 By: Gwendolyn Jaramillo, Partner at Foley Hoag LLP and Anna Annino, Associate at Foley Hoag LLP Editor’s Note – ACA extends a huge thank you to ACA Gold Partner, Foley Hoag LLP for creating this timely article to educate the angel community on the recent changes related to the expansion of the jurisdiction of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). Thank you for your work on behalf of angels and the startup ecosystem! On February 13, 2020, the final regulations went into effect which implement the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act of 2018 (FIRRMA) and expand the jurisdiction of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). The new rules will have a significant impact on the angel investing community, especially for investments in certain industries as described further below.  By: Pat Gouhin, Chief Executive Officer The Paycheck Protection Program under the recently passed CARES Act provides forgivable loans for businesses with less than 500 employees, but included a huge hurdle for many startups, the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) “Affiliation Rules”.  Christopher Mirabile, ACA Chair Emeritus, Managing Director at Launchpad Venture Group and Co-Founder of Seraf-investor.com We are all dealing with a lot right now - health, family, work, economic concerns. Angel community leaders have the additional challenges of adapting their processes to work over video, and assessing the damage spreading through the portfolio of startups in their flock. Given how much people are dealing with I thought it might be useful to give folks some important reminders. Tags: By: Pat Gouhin, Chief Executive Officer As part of America’s startup community, ACA was among many organizations that responded this weekend to address an issue of concern regarding a needed clarification that otherwise excludes small businesses with equity investors from the 7(a) loan program under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. Tags: By: Pat Gouhin, Chief Executive Officer The U.S. House of Representative has just passed the historic $2.2 trillion dollar COVID-19 emergency relief bill, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act to speed recovery across the U.S. economy. These funds will be distributed to individuals, businesses and states in response to the coronavirus pandemic under H.R. 748. Tags: Public Policy  Dan Rosen, Alliance of Angels Editor’s Note – Dan Rosen shares a note to Alliance of Angels members and his portfolio companies with his thoughts on the financial impact of COVID-19 on startups. Tags: By: Pat Gouhin, Chief Executive Officer As the devastation of COVID-19 continues to leave small businesses and non-profit organizations in its wake, Senator Marco Rubio, Senator Collins, and the Rubio-Collins Small Business Recovery Plan task force have been working around the clock to develop a non-partisan package to protect organizations. The goal of the bill is to empower current infrastructure at the Small Business Administration for the Keeping Workers Paid and Employed Act. Senators Rubio and Collins are calling for banks and credit unions to scale up their processes to meet the extraordinary needs we are currently facing. Tags:  By: Ham Lord, Chairman of Launchpad Venture Group and Co-Founder of Seraf-investor.com This post originally appeared on Seraf-investor.com It’s amazing how the world economic situation changed seemingly overnight with Covid-19. One moment we were enjoying a healthy economy with a robust outlook on the future. Suddenly, a pandemic crisis sweeps over the globe creating uncertainty in all aspects of our lives. We’ve been through economic downturns before, yet this time it feels different. Being forced to live in a world of “social distancing” has changed people’s psychology because it has altered everything about our day-to-day world. Tags:  By: Greg Mesack, Partner at GrayRobinson The Angel Capital Association (ACA) is constantly advocating on behalf of its members in Washington, DC. While ACA’s members are supporting startups and entrepreneurs, your association is working to ensure that the government does not create roadblocks to your mission. Tags:  By: Pat LaPointe, Frontier Angels Forward by Pat Gouhin, ACA CEO: We have created “Leaders in Action” so that we can share with you much of the thought leadership, conventional wisdom, and emerging trends that we are seeing within ACA. Some of the posts will be unique to ACA activity and others will be more general in nature. We are headed for challenging times for everyone. As I took a moment to reflect on the recent past and all that is going on around the world, I felt some level of comfort in being surround by a wonderful Board of Directors that is filled with vision, knowledge, experience, and the passion that will be needed to push us through the upcoming months. My second thought was that much of that wisdom should not remain isolated in a boardroom conversation. For that reason I have asked one of our many board sages for his permission to reprint a letter that was recently distributed to his portfolio companies. A special thank you goes out to Pat LaPointe for permission to push out this letter… |
