One of my AoA portfolio companies was acquired today by LSI Industries. http://www.nasdaq.com/article/lsi-industries-inc-announces-acquisition-of-virticus-corporation-20120319-00192
Virticus is an integrated set of products and services that reduce energy and maintenance costs by 30-50% through a communication and control system that allows the management of lights individually and collectively. It is a cost-effective solution that scales from 10 lights in a church parking lot …
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Clarisonic, a signature Alliance of Angels portfolio company, was acquired by L’Oreal at the end of 2011 (http://clarisonic.com/about_us/press_releases/press/claire_release_12_15_11.php). David Giuliani, the CEO of Clarisonic, was an AoA member at the time and brought the deal to the group. Naturally, many AoA members immediately invested; I was among them. Those fortunate enough to be in that first round received …
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My friend, Bill Carleton, posted a very thoughtful blog on Crowdfunding and angel investing: http://www.geekwire.com/2012/angels-crowds
Bill has teed up some excellent questions. See my response.
While you should definitely read the entire post, here is brief excerpt:
Crowding out angels from startup financings?
March 3, 2012 at 1:52 pm by William Carleton
As early as next week, we may know …
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NPR ran a great story on Angels and entrepreneurs in Milwaukee. Worth hearing. http://www.npr.org/2012/02/10/146697508/angel-investors-and-startups-mingle-in-milwaukee
This is another example of government beginning to understand the impact of the benefits of high-growth startups backed by angels. It is good public policy to encourage angels to help create companies through extension of the zero percent capital gains (Extension of 100% gains exemption on …
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Dan: “Hi. I’m Dan and I’m and addict.”
AA Group: “Hi Dan”
Dan: “It’s been one month since I did my last Angel investment.”
AA Group: “Way to go Dan.”
Dan: “But I’m weak. I know that I’ve failed forty times in the last 6 years. I really need to make another Angel investment soon.”
AA Group: “Be strong, Dan”…
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To outside observers, it sometime seems that investors are very lucky when they get an exit and make a spectacular return. Those of us who invest regularly in startups, and then take an active role, know that there is a great deal more than luck involved. It’s really hard to have a startup survive to get to exit. There is …
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Crowdfunding is about to be approved by Congress and signed into law by the President. For those unfamiliar with the concept, you can read Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crowdfunding) or simply put it is raising money for startups, typically via the Internet, in small chunks from people who may never meet with or diligence the company. Crowdfunding has been used in …
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Sometimes things just happen. But rarely do they happen without many antecedents. And rarely do we see the antecedents until after they happen.
I believe that Cloud Computing has followed this pattern. The obvious antecedents are Moore’s Law (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moore%27s_law), the rapid drop in disk prices, the proliferation of virtualization, and the emergence of large, efficient datacenters. Much has …
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Should entrepreneurs be asked to pay angels and angel groups for the opportunity to present their business?
As the seed stage/angel asset class becomes more prominent and popular, this becomes an ever more frequent question. There was a blow up about a year ago when Jason Calacanis took on the Keiretsu Forum and the amount they charged early stage companies. …
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Carve outs for management is a tool that is often overlooked by boards in angel-backed companies. It is a tool that can be a critical in making an acquisition occur, but is difficult to get right. First of all, both management and the board are often too close and emotionally involved to make a clear decision.
For those that aren’t …
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