Impact Angel Group Gearing Up to Invest for Colorado Flood Recovery

Posted on September 16, 2013 by Elizabeth Kraus

Our thoughts are with the entrepreneurs, investors, startup community members and thousands of other people who have been affected by the flood in Colorado. The Impact Angel Group would like to help and is conducting a survey to figure out the best way to do that. Below is a press release about it. If you have any questions, comments or ideas, please leave a comment or contact us.

(Boulder, CO) September 16, 2013 – The Impact Angel Group, an angel investment group based in Boulder, Colorado, is gathering information from homeowners and businesses in need of flood-related financial support, as well as startup businesses with ideas to assist with Colorado flood recovery efforts. The group will be soliciting information via their website and from other startup community organizations, and will announce a detailed plan of action after reviewing this information. Home and business owners in need of flood-related repair, and capital-seeking startup businesses with ideas to support flood recovery and prevention, are encouraged to complete the group’s survey.
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Colorado Flood | Need Help? Want to Help? Read More Here

Posted on September 14, 2013 by Elizabeth Kraus

Our thoughts are with all of the victims of the 100-year Colorado Flood.

Despite the overwhelming need and offers to help today, it is surprisingly hard to find a way to plug in or to find available resources for help. Here are a few things we’ve found:

Need help?

  1. Here is a list of responding agencies and a list of Colorado Flood resources.
  2. Additionally, my best suggestion is to post your need for help on twitter by using hashtags (#coloradoflood, #boulderflood, #fortcollinsflood, etc.) so people can see it. (Example: Need water and help pulling up carpet in Niwot for #coloradoflood. Contact me if you are nearby.). There are tons of people on twitter waiting to help (myself included). If you don’t have a twitter account, sign up or contact us and we’ll do our best to post it for you.

Want to help?

  1. The best way to help is to make a monetary donation:
    1. Foothills United Way and The Community Foundation of Boulder County are partnering to raise money through the Foothills Flood Relief Fund.
    2. The Longmont Community Foundation is raising money through the St. Vrain Flooding Relief Fund.
    3. HelpColoradoNow lists several other agencies to give to. 
  2. Sign up to volunteer at HelpColoradoNow.org. There will be many needs for help long after the TV cameras stop covering this. Sign up now to help in the future.
  3. The Well is working with the National Guard and they need people to volunteer to do laundry and bring snacks.
  4. Are you an accredited investor? Since our businesses and homeowners will have far more need than our banks, FEMA and charities will be able to provide, the Impact Angel Group is organizing ideas and interest for making private loans and investments to support homeowners and businesses affected by the flood. If you have any interest in angel investing to support the flood, please contact us.

Other ideas? Please leave a comment.

 

 

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Angel Investing on 9/20 | Learn How to Assess Startup Teams with David Gold and Mark Kreloff

Posted on September 12, 2013 by Elizabeth Kraus

The management team is perhaps the single most important criteria to consider when choosing an angel investment, but how do you know whether you’ve found an all-star startup team?

Join David Gold from Access Venture Partners and Mark Kreloff from Kreloff Equity Partners to learn how to assess startup teams!

We’ve invited three prospective investments to pitch (sign up for the event to find out who) for this interactive workshop. There will be three, seven-minute pitches followed by Q & A, and then a closed-door investor only session with Mark and David to discuss the founding team.

Event Details:

Angel Investing: Assessing Startup Founders and Finding All-Star Teams
Who: Accredited investors only. Not accredited? Check out our other events.
When: September 20, 2013, 10:30am – 12:30pm
Where: EKS&H Boulder office
Cost: $125
NOTE: This event is free to Impact Angel Group Members (only $250/year). Become a member.

REGISTER FOR THE EVENT

Hope to see you there!!

Upcoming events from other organizations in our startup community:

1) Cleantech and Social Impact Shark Tank – Denver – 9/18
2) Rocky Mountain Life Science Investor and Partnering Conference – Denver – 9/18+19
3) Rockies Venture Club Terms Sheets Workshop – Denver – 9/26

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FEEDING YOUR STARTUP | The Importance of Choosing the Right Angel Investors and Investment Strategy

Posted on August 27, 2013 by Sheila Lamont

Today we have a post from our deal flow manager, Sheila Lamont.

At the last two of our Summer Learning Series events, some angel investors shared their own perspectives and experiences. Surprisingly enough, the advice seemed to circle back to the concept that the process for choosing investors (and co-investors) needs to be given as much attention and priority as the process of vetting potential startup investments.

As one presenter, Dr. Floyd Taub – physician, entrepreneur and angel investor – wisely analogized – having a startup is like having a baby.  Exactly what and how much you feed it (as well as who might be feeding it) is very important.  As Dr. Taub said:

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August 15: What to Look For in a Startup Team/How to Choose Investors

Posted on August 7, 2013 by Elizabeth Kraus

Our next outdoor learning series event is coming up next Thursday, August 15th and we have some other great angel investing events planned for the coming months. Check it out!

