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.
In this release we wanted to make sure that we delivered some long requested functionality for both investors and entrepreneurs.
This release includes 293 improvements, out of which 214 are bug fixes, 4 are new features, and 23 are user experience improvements. You can read the full notes here.
Below are the highlights:
INVESTMENT TAB
Collaborate with the entrepreneur to track round progress, terms, and investments as they come in.
Investor-Only Tab - The Investment tab will only show for administrators and members who have committed funds to that deal. It will only show after the entrepreneur has reviewed Investment information.
Collaborate on Terms - Deal Terms are often reached through collaboration. For this reason both the Entrepreneur and Group Administrators can update the Deal Terms.
Manage Investment Amounts- In this release we are giving entrepreneurs the tool to update investment amounts, and to add Other Investors, to help keep the investment picture up-to-date for all parties.
Investor-Only Documents - Entrepreneurs can now upload term sheets, quarterly reports, and other documents that will only be visible to administrators and to members who have set their interest level to Funds Committed or Funds Transferred.
Investments Pie Chart - All sides get to see the percentage of this round that their group holds.
ENTREPRENEUR COMMUNICATION
These tools for both Investors and Entrepreneurs will help facilitate open communication.
Edit Declined Note Salutations - You can now edit the salutation and the entrepreneur’s name when writing a Declined Note.
Share Review Anonymously - Members can now choose to share their rating and review anonymously with an entrepreneur. The new rating will show up on the entrepreneur’s new News Feed.
Entrepreneur Email Tool - Entrepreneurs can now email groups they’ve applied to directly from their Application Manager using the Deal Room email.
Import Previous Application - Entrepreneurs can now import the data from another Angelsoft application at any point in the process, so groups get better information faster.
Entrepreneur’s News Feed - The Entrepreneur Funding Manager now includes a news feed that gives the entrepreneur greater visibility into the funding process.
ADDITIONAL IMPROVEMENTS
Some user requests made it in as additional improvements:
Reply to New Submissions Notices - From now on, you can reply to New Submission emails, and your email will be sent to the new deal’s message forum, group administrators, and interested investors.
Optimized Referrals - Deal referrals used to be fast or slow depending on the size of documents and attachments. From now on they should all be instantaneous.
Unlimited Folders on Group Documents - Users who have dozens of folders and documents in their Group Documents vault can now more easily move documents with a scrollable drop down menu.
Video Hover Issue Solved - Some users have complained that parts of the video would show through some dialogs on the Deal Dash, making them hard to use. This should not happen.
We hope you’ll find the new functionality useful. As always we are standing by to hear your feedback, requests, and suggestions.
Most Angel groups do not hold meetings during July and August, suspending activities until September. While you furiously work through the summer in your air-conditioned office, Angels put the fast paced world of startups on hold. If you need to raise funds NOW, you are a bit out of luck. However, the summer is a great time to get the fundraising process going.
Group Managers, often the only paid employee of an Angel Group, continue to work through the summer to find deals for September. Because the group isn’t meeting, they have more time to read submissions as well as browse through the Investor Community. While you may not get a face-to-face until September, the summer is a good opportunity to reach Group Managers when they are the most relaxed and the least busy.
During these months, you may notice that the number of views in your application manager is a little lower than usual. These views will likely be from Group Managers looking for September prospects.
16,000 investors across 450 investment groups use Angelsoft, but what should you expect when you promote your deal to the investor community?
Companies referred from the investor community are TWICE as likely to get a meeting and TWICE as likely to get an investment than those that only make direct submissions to groups. 21% of submissions to the investor community receive at least 1 referral to an Angel group for further funding consideration.
Right now, submissions with a video average 22 views. That’s 22 serious investors, likely from multiple groups, which are reading through those applications to see if they might be interested. Getting a deal in front of that many investors in such a short period of time is an unrivaled opportunity.
Submissions without a video average 13 views per deal, 70% fewer views than those with videos.
The best way to make your deal stand out is to take the application process seriously. We have found that entrepreneurs who didn’t feel they got their money’s worth had spelling mistakes, didn’t fill out every section of the application (including financials), didn’t understand the type of deals Angels invest in (you can read about those here,here, and here), and lacked a video pitch. These are all vitally important opportunities for you to get an investor’s attention. As an entrepreneur, you’re competing against deals that have all of these components filled out perfectly; make sure you have given the same attention to your own application.
Angelsoft customer San Joaquin Angels only launched their angel group 6 months ago, yet they are already a highly active investment group, and they are getting a lot of attention because of it.
The first article they were mentioned in recently profiles the group and how they have attracted top quality members and the member’s attitudes on investing. In particular, their attention to helping good entrepreneurs and not necessarily only being in it for financial gain. Read here: http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080605/A_BIZ/806050320
Portfolio.com posted an article on-line yesterday talking about how the credit crisis has positively affected angel investing across the U.S. Angelsoft customer Eric Rosenfeld of the Oregon Angel Fund in particular mentions how his fund is still able to raise money and promote entrepreneurs.
Also mentioned in the article is Angelsoft customer New Vantage Group, led by John May, the current chairman of the Angel Capital Association. He mentions that despite the credit crunch, deal size has remained the same or become larger.
It is interesting for us to note that both entrepreneurs listed in the article who were successful in raising money, TalkShoe and Acuity Mobile, did so through the Angelsoft platform.
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.
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.
In a special section of the Wall Street Journal, expert angel investor Bill Payne talks about the success rate that angel groups experience - and why angels that arrange themselves in groups typically have better returns.
The article also talks about statistics that were compiled by the Angel Capital Association last year.
