Rachael Qualls, Founder and General Manager of the Angel Capital Group in Tennessee, sat down recently with Marc Krejci of Patrons of Change, a refreshing new podcast devoted to a range of topics including entrepreneurship, technology, philanthropy and other important issues.
Rachael provides valuable insight into the mind of an angel investor. She discusses how her group got started, ways entrepreneurs can reach out to her angels, and the steps they go through when deciding which companies to invest in.
In addition, Rachael reveals how the group uses Angelsoft to track and collaborate on deals. Rachael is extremely enthusiastic about what she and her group are doing and adds that she is having a ball doing it! Rachael, if we can in some way help facilitate funding ideas that may one day change the world, then we are happy to do our part!
Entrepreneurs interested in applying to the Angel Capital Group, click here and follow the instructions.
You can also subscribe to the podcast to receive new episodes as soon as they are released.
About Patrons of Change:
Patrons of Change is a podcast exploring topics including entrepreneurship, technology, philanthropy, social justice, the environment and other issues affecting our world and ways that we can make an impact.
When angel groups can share and work together on investment opportunities, angel groups and entrepreneurs typically both win. Entrepreneurs have the ability to get more funding since there are more available investors. Angel groups have the ability to spread their risk, and get access to more experts. The Wisconsin Angel Network recognizes this and has a state-wide initiative bringing together all the angel groups in the state and surrounding states to help get the best funding for their entrepreneurs. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel recently had a front-page article on the Wisconsin Angel Network's initiative which is a great read.
We congratulate Stephanie Hanbury-Brown for winning the 2008 Hans Severiens Award at the ACA Summit in San Diego. Stephanie is the founder of GoldenSeeds, which invests in women-led and women-run organizations. This award is quite prestigeous in the angel investment community and Stephanie is truly worthy of the award in how she has not only promoted and advanced angel investing for women, but the angel investing community as a whole.
Stephanie had the following comments on her experience with Angelsoft:
Here is a great article for those unfamiliar with angel investment looking to learn more.
Thanks to Rick Holdren for pointing the article out to me. I ran into Rick, a long time angel investor and user of Angelsoft, at the ACA Annual Summit when he mentioned he was recently quoted in Business Week. Rick is a Houston based health care angel who invests all over the world, and travels 200+ days of the year in search of new deals and outside investment in deals he is already participating in.
What I found interesting in the article is the case study of one certain entrepreneur who is also an angel investor. As a member of a RAIN Fund, he received investment in his own venture from his co-investors from the fund network.
As an active angel investor, I am faced with an embarrassment of riches when it comes to potential companies with which I can get involved. I receive new business plans every day from people who know what I do; I see all of the deal flow that comes through the professional angel groups to which I belong (such as New York Angels); and recently, with the advent of OPEN-deals, I find myself inexorably drawn to seeing the latest investment opportunities from around the country.
But because of the sheer number of companies involved, I, like most other active angels, tend to make very quick, first-pass decisions as to whether we should even bother to look at a plan, let alone invest. (For example, I personally have no interest in real estate investment deals, movie opportunities, or biotech; the first I've got enough of, the second is too risky even for me, and the third I'm not smart enough to understand. I also don't generally look at deals that are too far away from me geographically...although this is beginning to change with the high quality of deals I've been seeing in OPEN-deals.) This first pass will typically cut by about half the number of companies in my mental in-box.
For most of the rest, however, I have only a limited amount of time to decide which deals warrant further attention. Now, I'd like to say that I carefully read every word of every business plan. But I don't. I could say that instead, I not-so-carefully read most words of most executive summaries. But, umm, I really don't do that either. These days, what happens in practice is that I pop over to OPEN-deals and skim the latest submissions. My eye is immediately drawn to deals that have videos (because the poster frame of the video is prominently displayed to left of the entry, like this:)
And then, because I'm essentially lazy, I click the video, sit back, and let the entrepreneur tell me why I should look further. It requires no additional action, and fewer brain cells, on my part. Not only that, watching videos is actually fun, whereas reading another business plan...not so. Most importantly, however, a video is an entrepreneur's one chance to 'look me in the eye' and take a shot at conveying his or her essential self. Why is this important? Because as virtually every investor will tell you, in early stage deals our overwhelming preference is to bet the jockey, not the horse. That is, we'd much prefer to bet on someone we think has real entrepreneurial talent, even if the plan requires a bit of tweaking, than take a chance on even a superb plan in the hands of a mediocre entrepreneur. And letting us see you on video, looking right into the camera, is the first step in selling yourself...until we can see you in person.
