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. 

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.  

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. 

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. 

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. 

By: Pat Gouhin, Chief Executive Officer

In late 2019, the Securities and Exchange Commission proposed amendments to the existing “Accredited Investor” definition to increase access to investment opportunities.  The additions include new categories to the definition that would allow for someone to qualify as an accredited investor based on professional certifications and designations, or other credentials issued by an accredited education institution.  The SEC is not proposing changing the thresholds for an accredited investor and those are expected to stay as is.  A 60-day public comment period was provided in which the Angel Capital Association submitted a response letter for further clarification and expansion of sections of the proposed updates. 

By: Pat Gouhin, Chief Executive Officer

The Angel Capital Association along with the Association of University Research Parks, International Business Innovation Association, SSTI, University Economic Development Association, Association of Public & Land-grant Universities, Center for American Entrepreneurship, National Venture Capital Association and Technology Councils of North America recently pledged their support for the Regional Innovation Program (RIS; now Build-to-Scale) within the Department of Commerce.  The RI Program encourages and supports the development of regional innovation strategies by funding flexible awards with a 1:1 match. This program received funding of $33 million in Fiscal Year 2020. 

By: Kevin Learned and Denise Dunlap, Sage Growth Capital

You may have been hearing a lot of buzz recently around ‘alternative’ investment structures in private investing; this has been a particularly hot topic among angel investors. This blog post departs from our usual musings on how to efficiently and effectively use syndicates (aka SPVs or single purpose vehicles) to discuss our latest investment adventure: the launch of a revenue-based fund. 

By: Bill Payne, Frontier Angels

This article was originally written in May 2001 and has been updated multiple times.  Others have referred to this and similar methods as the Benchmark Method and the Bill Payne Method.  The Scorecard Valuation Methodology is useful for investment in most pre-seed and seed stage opportunities, except those with very high capital requirements prior to achieving first revenues (such as some life science and energy deals). 

By: Ham Lord, Chairman of Launchpad Venture Group and Co-Founder of Seraf-investor.com and Christopher Mirabile, ACA Chair Emeritus, Managing Director at Launchpad Venture Group and Co-Founder of Seraf-investor.com

Note: This article is the eleventh in an ongoing series on valuation and capitalization. To learn more about the financial mechanics of early stage investing, download this free eBook today Angel Investing by the Numbers: Valuation, Capitalization, Portfolio Construction and Startup Economics or purchase our books at Amazon.com.

As your angel career develops, and you start to build a larger portfolio of companies, you are increasingly asked to make follow-on investments. Not only do companies need investment to get off the ground, the faster they grow, the more cash they need. Whether to follow-on, and how to follow-on, are questions which have long given rise to angel debate. We’ll tackle that topic in depth here, but I’ll start out by confessing to bias right up front: Christopher and I are both believers that follow on investments are essential to achieving good returns. We firmly defend and negotiate for pro-rata rights to participate in future financings. Our overall perspective is that with your earlier checks you are basically buying options on a front row seat which comes with the right to add more “smart money” into the winners as they begin to show promise.