By: Emily Angold, ACA Marketing Manager

We can’t wait to welcome Martha Miller, Office of the Advocate for Small Business Capital Formation, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, to ACA 2020 – The Summit of Angel Investing! Martha will join ACA for an exclusive fireside chat to discuss updates, trends, and perspectives about how COVID-19 is impacting raising capital, crowdfunding, and strategies to bridge networks. 

By: Brent Gleeson, Founder & CEO at TakingPoint™ Leadership, Navy SEAL

As a former Navy SEAL, I’ve been far removed from the battlefield for quite some time. But there continue to be many lessons we can extract from the global war on terrorism when it comes to preparedness, planning, vigilance, resilience and leading through constant change during tumultuous times. 

By: Emily Angold, ACA Marketing Manager

What would it be like if start up success wasn’t so hard to predict? What if you could leverage a research-based, long-term study to help you assess a company’s potential? Even better, what if you had a turnkey, proven way to set early stage entrepreneurs up for success as they go beyond founding a business and start building their business? 

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”. 

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…

By: Pat Gouhin, Chief Executive Officer

As we have continued to monitor the impact of Covid-19 on our Country, and in fact the World, and worked through our contingency plans for the ACA 2020 – The Summit of Angel Investing event, we have continuously reached out to our partners and local government officials to gather the most up to date information needed to guide us in our decision process regarding the Summit.  As we consider the health and safety of our Summit attendees, and given the meeting guidance we have received from local, State and Federal agencies, we have decided to postpone the ACA 2020 Summit meeting. The future configuration, format, and date are all under review. 

By: Pat Gouhin, Chief Executive Officer

We are still planning for a successful event in a little more than two months. You are part of the ACA family and your safety remains our highest priority.  We know our many members and partners have been excited about participating in this year’s ACA Summit, ACA 2020 - The Summit of Angel Investing, to be held May 12-14, in Denver, Colorado. 

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.