Alert!Web, a Web based e-mail alert service from Avin Software Seeks Help from Interested Parties
Raja Sundarigari ([email protected])
Sat, 18 Apr 1998 21:17:15 -0400
Hi Folks,
As promised in my previous weeks e-mail, I will contribite once a week
to the VentCap SIG. Well what a week. I got around 6 e-mails inquiring
about various lendings and borrowings, so way to go!!!
Continuing on the subject of Angel Investors:
The Saratoga Boys Club, in the valley is a group of investors.
Incidently this club does not, despite it's name, exclude women. It
was started by Marshall Cox, a semiconductor veteran. He and about 50
friends and neighbours invested anywhere from $100,000 to $1.5million,
in each of two-dozen ventures. Some have done well. Each 25cent
investment in Redwood Design Automation paid out $51 when the company
was acquired by Cadence Design. But some investments, like Terra
Microsystems, never got off the ground. Just something I learned in my
competitive tennis days, you win some you loose some, but the
important thing is to keep going for it, everytime, all the time.
By connecting angel investors to each other as well as to investment
targets, some groups have created virtual venture capital firms. Band
of Angels, started by nuclear physicist turned venture capitalist Hans
Severiens, has 100 members worth about $1billion all together.They
meet once a month for dinner at the Los Altos Country Club and hear
pitches from two or three investment candiates.
Angel investors and VC firms are not mutually exclusive. There is a
growing need for both sources of financing. A decade ago, many venture
firms had $10million to $40million to invest. With their incredible
success in spotting hot ideas and the next Wall Street wonders, many
firms have attracted 10 times as much money. But they have added few
new partners, which means they must make larger bets on about the same
number of enterprises. The average venture capital investment now tops
$5million. That leaves plenty of room for angels to fly in "seed
capital" to get the plan or prototype product going.
So all you folks there, as Sir John Templeton, of the Templeton funds
remarked, "We are in the midst of the largest bull market, the best of
economic times and I feel glad that I was given the opportunity to
experience this in my lifetime,"lets get those ideas flowing and lets
propel this SIG of Venture Capital to newer heights.
Until next week,
Vivek Kumar
e-mail:[email protected]