Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 27, 2023

Most universities have a file of patents from project work that they are willing to license to any entrepreneur for business commercialization, with little or no cost up front. These often lead to angel investors and venture capital investments later, or connections to local company venture funds for selected focus and technology areas.

Entrepreneur 110

Entrepreneur Class Startup Resource 110

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 11, 2022

After many years of working with angel investors seriously trying to find new ventures worthy of their hard-earned money, I find their frustration often exceeds that of entrepreneurs sincerely looking for financial help. The most investable ventures stem from painful needs by customers who have money to spend.

Entrepreneur 108

Entrepreneur Invest Funding Patents 108

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 25, 2014

Don’t bash the competition. Every investor knows how vulnerable a new startup is to competitors, so investors always ask about your sustainable competitive advantage in the marketplace. That says you are competitive today, have a real barrier to entry, and the potential to remain ahead of the competition for a long time.

Entrepreneur 110

Entrepreneur Competition Patents Resource 110

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 6, 2014

Finally I realized that Venture Capital and Angel investors are actually humans, despite some views to the contrary. Registered patents and other intellectual property. The strengths of those early relationships can override all of these results indicators, and let you fly with the Angels without a second look when the time is right.

Entrepreneur 107

Entrepreneur Angel Social Media Patents 107

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 24, 2012

Every new startup I know dreams of being funded early by one of the 318,000 active Angel investors in the USA alone. Most of these investors are members of Angel groups that have a rigorous filtering and screening process, to select the top 3% and most fundable proposals. File a patent and trademarks to show real intellectual property.

Angel 104

Angel Screening Summary Startup 104

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 11, 2016

Angel investors are still the lifeblood of early-stage startups, despite the surge of activity in crowdfunding and an increasing early interest from venture capitalists. According to the Angel Capital Association , at least 300,000 people have made angel investments in the last two years, totaling $24 billion in the U.S.

Angel 65

Angel Startup Technical Review Social Media 65

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 15, 2022

Finally I realized that venture capital and angel investors are actually humans, despite some views to the contrary. Registered patents and other intellectual property. The strengths of those early relationships can override all of these results indicators, and let you fly with the angels without a second look when the time is right.

Entrepreneur 111

Entrepreneur Social Media Patents Mentor 111

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 10, 2021

A while back I received a discouraging note from an entrepreneur with a patent and a medical software application who couldn’t find a dime of investment, and was grousing that seed funding just wasn’t available anymore. I’ve asked this question many times of presenters in Angel meetings, and often get a blank look.

Software Review 123

Software Review Seed Funding Funding Startup 123

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 27, 2018

Don’t bash the competition. Every investor knows how vulnerable a new startup is to competitors, so investors always ask about your sustainable competitive advantage in the marketplace. That says you are competitive today, have a real barrier to entry, and the potential to remain ahead of the competition for a long time.

Competition 51

Competition Patents Resource Entrepreneur 51

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 26, 2012

The founders now need a $1M Angel investment to do the marketing for a national NewCo rollout, build a team to manage the rollout, and maybe even pay themselves a salary. The value of patents and trademarks is not certifiable, especially if you are only at the provisional stage. Let’s not take any credit here for NewCo.

Startup 108

Startup Invest Patents Outsource Development 108

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 14, 2020

After many years of working with angel investors seriously trying to find new ventures worthy of their hard-earned money, I find their frustration often exceeds that of entrepreneurs sincerely looking for financial help. The most investable ventures stem from painful needs by customers who have money to spend.

Funding 123

Funding Startup Entrepreneur Invest 123

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 30, 2020

Most universities have a file of patents from project work that they are willing to license to any entrepreneur for business commercialization, with little or no cost up front. These often lead to angel investors and venture capital investments later, or connections to local company venture funds for selected focus and technology areas.

Class 124

Class Startup Resource Mentor 124

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 13, 2020

Finally I realized that venture capital and angel investors are actually humans, despite some views to the contrary. Registered patents and other intellectual property. The strengths of those early relationships can override all of these results indicators, and let you fly with the angels without a second look when the time is right.

