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)

Show #140 Listen (51:45) Download

About a year ago Klaus Koch at KH Growth Equity Fund funded a $4M Series A round into Sendio which manufactures a network appliance that delivers "Email Integrity". How? They use sender address verification, all the sender must do is hit reply; it's simple.

Then Matt Ridenour of Momentum Venture Management joins us. His interview made the Top 10 Most Popular for 2007. Matt's a great public speaker; come out to see him at TCVN on May 22nd, "Business Plans Don't Raise Money...What Does?". Register here and read his blog.

Show #137 Listen (33:42) Download

Picture this: trucks everywhere leave a factory full and return empty; XSCapacity has a plan to cut the costs of dead-heading empty trucks. CEO Steve Krubinski is attempting to create a Match.com-like system that allows shippers to bid on trucks with excess capacity. He's got it up and running with 40 customers, but he needed a little venture capital investment.

Venture Farm's Sid Mohasseb will go anywhere for a good investment. In this case he went all the way to Alabama to find XsCapacity. Sid joins Steve and the three of us cover all the bases.

Coincidentally, I'll be visiting Tuscaloosa in April when Steve and I will meet in person. I'll be attending the University of Alabama's speaker series ALLELE, Alabama Lectures on Life's Evolution. Just the place to be for a CA Freethinker like myself. What's the connection? One of my former board members and a long term friend, Lou Perry, developed a curriculum based on his book, Jefferson's Scissors: Conflicts of Religion, Science and Democracy. Lou's alma mater is Univ. AL, and when he asked me to sponsor the speakers program, well, I couldn't resist an opportunity to branch out.

Show #133 Listen (53:25) Download

She raised $3.3M from angels and a London-based VC. The products will be flavors, fragrances and insect repellents. Anti-viral and anti-fungal, terpenes are interesting but difficult to produce in commercial quantities. Allylix has a unique biologically engineered system that can bring them to market cost effectively.

Meet everyone involved! Bob Molinari of the Life Science Angels, Steve Block ran the deal for Tech Coast Angels, Tate & Lyle's Simon Barnes and Allylix CEO Carolyn Fritz. You'll hear all sides of the biggest deal of the year!

Show #130 Listen (27:21) Download

From college professor to internet entrepreneur, that describes YouMail CEO Alex Quilici. He started Quack which eventually had a million paying customers after AOL acquired the company. Barely 2 years after joining the Tech Coast Angels, he came across a startup with similarities to his telephony background. He got involved in YouMail's funding process and when the time came to pick a new CEO the choice was clear.

Today he's juggling a new baby at home and a Series A funding with Vantage Point Venture Partners who have opened a new office in Newport Beach. With a billion dollar fund behind them there's bound to be pressure to grow quickly. How will the company deal with these pressures? Will their word-of-mouth campaign be sufficient to scale quickly? I'm sure of one thing: YouMail offers a great free service for your cellphone.

Show #129 Listen (29:44) Download

"Digital biology", that's what CODA investor Carl Weissman of OVP Venture Partners says they're looking for. OVP has recently made a big investment in CODA and helped them find a new leader; enter Rick Murdock. What an exciting role for an experienced CEO coming out of retirement. It's a terrific story of commercializing genomics out of UC Irvine. CODA's finding more opportunities for their products than they ever imagined.

Show #128 Listen (44:33) Download

Serial entrepreneur Mikel Cvetanovic is driving a new Beverly Hills based company, YouLiveNow. The mission: to deliver live video chat to anyone, anywhere using any web enabled device; that's all. Why doesn't Facebook or mySpace have video chat today? Maybe they soon will. Orange County Tech Coast Angels president, Mike Stuhley, joins me on the interview; he put the software through its paces and has been mentoring the YouLiveNow team since.

Are they fundable? Can the design scale to accommodate millions of users? Is their beta test at a Finland university a suitable market or way off the mark? One thing's for sure, the YouLiveNow team has a tiger by the tail!

Show #125 (06:02)

Out of more than 50 presenters, only one can rise to the top.

The most investable, greatest opportunity for growth, the best creative technology, the greatest game-changing possibilities; no this isn't their pitch, it's the opinion of Steve Block. He and his fellow judges came to a unanimous decision: Aweli, Inc. CEO Joshua Paul is the 2007 TCVN Survivor champion!

