Almost a month ago, I sat down on the phone with Eric Rosenfeld, manager and co-founder of the Oregon Angel fund (OAF), to learn more about the early stage community in Portland. Eric is what you can call “heavily involved” in the early stage investing. Aside from OAF, he sits on the board of the Oregon Entrepreneurs network, and is a member of the Portland Angel Network, the Portland Venture Group, and the Oregon Sustainability Angels. On top of all that he still manages to find time to manage Capybara Ventures.

Now, for our chat:

EB: How would you describe the early-stage venture community in the Portland area?

ER: I would say on the investors side of things, that Portland is highly organized and extremely collaborative given its size. The Oregon entrepreneur network has been instrumental in putting a lot of the pieces in place. There are many options for investors, as there are many different groups and models to get involved with. There are Angel funds, Angel networks, and even a yearly venture competition. There are over 55 investors in the 2008 Oregon Angel Fund and we’ll shoot to invest $2.4m in 4 Oregon companies over the next 9 months.

On the entrepreneur side of the equation, the OEN has really made the process of obtaining funding accessible. Resources such as pitch coaching and business plan reviews are available, which keeps the quality of the presentations high. Also, there are many different investment groups to apply to, so the chances of meeting a match are much higher.

EB: What roll do you see syndication taking?

ER: With the entrepreneur’s permission, we’re sharing deals more frequently - mostly in the Pacific Northwest. Right now we are syndicating almost monthly using Angelsoft within the Portland region, but it tapers off very quickly outside of our area. We’re starting to see some syndication into the Seattle Region with groups like the Bellingham Angels and Tacoma Angel Network. We are also a regional partner of Angel Venture Partners, through which we’ll be extending our reach across the west coast and the rest of the US.

The natural opportunity is for us to syndicate a deal with other regional angel groups AFTER we have made a decision to invest. That way the deals we are circulating are pre-qualified and other angel groups can have the confidence that there is a local partner who has done their homework and is investing. We see this as the most likely and effective method of syndication.

EB: How is Angelsoft specifically helping you syndicate?

ER: A very specific example would be in a deal we did recently with a local VC. We had done all of the due diligence, so we invited that VC into our deal room to be able to share in the documents and conversation. As we’re sharing lots of confidential information, its nice to be able to securely invite them into our system, where we can control who has access.

After the Oregon Angel Fund invests, we’ve been able to fill out most rounds very quickly with VCs and other angel groups. AngelSoft seems to be accelerating this process to everyone’s benefit.

Evan Bartlett :: Mar.24.2008
Angel Group Manager, Endorsements