Next Upcoming Event: 

Angel Investor/Entrepreneur Outdoor Learning Series:
What to Look For in a Startup Team/How to Choose Investors
When: Thursday, August 15, 2013 – 9:15am – 10:15am (followed by an optional, informal walk-and-learn along the creek from 10:15 to 11:15am)
Where: Central Park, 13th and Canyon in Downtown Boulder
Cost: $15
Sign up.

The founding team is critical to startup success, but how do angel investors know if it’s a team worth investing in? And how do entrepreneurs know whether they’ve found the right investors? Join us for a conversation with angel investors and entrepreneurs to find out:

  • The top criteria they look for when assessing startup founders
  • How they determine and deal with talent gaps and transitions (hiring new C-level talent, decisions to remove founders, etc.)
  • How they choose investors or co-investors
  • Lessons learned from their positive (and not so positive) experiences
    Sign up. Continue reading →
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A Few Thoughts on Angel Investor and Entrepreneur Failure

Posted on July 19, 2013 by Elizabeth Kraus

With COIN’s Glorious Failure Innovation Challenge (their summit on August 28-29th) and some recent posts on risk and entrepreneurial failure by Venture Capitalists, Brad Feld and David Gold, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about the role of entrepreneurial failure in our startup community. I’ve been pretty vocal about how my entrepreneurial failure has shaped me, but thanks to some words of wisdom from Carrie Van Heyst, she challenged me to think about how adversity to failure affects the broader global entrepreneur community. Here are just a few of the things I found:

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Ask an Angel on July 18th and More Great Colorado Angel Investor Events

Posted on July 1, 2013 by Elizabeth Kraus

If you are looking for angel investors or promising entrepreneurs to invest in, there are a few great Colorado events coming up!

The Impact Angel Group’s  next outdoor learning event will take place on July 18th:

Ask an Angel Investor
Thursday, July 18, 2013 – 9:15am – 10:15am (followed by an optional, informal walk-and-learn along the creek from 10:15 to 11:15am) Sign up.
Are you considering becoming an angel investor or looking for angel investors to fund your business? Join a group of local angels for a moderated and interactive Q and A session outdoors in Central Park in Downtown Boulder. Topics will include:

  • How these local angel investors find and choose potential investments
  • Why they chose their current investments
  • The hard lessons they learned from prior investments
  • How they find and identify all-star startup teams
  • The investment term they do and don’t consider

Sign up.

And here are five more great events! NOTE: If you sign up, please tell them that the Impact Angel Group sent you.
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Pitching to Angel Investors | A Slide by Slide Guide

Posted on June 13, 2013 by Elizabeth Kraus

I’m heading to Telluride this week to speak at the new Telluride Venture Accelerator and I was asked to talk about what angels want to see in an investor pitch. After thinking about it, I realized I wasn’t completely sure.

I’ve seen hundreds of entrepreneurs pitch in hundreds of different pitch formats and when I searched online, the results were equally inconclusive. So….. I decided it would be easiest to just create our own suggestions for pitching. The following is the new Impact Angel Group investor pitch format compiled through my own experience as an investor, the best of the existing resources I found (special thanks to George Deriso for sharing the format he teaches to University of Colorado MBA students) and insight from my colleague Sheila Lamont who sees pitches on a daily basis. Feel free to re-purpose and distribute, and if you have any feedback, please comment!

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Angel Investing | Learning the Art of Saying NO

Posted on June 7, 2013 by Elizabeth Kraus

I once heard someone say that the hardest part about angel investing is that you will probably have to say “no” 99% of the time. This aspect of being a responsible angel investor is especially difficult for me. I seem to have inherited this unhealthy sense of responsibility and always feel like I need to help everyone who crosses my path. This is both my best and worst quality, but I realize that in order to be a successful angel investor and maintain some sense of health, family balance and sanity (I am writing this after my third consecutive week of sleep deprivation), I need to improve my ability to say “no”. Here are some thoughts to help myself and similarly sleep deprived angel investors everywhere:
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June 6th Starts Angel Investor and Entrepreneur Learning Series Outdoors in the Park

Posted on May 31, 2013 by Elizabeth Kraus

Hello all. The sun is shining and it’s a perfect time of year to get outside!

The Impact Angel Group is partnering with Take it OUT! Fitness to encourage Colorado entrepreneurs and angel investors to get out of the office and find time to exercise! These one-hour sit down sessions will be held outdoors in Central Park in downtown Boulder and will be followed by an optional one-hour walk to continue the discussion.

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