Will Joshua get funded by the Tech Coast Angels? It's too soon to tell, but he has a shot.

Show #123 Listen (54:46) Download

They were funded in 2005, but the raise was small. Their concept had great potential to disrupt huge markets, the buying and selling of TV and film ads and product placement. The team had great charm and pedigree, one was a lawyer with great connections to Hollywood, and the other had the first hand experience of selling ads in the hurly burly of the Fox Television empire. Today the company is for sale at a liquidation price, few interested parties watch from the sidelines.

In this autopsy of a failed startup I speak to both partners, separately because they're not speaking to each other, the chairman of the board and several investors, including myself. Did the market change just as their product came online? Everyone knew there'd be some resistance to change with the major players, but wasn't the technological allure strong enough to capture some market share? Did the company ever learn how to monetize their referral service or were they just selling phone numbers while the real deal was consummated off-line? Did Bessemer funded nextmedium eat their lunch? Or did the company just starve to death, unable to raise the funds they needed to build the system and take it to market; did they succumb because they only raised minimal funding from a small group of angel investors?

We'll find out together...

Show #118 Listen (25:25) Download

A personalized online shopping experience for women, that's the idea behind myShape.com. Founder Louise Wannier had a brainstorm while taking a fashion class and besides the inspiration she had the experience of several other high tech startups, so when she approached The Pasadena Angels, they listened.

Is myShape a billion dollar opportunity? Many people think so, including the VCs behind her $6M Series B round.

Show #114 Listen (35:51) Download

Portvision tracks ships in port: "every commercial ship that calls on a U.S. port (and most international ports) is required to transmit its ship identifier and location through a standard AIS transponder. PortVision tracks these signals to provide the most comprehensive management tool of its kind in the maritime industry."

Today the system is used in Houston and Los Angeles; the goal is to be in the top 20 ports in the US by the end of 2007. President Dean Rosenberg raised a Series A through the Tech Coast Angels in 2005 and just last month closed a Series B. Was the B round big enough to take the company where it needs to go? Should he have raised more? Dean shares his theory that, like Goldilocks, this round will be just right.

Show #113 Listen (45:01) Download

The vacation leisure business, LeisureLink focuses on renting condos through travel agents, Orbitz and Travelocity. The company has raised money from both The Pasadena Angels and the Tech Coast Angels, then a Series A with Clearstone Venture Partners and Mission Ventures. Today they're considering a Series B. Erik shares his perspective on the changes that occur as an angel funded company grows through these critical stages.

Show #112 Listen (37:45) Download

Two young guys with a taste for politics, that's what started things for Fantasy Congress. Andrew Lee and Arjun Lall teamed to design and build a site, like Fantasy Football, for Congressional fanatics. It's early, very early for Fantasy Congress, but they've attracted lots of national attention and a presidential election is coming.

What's up after graduation this month? They're headed to Washington, where else?

Show #105 Listen (36:43) Download

Does Tech Coast Angels Fast Pitch really work? It did for Gene Alexander's MaMoCa.

After winning the 2006 Best Presentation category he went on to raise over $750k with the Angels. His winning streak continues, MaMoCa is the first tenant in the Digital Media Center in Santa Ana. In fact all three tenants at the DMC are Tech Coast Angel funded startups. The DMC has all the latest video capabilities which MaMoCa may benefit from more than the average tenant.

Stradling Yocca's Mark Skaist is back for another cameo appearance; this time he discusses discounted options.

Show #101 Listen (36:11) Download

Into his seventh year, CEO and Founder Steve Steit has grown with Green Dot Corporation. He pioneered pre-paid debit cards and after some early struggles his card is now sold in 50,000 retailers. Along the way he had to get licensed, regulated, build call centers, deal with fraud and reload the cards. Now he has competitors using his reloading technology. From debit cards he's moving to credit cards and check cashing; Steve makes a prediction on the podcast: in the next 12 months Green Dot will become the largest check cashing company in America! Perhaps today Green Dot is Tech Coast Angels' most successful investment.

He sold his first debit card in May 21st, 2001 and he remembers that date for more reasons than you might guess.
He has lots of advice for the budding entrepreneur.