"But..." I hear you object, "making a video and doing it right takes time and effort". To which my response is, "Doh!" How much are you trying to raise from angels or VCs? $200,000? $500,000? A million bucks? And how many years of your life are you prepared to commit to this venture? Three years? Five? Ten? Whatever time it takes to do the video right, doesn't it make sense to do so, if it will help your fundraising to even the teeniest, tiniest degree?
OK, now let's get to some practical suggestions. In an ideal world, you'd find someone (either a friend, or a professional) who knows how to do videos, and you'd carefully gather B-roll footage, product shots, customer testimonials, and more, and then you'd go into a studio and record yourself talking passionately into the camera in front of a 'green screen', and then you or an experienced video editor would cut the whole thing into a gem-like, five minute elevator pitch (but not too, TOO slick, because then we'll get a little suspicious).
The world, however, is rarely ideal, and if you're like me (and every other entrepreneur I've ever known) you want to get started right away, be finished in half an hour, and do it at your desk. Well, let's see what we can do to help.
First of all, built right into the OPEN-deals application, thanks to our friends at Viddler, is a nifty little widget that allows you to click one button, look into your computer's webcam, and record a live video, which
OPEN- deals will then upload and host for you at no charge:
No muss, no fuss, no cost...and absolutely no reason whatsoever that every single entrepreneur shouldn't have a video included with his or her OPEN-deals submission.
But if you want do a better, more professional job, there are quite a few tools available at very reasonable cost to give you a quick and painless way to create a polished pitch video. Putting aside all of the myriad high-end, production and editing packages, two companies in particular have really cool products that are just perfect for this purpose.
On the Mac side of the house, Vara Software has two great programs that you can try out for free, and download instantly. ScreenFlow lets you run your PowerPoint or Keynote presentation on your computer, while simultaneously recording an inset video of YOU, giving us the best of both worlds. Videocue 2 makes it really, really easy to write up your pitch, film it with your webcam while you read from a teleprompter, and seamlessly add in titles, overlays and images. Very cool...and they work.
Almost identical programs are available for Windows systems from Adobe, which last year acquired a really neat company named Serious Magic that had pioneered the whole 'pro-sumer video upload' field. Adobe Visual Communicator 3 does even more things than ScreenFlow, including letting you record and deliver your PowerPoint presentation, and Vlog It! is a virtual clone of Videocue. (To be fair, the Serious Magic/Adobe folks claim that it's the other way around, and that they were first. I'm not choosing sides, just point out two sets of cool programs.)
(By the way, the third Adobe/Serious Magic product in the list is Ovation, which is a VERY powerful program that takes your PowerPoint presentation, adds in a full teleprompter, timer, and other goodies. Definitely cool for doing pitch presentations.)
So there you have it. Now that you know the secrets, please be nice and pander to your friendly local angel investors by recording a video along with your OPEN-deals submission. It makes it easier and more fun for us, and gives you a much better chance of rising above all those entrepreneurs who weren't smart enough to read this blog entry!
We try to have every release bring something special and useful to our users - but in our view this last release has been extra special.
For a complete list of updates click here. Below are some highlights:
OPEN DEALS
Deal sharing and syndication between groups has long been a major benefit of working together on Angelsoft, but what if you're not sure who might be interested in co-investing a specific deal? Introducing Open Deals, where Group Managers can post deal notices that any of the over 300 angel groups who use Angelsoft can respond to.
