Collaborate with the entrepreneur to track round progress, terms, and investments as they come in. The new Investment tab will only show for administrators and investors, and only after the entrepreneur has reviewed Investment information.
Collaborate on Terms
Both the Entrepreneur on the one hand, and Deal Leads and Group Administrators on the other, can update the Investment Terms, including Valuation, Stock vs. convertible debt, and more.
Manage Investment Amounts Both investors and entrepreneurs now have the tools to update investment amounts. Entrepreneurs can also add Other Investors, which means that everyone can get a round total even for investors outside of Angelsoft.
Investor-Only Documents The investment process requires multiple documents, such as term sheets, quarterly updates, etc. With Investor Documents, the entrepreneur can upload documents that will only be visible to administrators and to members who have their interest level set to Funds Committed or Funds Transferred.
Investments Pie Chart See the share that your group holds in this round.
Trust is everything in the world of angel investing. Better Member Profiles, visible to other group members, are one way to achieve it. The profiles now include:
Investor Bio
Members can describe themselves in their own words.
Contacts & Secondary Contacts
Never lose touch with your members. Members may use either their primary or secondary email in message forums.
LinkedIn Profile
Encourage members to post their LinkedIn profile on Angelsoft!
Investment Portfolio
Previous investments will show on each member's profile.
Investment Interests
Investors can select industries of interest.
Experience & Expertise
Investors can select industries and areas of expertise.
Participation Preferences
Investors can select group participation preferences, including doing Due Diligence, and Leading Deals
Admin-Only Notes
Administrators can add notes to any member profile, which will only be visible to other administrators of that group.
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.