Show #100 Listen (48:28) Download

Steady growth after bootstrapping Broadcom with no venture capital, find out how he did it. Here's Henry Samueli, co-founder, CTO and Chairman of the Board; another in a series of founding entrepreneurs who have grown with their companies. How has he grown with the company? In many ways of course, but especially as chief visionary.

Show #97 Listen (33:43) Download

"Bored and greedy" while working away in commercial real estate, techie Mark Friedman left to start Accruent. It's software to manage real estate contracts; his customers include Staples, Rite Aid, Best Buy, Eddie Bauer and Foot Locker, just to name a few. A consistent winner of Deloitte's Technology Fast 50, the company has venture capital partners Innocal, Sierra Ventures and Red Rock Ventures.
"A classic startup at the beginning", this interview with Mark Friedman is the first in a series featuring entrepreneurs who have grown with their companies, instead of outgrowing them.

Show #95 Listen (45:56) Download

The three things you must have to be prepared for funding with the Tech Coast Angels... CEYX Technologies' (pronounced "say-ex") CEO Carol Fuller tells of her experience working through the process. Besides TCA her investors include Shepherd Ventures and Stone Canyon Venture Partners. CEYX is the leading provider of software-enabled control systems for light emitting devices, like LCD backlights for large-format TV screens. The company raised $4.5M in 2005.

Appearances
It's LA Tech Week and I'll be speaking at UCLA on Monday January 22nd during Tech Coast Angel's Fast Pitch, entertaining and educational, 4-9pm.
I'm on a panel discussion on Wed Jan 24th at CSULB in the Pyramid, 3-7pm

Show #93 Listen (29:28) Download

Action Sport Centers is what Nine Star calls its stores. While I was interviewing Matt, a technician was building a custom skate board for my 11 year old; it was a big hit on Christmas. Today the grinch checked in, the Mission Viejo City Council denied Nine Star's request to build a demo area, a mini skate park, outside its store, see Orange County Register story. Matt has a long history as a serial entrepreneur, so I doubt this latest little setback will affect him.

Show #86 Listen (38:53) Download

I met Gannon at OCVG's October event; he was on a panel with his favorite venture capital firm: Miramar Venture Partners. His getlower.com sounded interesting so I approached.

He's a serial entrepreneur with a solid perspective on the direction of Web 2.0. And he's funded.

Show #84 Listen (33:41) Download

While the world gasps over the money paid for YouTube, a little company in Huntington Beach, Epic Camera, makes water-oriented action sports videos possible. Lary Stucker and Dave Johnson are making underwater housings for video cameras; not heavy dive units, but light weight housings for action sports like surfing and water skiing. They approached Tech Coast Angels last year, but interest was cool. The verdict: they're in the hardware business, but the big bucks are in the content, the videos that their customers create. Can they reinvent themselves and leverage the hardware to become the portal for water sports videos? If they can will investors get back in the water? Check out their new site where their customers can post their videos: EpicUnderground.com.

Subscribe with iTunes and download 4 short videos made with Epic's underwater housing - Fabulous footage!

Show #82 Listen (42:54) Download

Funded in December 2005, Vigilistics has just raised a buffer round to brace for the short term. They're making great headway in the market. They sell large process control software systems to the dairy industry. Today dairy, tomorrow the entire food processing world. Safety and savings, that sums up what their product is all about.

Show #76 Listen (49:35) Download

YouMail is a patented voice messaging application for cell phones that allows users to record unique voicemail greetings for missed calls, based on caller ID. With YouMail you can create quirky voice greetings for friends and family and a more professional greeting for work related calls.

Coined 'Ditchmail' by a few female members of an early focus group, another feature allows users to record a custom greeting that hangs up on a caller after the greeting is played, preventing an unwanted caller from leaving a message.

My guest Dave Key is the new General Manager for YouMail. It's being spun out of Zeacom Group where Dave's been Chairman. Will YouMail be the break away product that many think? Blogger Oliver Starr on MobileCrunch.com, comments, 'It seems quite ingenious and refreshingly unique, useful, highly viral and very likely to be a runaway success.' You decide, YouMail.

Show #73 Listen (51:34) Download

He's raised over $1.1M in as little as 30 days. He did enjoy the inside track; my guest Ray Parsons, co-founder of Transcepta in Aliso Viejo, is a member of the Tech Coast Angels and he leveraged his credibility with a tight business plan to launch his company quickly.