accomplishments in the advancement of angel investing.

Why didn't I think of it earlier? What if you're a new listener, which shows are the most popular? Here's the top 25 podcasts, as measured by downloads...

1. #81 Sid Mohasseb of Venture Farm
2. #100 Bootstrapping Broadcom: Henry Samueli
3. #92 Jim Armstrong of Clearstone Ventures
4. #84 EpicCamera's promotional videos
5. #78 Mr Tech Coast Angels: John Morris

As you and others start the process of reexamining our Tech Coast Angels deal process, I'd like to add a few observations from experience. I've led a number of TCA deals over the years as you know, including MyShape which closed just this month. The total must exceed 10 deals I've led over the years that resulted in investments ranging from $250K to $2.3MM into each by TCA members. Four of these have received follow-on VC funding so far. From that experience base, let me draw some conclusions...

The Numira close was completed last week and I am sending out the press release on the Series A round of funding.

The Tech Coast Angels hosted the Fast Pitch Competition at UCLA on January 22, 2007. Download and listen to the presentations:

Best Presentation
Andreas Haas, Axiotron (05:29) and Eric Weber, PetPlay (02:22)
Best Investment
Gregory Gilman, RxVantage (05:29)
Best of Best
Jeff Solomon, Leads360 (06:41)