Post a Deal Notice to Open Deals - Got an interesting deal, but not enough interested investors in your group? Post a notice to the Open Deals space, where over 300 angel groups worldwide can see it. The notice will include the application and a note from you, but none of the attached documents or entrepreneur's contact information. Interested group administrators will be able to contact you directly from the deal page.
Browse & Review Deals - Open Deals also has a number of deals submitted directly by Entrepreneurs. Sort by distance, industry, average ratings, or number of views. Watch videos and read business summaries. Rate and review a deal to share your view with the Angel community.
Refer a Deal to Your Group - When you see an Open Deal that seems interesting, you can refer it to your group with one click! The deal will be added to a special sub-folder of your New Submissions.
Request to Co-Invest - Found a great deal shared by another group on Open Deals? Write a quick note to the group administrator who posted it, and let them know you are interested! In case there's a good fit, they will be able to share the deal with your group with one click!
Continue as Usual - Open Deals is an open directory completely separate from your group that you can use to gather additional investment for a deal or augment your dealflow during a quiet month. None of your deals will EVER be displayed there unless YOU submit them.
ENHANCED DEAL SYNDICATION
Sharing deals with groups and individuals has been simplified in this release. We added:
Sharing Options Page - Angelsoft offers a variety of ways to share deals with others: referrals, co-investments, adding guests, and Open Deals. On the new Sharing page, we clearly explain each option.
Sharing Drop-down Menu - We have collected all sharing options under a single Share drow-down menu, available on the Deal List and the Deal Dashboard. Now you can share quickly, share easily, and share often!
Refer/Co-Invest by State - Referring and Co-Investing now lets you look at the group list according to country and state. Discover groups in your vicinity, and share your deal information with them directly!
Co-Investment Improvements - Co-Invested deals from another group will now show your group's logo, and not the logo of the originating group.
DECLINED DEAL EMAILS
We believe that entrepreneurs deserve to get an email when their application has been declined. And you deserve an easy tool to send them with:
Create a Declined Note Template - Create a Declined Note template directly from Group Preferences, and use it as a basis for every declined notice.
Send Individual Declined Emails - When moving a single deal to the Inactive folder, you will be given a chance to write a personalized note to the entrepreneur, based on your template.
Send Bulk Declined Emails - When moving multiple deals to the Inactive folder, you will be given a chance to write a generic declined note based on your template and send it to all the right entrepreneurs.
FULL SPEED AHEAD!
As always, we strive to make Angelsoft faster, more reliable, and more enjoyable for our users. This time we worked on cleaning some old code, to improve speed and responsiveness.
The Deal Dashboard - The Deal Dashboard now loads faster than ever!
Deal Messages and Documents - We have optimized Deal Messages and Deal Documents to allow for faster loading.
As always, we look forward to your feedback, and hope that you will benefit from these new features! Please visit our blog and sound off, if you'd like to share your comments with others.
David's "Insiders Guide to Angel Investing" provided entrepreneurs with valuable information on what they can do to secure angel funding and also gave an early look at the forthcoming entrepreneurs hub on Angelsoft!
The newly formed Midland, Michigan-based BlueWater Angels has made quite an entrance on to the angel investment stage. Started in October 2007, the group has already heard presentations from two companies and has announced plans to invest more than $1 million in promising mid-Michigan companies on an annual basis. They will work closely with the MidMichigan Innovation Center, a private, non-profit organization supporting entrepreneurs and start-up companies with resources, services, flexible facilities and entrepreneur training.
"MMIC got involved in establishing an angel investment network because capital was always the top issue facing our tenant companies," said Brent Case, executive director of MMIC. "Having the BlueWater Angels in our backyard makes helping current tenant companies and attracting new companies to the region more feasible. Now mid-Michigan companies do not have to go out of state or to other regions in Michigan to secure capital."
BlueWater Angels is using Angelsoft to accept business plans and manage the group's activities. Interested companies can apply to the group here.
They have quickly become one of the more active groups on the system and we are excited to have them aboard!
