 By: Ham Lord and Christopher Mirabile, Co-Founders of Seraf, who have written comprehensive articles and eBooks on all aspects of angel investing, including a new series on exits and reasonable returns. Note: This article is part of an ongoing series on Exits. To learn more about how to plan for exits and maximize returns, download our free eBook today Angel Exits: Perspectives and Techniques for Maximizing Investment Returns or purchase our books at Amazon.com. With our discussion on key deal terms, we introduced some of the many issues investors and management teams face when it comes to the topic of alignment. In the case of a startup company, alignment means that investors and management agree on key corporate development issues such as strategy, team, financing and exit planning. Tags: Exits  By: Marianne Hudson, ACA Executive Director I’ve been glued to media coverage of Hurricane Harvey and the devastation the storm and floods have caused in Texas and Louisiana, with thoughts of everyone in that region. The photos and videos are so full of unbelievable stories and damage. As I see the storm finally moving to other parts of the country, I think we angels should start using our innovative minds to supporting the region’s entrepreneurs, the innovation ecosystem, and indeed, some of our member investors. Tags: By: Marianne Hudson, ACA Executive Director There has been a decidedly female focus to a flurry of news and announcements about angels, startups and challenges for women entrepreneurs. Unfortunately, disturbing accounts of sexual harassment and gender bias dominate the headlines. But there’s another tier of good news featuring women (and men) investing in and supporting women-led startups. Many of those good news stories start with ACA members, women and men, who are actively working to eradicate gender bias, harassment and discrimination. Tags: Diversity By: Marianne Hudson, ACA Executive Director Angel investors, we can do more to break down hurdles for women entrepreneurs. First, all of us at the Angel Capital Association should commit to zero tolerance for sexual harassment. Recently, two dozen women entrepreneurs spoke out for a story in The New York Times. I’m horrified that this issue still exists but grateful to these brave women for telling their stories. Let their bravery be the wakeup call to VCs and angel investors to end sexual harassment, one startup at a time. Addressing — and ending ― sexual harassment in tech startups is good for business, the women and men who work in this sector, and the angel investors who support them. Tags: By: Marianne Hudson, ACA Executive Director All of us know about — or personally know — talented foreign-born entrepreneurs who have created successful businesses in the US. Think Intel, eBay and Tesla. Immigrant entrepreneurs are behind more than half of America’s startup companies valued at $1 billion or more. That’s why the Angel Capital Association is joining the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) and many other leading entrepreneurial organizations to support the International Entrepreneur Rule. By: Marianne Hudson, ACA Executive Director Although ACA itself is only eleven years old, several of our current member angel groups trace their beginnings back much further than that. A total of nine groups have now been in existence for 20 years or more. Here is that honor roll and the founding year for each. Congratulations to all!
The latest to achieve that impressive 20-year mark is Sierra Angels of Incline Village, Nevada, the angel group from which our new Board Chair, Linda Smith, hails. I was honored to attend the group’s anniversary party yesterday, along with ACA Board members Jim Connor and Kevin Learned. We look forward to helping more interested member groups celebrate their 20th anniversaries and thank all of you for supporting new companies that create jobs and innovation. Tags: By: Marianne Hudson, ACA Executive Director
I am pleased to welcome Linda Smith as she begins to serve as Chair of ACA’s 18-member Board of Directors on July 1. Linda has served as ACA Vice Chair for two years, during which she has been instrumental in updating ACA’s strategy growth, shaping the policies that impact startup communities and angel investors, and meeting with Congressional representatives regarding important policy issues for angels. Tags: Governance  By Graeme Thickins, ACA PR Team Did you ever wish you’d have had a chance to meet or chat with someone at the ACA Summit or any of our other events, but never had the opportunity to run into them? Well, now you can — via brief interviews posted on the new ACA video library. It’s your chance to get to know interesting people, with great insights, better. The full set of ACA videos are posted on our Vimeo channel. You can view these videos without a Vimeo account, or you can create a free account, and then follow any channels of your choice — which we suggest you do with the ACA channel, of course! If you do that, then you’ll be notified whenever there’s a new video posted on our channel.  By Lucy Howell, ACA Director of Partnerships It’s been only five months since I joined the Angel Capital Association and I have already gathered so many highlights and insights from our angels within this unique investment space - from ACA events in Irvine, Portland, San Francisco and Boston - that I have decided to share some of these takeaways and highlights for those interested or for those who may have missed it the first go around. One of my highlights to date has been co-directing the Innovation Showcase at the 2017 ACA Summit, sponsored by Greenberg Traurig. This program featured pitches by 24 startups from Chile and ten states in the US, in two half-hour sessions. The “showcase” kicked off the first day of the ACA Summit, held on April 26-28 in San Francisco. Tags: By: Marianne Hudson, ACA Executive Director I have the privilege of working with one of the hardest working boards of directors on the planet at the Angel Capital Association. Members and friends may not realize how much time, effort and wisdom 18 people put into our association, but I see it every day in our programming, resources, financial planning, and much more. ACA members should be aware of two important things that have happened in the last month with the ACA Board: Tags: |