Entrepreneur 126

Entrepreneur Social Media Patents Mentor 126

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 23, 2010

Every new startup I know dreams of being funded by an angel investor. Over the past 10 years, I have had the opportunity to see how the process works, several times from the startup side, and more recently from the angel perspective (as a member of an angel group selection committee). Prepare an investment-grade business plan.

Angel 89

Angel Funding Technical Review Startup 89

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 18, 2022

If you are not in that rare category of known and proven entrepreneurs, you should avoid the following list of my top ten turnoffs that I have personally experienced as an angel investor. They only want a quick overview of the product, not detailed features and patent secrets. Investors invest in the jockey, more than the horse.

Technical Review 109

Technical Review Startup Statistics Social Media 109

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 11, 2015

As an angel investor, I hear many entrepreneurs making negative comments about competitors or asserting they don’t have any competitors. They don’t realize that knocking competitors is assessed as a weakness and denying that you have any competition suggests there is no market for your solution.

Capital 63

Capital Competition Case Study Patents 63

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 26, 2015

As an angel investor, what I’m looking for is key data from your business plan, including financial projections, how much money you are looking for and a quantification of my potential return. Include your sustainable competitive advantage. Project revenues, costs and investment expectations.

Summary 101

Summary Patents Technical Review Competition 101

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 30, 2014

Did anybody hold patents that would prevent us from using this technology? I seldom hire patent attorneys during due diligence but this was too important. Meredith Perry came up with the idea for uBeam while still in college at University of Pennsylvania and like many great inventors won her school’s business plan competition.

Technical Review 418

Technical Review Software Review CTO Hire IP 418

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 8, 2017

Based on my experience as an angel investor and a mentor to dozens of entrepreneurs, having no business plan is the quickest way to define yourself as just a dreamer, or at best a hobbyist. For example, “I just patented a new cell-phone technology that will double battery life for half the cost.

Startup 65

Startup Writing Patents Competition 65

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 14, 2015

The bad news is that many are already doing it, with competition growing, so the longer you wait, the less chance you have of getting there first. In a new startup, there is tremendous competitive value in registering intellectual property early, but you don’t need to contract these tasks to expensive experts any longer.

Startup 108

Startup Search Engine Optimization Social Media Outsource Development 108

InfoChachkie

SEPTEMBER 13, 2016

How much Angel and institutional money did they collectively raise? Are funds available to invest in student businesses? Ask: How many patents were filed by students and faculty during each of the past five years? Is there a venture competition with cash prizes?

Venture Capital 100

Venture Capital Technical Review Class Patents 100

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 9, 2010

Middle Market Investment Banking. Los Angeles-based executive search for emerging growth companies. Tech Coast Angels Fast Pitch - February 24th - UCLA. www.pitchtheangels.com) Join Tech Coast Angels members and other start up investors at the 5th Annual Los Angeles Fast Pitch Competition. Advertisers.

Southern California 113

Southern California Tech Coast Angels IP Orange County 113

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 21, 2020

If you are not in that rare category of known and proven entrepreneurs, you should avoid the following list of my top ten turnoffs that I have personally experienced as an angel investor. They only want a quick overview of the product, not detailed features and patent secrets. Investors invest in the jockey, more than the horse.

Technical Review 124

Technical Review Statistics Startup Social Media 124

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 17, 2013

A while back I received a discouraging note from an entrepreneur with a patent and a medical software application who couldn’t find a dime of investment, and was grousing that seed funding just wasn’t available anymore. I’ve asked this question many times of presenters in Angel meetings, and often get a blank look.

Software Review 106

Software Review Funding Startup Seed Funding 106

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 31, 2015

Here are the most common elevator pitch missteps I see often as an angel investor and advisor to startups, with some quick advice on how to address each: Insist on leading with the story of the company. Your second sentence should acknowledge competition, but highlight your added value. You don’t have time for any story at this point.