We're proud to present Angelsoft 2.4. This release includes many great new features we think you'll enjoy. We have 175 updates in total, including 111 bug fixes, 56 improvements, and 8 new features. For the complete release notes click here. We've made some big improvements to the entrepreneur application process. We encourage you to try and submit a new application to your group to see how much better it is!
VIDEO PITCHES
Ever wonder who was behind a new submission or wished you could see a live demonstration of the product? Well now you can! Entrepreneurs can now upload or record a short video pitch, up to 5 minutes in length, which you can watch directly on Angelsoft.
Upload or Record Video with Webcam
Entrepreneurs can upload a previously prepared video file in one of 14 popular formats, or record a new pitch using their webcam. Angelsoft allows them to preview the video, delete and record again, until they are ready to save and submit to the group.
Finding Deals with Videos
Deals with video have the gray [VIDEO] indicator following the deal name on the Deal List. They also have an indicator in all New Submissions notices, Deal Alert emails and Deal Event invitations concerning them. This way you can quickly identify which of your new submissions contain a video pitch.
Watching a Video
Group members can watch a video pitch directly from the Deal Dashboard or expand it to full-screen view.
ENTREPRENEUR FEATURES
Funding Application Manager
Entrepreneurs can now easily manage their applications in a single place if they apply to more than one group.
Additional Documents Manager
Entrepreneurs can now upload additional documents in addition to submitting them through e-mail, so they won't overload deal members with e-mail messages.
Improved Upload Experience
Entrepreneur document uploading has been improved with these important functions: A progress bar for uploads, the ability to cancel uploads that are taking too long, and a warning when documents have been uploaded but not yet submitted to the group. Documents can also be easily deleted and replaced. This allows entrepreneur to take charge of their documents and make sure that the latest version is always available to the group.
GROUP FEATURES
Smart "New Submission" Sub-Folders
Where do new submissions come from? Three new smart sub-folders under New Submissions will tell you whether a deal was added by your administrators, through your website, or referred from another group.
Create New Deal from the Deal List Creating a new deal is a common operation for group managers. So we decided to put it right there on the Deal List, where group managers usually spend most of their time.
"Refer" and "Co-Invest" Recipient List
When you Refer or Co-Invest a deal to another group, you can now click to see a list of Group Administrators your message will go to. Did you promise Bill that you'll refer a deal to his group? Now you can make sure that Bill is actually on the receiving end!
One-Line Pitch
There's now one more required field on all entrepreneur applications: the one-line pitch. This one line description of the deal will go on the Deal List, instead of the truncated Business Summary, and should allow for better and quicker sorting.
BUGS AND IMPROVEMENTS
Group Administrators Are Now Always Deal Admins
Fixing a previous issue with Deal Admin privileges, all Group Administrators will now have implicit Deal Admin rights. The Deal Admin checkboxes for them will always be checked and disabled.
Improved Messaging Stability
We've sorted through multiple previous issues with messaging, including compatibility with different mail servers, and various errors involving Deal Messages. We believe that this new release will be much more stable when e-mailing through Angelsoft.
Application Errors Fixes
Using the information from the error tracking features that we've implemented in the previous release, we've located and resolved some of those hard to locate bugs that have been causing Errors to pop up for some users. We believe that this release will be even more stable.
Once again, we’d like to thank you all for your support, ongoing involvement, and enthusiasm: they keep us going.
We look forward to hearing your thoughts about this new release in the comments section on our blog.
Angelsoft was recently written up in the European Business Angel Network's (EBAN) bi-annual magazine as their exclusively endorsed software provider. Referencing the new 2.0 version of the platform, they are quoted as saying:
“[Angelsoft] greatly speeds up deal submission, due diligence and collaboration, while giving angel network managers a powerful set of tools to operate their groups as they desire.”
They go on to write about the benefits of Angelsoft,
“The software is flexible enough to support any angel network's existing process, and helps groups become much more efficient, saving time and removing friction in the investment process.”
As the exclusive software provider for EBAN, we are proud to have their support. For EBAN members, our multi-lingual team is available to provide training and to answer any questions. Contact them at support@angelsoft.net.
