Angel investors look for teams of high-quality entrepreneurs with a track record of leadership and performance – either in the company’s specific industry or in prior entrepreneurial ventures.  We also look at your team’s passion for and commitment to the new business idea, and your ability to inspire confidence among future stakeholders, including employees, potential customers, and investors.  As the investors will be working with you as partners, your team’s credibility is essential. In addition, your team must be open to and comfortable with receiving input provided by angel investors.

Angel investors typically invest in solutions that address major problems for significantly large target markets (i.e. a $100+ million market).  Your company must demonstrate a strategy to claim significant share of this market (i.e. 20%+).  There are plenty of great business ideas – but not all businesses will generate returns that justify angel investor financing.  Therefore, providing a solution to a problem with a large potential market is essential.

Funds must be used to accelerate your company’s achievement of key milestones that increase the company’s value.  Angel investors will fund activities that include research and product development, building a sales and marketing infrastructure and hiring key executives.

Angel investors look for companies that can grow quickly and manage the scale necessary to succeed.  Your company must demonstrate a plan to generate significant profits beyond the initial product idea.  Do you have a strategy to achieve multiple sources of revenue? Investors also require well-conceived financial projections, based on sound assumptions, demonstrating consistent profits and cash flow growth.

Your company must have some proprietary features that distinguish you from potential competitors or provide barriers to entry that prevent other companies from capturing your customers with a similar offering.  Attributes that convey competitive advantage include intellectual property protection, exclusive licenses, exclusive marketing and distribution relationships, strong brands, scarce human resources (i.e. knowledge and skills), and access to scarce raw materials.

Our group members – all accredited individual investors – have significant executive experience in a variety of fields.  One of the benefits of working with angel investors is the active coaching and contact network that such investors can provide.  As such, there must be a fit between members of our group members and your idea.

Angel investors typically prefer to invest in first-of-a-kind new ideas, rather than incremental enhancements to common products and services.  Is this a nice-to-have, or a need-to-have product or service?  However, we approach highly complex, esoteric technologies with caution.  The concept behind the technology must be proven and verifiable. Few investors support science projects therefore your project needs to demonstrate a clear path to commercialization.  Any breakthrough innovation must be accompanied by a strong business plan.