 By: Dave Berkus, Dave Berkus, ”Super angel” investor, tech futurist This post originally appeared on Berkonomics.com Well, it had to happen. Originally created in the mid 1990’s to help with the imprecise problem of how to value early stage companies, especially those in technology, I developed what soon became known as “The Berkus Method” when published in the popular book, “Winning Angels” by Harvard’s Amis and Stevenson with my permission in 2001. But a lot of time has passed since then. There is a universal truth: fewer than one in a thousand start-ups meet or exceed their projected revenues in the periods planned. So how do you use financial projections as valuation metrics when you know the odds of those being accurate predictors of the future are so very unreliable? Tags:  By: Elizabeth Usovicz, Principal of WhiteSpace Consulting, as part of a series she writes for ACA aimed at entrepreneurs, "Your Pitch is Just the Beginning." Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher once quipped, “Power is like being a lady... if you have to tell people you are, you aren't.” The same could be said about a startup. If people have to ask if it’s a business, it isn’t one - yet. I recently heard two different founders pitch their concepts for the first time. One spoke at an open pitch event, describing a broad social media platform that would unite people of different backgrounds and tell their stories. The second founder presented a next-generation technology/entertainment concept to a small advisory group, in preparation for approaching investors. Tags: Fundraising  By: Ham Lord, Managing Director of Launchpad Venture Group and Co-Founder of Seraf-investor.com This post originally appeared on Seraf-investor.com The handyman’s toolbox… whether you use it for small home improvement projects or just minor repairs, no home is complete without a few essential tools. At Seraf, we feel the same way when it comes to investing in early stage companies. You need a good set of tools to do the job right. Sometimes the task at hand is overseeing due diligence on a potential investment. Other times, you need to advise a CEO on how to run a great board meeting. Or maybe you need some guidance on where to look for key data in the investment documents you receive from company counsel. Whatever the task is, we want you to have the right tools to get the job done, so we’ve collected a great set of early stage company checklists and templates for everyone to use as a reference. Bookmark it, link to it, share it and keep your eye on it - we’ll add additional handy tools every so often. Tags: Resources  By David Verrill, Managing Director of Hub Investment Group Many angels have noticed the unique capabilities of entrepreneurs from outside the US to build great companies. Now, finally, so has the American federal government (noting that our colleague Canadians have been all over this for some time). The Department of Homeland Security released rules that would allow more foreign born entrepreneurs to stay in the US longer to grow their companies. One of the main requirements is for angels or VCs to invest in their companies. The rules will become final after a review of comments to the first public draft. Tags: Early-Stage Landscape  The following is part of our periodic ACA Blog series highlighting ACA member expertise and insights on resources for angels. The topics will vary and include ways ACA angels are making best use of their time – and often ACA benefits – to make smart investment decisions. This tip is how Women’s Capital Connection engages their members in educational discussions based on ACA webinars. Thank you Aviva Ajmera for sharing! We look forward to more member tips for angels. When you have a resource to share with angels please contact Sarah Dickey, ACA Membership Director to learn more. By: Aviva Ajmera, Women’s Capital Connection I used to take the ACA webinar emails for granted—just another email in my inbox— but what I found is they could help us learn. As Vice Chair of the Executive Committee one of my responsibilities is group education. Although every member in our group is a subject matter expert in something, we aren’t all experts in every aspect of angel investing. We have members that are veteran investors and we have investors new to angel investing, ACA Webinars have been a great addition to our group development. Tags: Resources  By: Cheryl Isen, Media Relations for Angel Capital Association Assurex Health is one of three companies that won the Luis Villalobos Award for innovation that also had an exit within one month in 2016. Details on each of the exits are included in three blog posts on October 10.
Assurex Health is a personalized medicine company dedicated to helping healthcare providers get the genetic information they need to determine the right medication for individual patients suffering from neuropsychiatric and other medical conditions. Assurex Health’s proprietary technology is based on pharmacogenomics— the study of the genetic factors that influence an individual’s response to drug treatments—as well as evidence-based medicine and clinical pharmacology. The “GeneSight” test was developed in the Assurex Health clinical laboratory and is based on patented technology licensed from two world renowned medical centers, Mayo Clinic and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, which continue to be research collaborators. Tags: By Cheryl Isen, Media Relations for Angel Capital Association EyeVerify is one of three companies that won the Luis Villalobos Award for innovation that also had an exit within one month in 2016. Details on each of the exits are included in three blog posts on October 10.
Eyeprint ID, created by EyeVerify, transforms an ordinary selfie into a key that protects your digital life. One look opens mobile devices, logs you into apps and secures your mobile payments. The patented, software-only biometric solution is 99.99% accurate and extremely scalable. In less than one second, with no add-on hardware, employees and customers can experience password-free mobility. Several large Android device manufacturers and a growing number of notable financial institutions have deployed “Eyeprint ID,” delivering convenient, secure, private authentication to millions of consumers today. Tags: By: Cheryl Isen, Media Relations for Angel Capital Association Retrosense Therapeutics is one of three companies that won the Luis Villalobos Award for innovation that also had an exit within one month in 2016. Details on each of the exits are included in three blog posts on October 10.
RetroSense is developing life-enhancing gene therapies designed to restore vision in patients suffering from blindness due to retinitis pigmentosa and advanced dry age-related macular degeneration. There are currently no FDA-approved drugs to improve or restore vision in patients with these retinal degenerative conditions. The company's approach to using optogenetics in vision restoration is based on pioneering, proprietary research conducted at Wayne State University and Massachusetts General Hospital. RetroSense has worldwide exclusive rights to the relevant intellectual property from both institutions. Tags:  By: Solomon Brenner, member of Keiretsu Forum Mid-Atlantic and Managing Director at Startup2angel This post originally appeared on Startup2angel. They all sounded good. All of them. I entered the world of angel investing 18 months ago and came to the immediate conclusion that every company seemed like a good idea. It’s like when I first started training in karate and thought every punch would result in a knockout. Surely, every opportunity wasn’t going to be the instant knockout investment success. Considering I couldn’t – and obviously shouldn’t – invest in all of them, I started looking for places with tips that I could use to help analyze each option. Tags: Fundraising  By: Swati Chaturvedi, Medium/ @propel(x) This blog initially appeared on Dissected by propel(x) blog on Medium. It shows how one angel investor thinks about valuations. Other angels may have different thoughts or calculations, but it is a resource for entrepreneurs to learn about the equity raising process. Putting a value on your visionary idea — you know, the one that’s going to change the world — can be tricky. To you as a founder, your idea is priceless. To investors…not so much. In reality, it’s investors’ job to think about it differently and press down on valuation. Understanding their perspective with regard to valuation will help your fundraising efforts go smoothly and net you the investments you’re after. So, how can startups bridge the gap between the investors’ thought process and theirs? A good place to start is by understanding how angels and VCs think about valuation and their portfolio as a whole. Then, startups should consider some basic data and work backwards to arrive at an implied valuation. Tags: |