Startup 104

Startup Summary Patents Examples 104

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 27, 2012

As a member of the local Angel group selection committee, I’ve seen a lot of startup presentations to investors, and I’ve never seen one that was too short - maybe short on content, but not short on pages! Describe your technology patents and “secret sauce”. Competition and sustainable advantage. Opportunity sizing.

Slides 99

Slides Competition Sample Sales 99

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 1, 2016

Most universities have a file of patents from project work that they are willing to license to any entrepreneur for business commercialization, with little or no cost up front. These often lead to angel investors and venture capital investments later, or connections to local company venture funds for selected focus and technology areas.

Entrepreneur 55

Entrepreneur Capital Class Startup 55

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 27, 2018

As an occasional angel investor, I always ask for a business pitch to get me in the mood. This implies high odds of a scalable business, simply needing an investment to lead to success. Intellectual property and sustainable competitive advantage. Specific investment size request, and equity offered.

Product 58

Product Slides Entrepreneur Invest 58

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 18, 2016

I see it happen often in my angel investment group, and you can see it happen almost every week on the Shark Tank TV show. Patents filed, even provisional, as well as trademarks, copyrights and trade secrets count as barriers to entry and sustainable competitive advantages. Registered intellectual property adds value.

Startup 71

Startup Patents Invest Blogging 71

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 1, 2016

After many years of working with angel investors seriously trying to find new ventures worthy of their hard-earned money, I find their frustration often exceeds that of entrepreneurs sincerely looking for financial help. The most investable ventures stem from painful needs by customers who have money to spend.

Entrepreneur 57

Entrepreneur Invest Funding Patents 57

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 10, 2011

As a member of the local Angel group selection committee, I’ve seen a lot of startup presentations to investors, and I’ve never seen one that was too short - maybe short on content, but not short on pages! Describe your technology patents and “secret sauce”. Competition and sustainable advantage. Opportunity sizing.

Slides 93

Slides Competition Sample Sales 93

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 10, 2012

A while back I received a discouraging note from an entrepreneur with a patent and a medical software application who couldn’t find a dime of investment, and was grousing that seed funding just wasn’t available anymore. I’ve asked this question many times of presenters in angel meetings, and often get a blank look.

Seed Funding 100

Seed Funding Software Review Entrepreneur Funding 100

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 19, 2010

As a member of the local angel group Selection Committee, I’ve seen a lot of startup presentations to investors, and I’ve never seen one that was too short - maybe short on content, but not short on pages! Describe your technology patents and “secret sauce”. Competition and sustainable advantage. Opportunity sizing.

Slides 94

Slides Competition Sample Sales 94

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 9, 2011

A while back I received a discouraging note from an entrepreneur with a patent and a medical software application who couldn’t find a dime of investment, and was grousing that seed funding just wasn’t available anymore. I’ve asked this question many times of presenters in angel meetings, and often get a blank look.

Software Review 98

Software Review Funding Seed Funding Startup 98

socalTECH

JUNE 23, 2009

Semiconductor startups seem to be quite rare in today's environment, with few companies being funded or launched, due both to the difficulty of bringing products to market, lack of investment capital, as well as lots of established, large companies in the industry. We're now funded by a bunch of angels. Ghz wireless market.

Patents 100

Patents Sample Technical Review Pricing 100

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 8, 2015

If you are not in that rare category of known and proven entrepreneurs, you should avoid the following list of my top ten turnoffs that I have personally experienced as an angel investor. They only want a quick overview of the product, not detailed features and patent secrets. Investors invest in the jockey, more than the horse.

Technical Review 109

Technical Review Entrepreneur Startup Statistics 109

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 25, 2016

If you expect an equity investment from reputable investors for your new startup, you need to know the boundaries that often limit their interest. As an active angel investor, here are some key ones I have seen, with some guidance on how to improve your odds. Secret sauce' or competitive advantage is not clear.

Funding 57

Funding Social Media Startup Patents 57