An Extinction Level Event for Seed Funding?

New venture funding is the lowest it’s been for a decade according to Nesta’s July report Venture Capital Now and After the Dotcom Crash and that’s not all…

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By Dr Smith – the Good Bad and Very Ugly

Most of the time the partnerships which form between founders and angel investors are productive but, in a few cases, I have seen it turn very destructive.

Companies that should have realized success have been held back by investor partnerships that have severely limited their potential or, in some cases, doomed them to failure…

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The 10-Minute Interview – Business Angel Eileen Burbidge

Business Angel and Internet technology expert, Eileen Burbidge, talks to Brett Tudor about why she became a business angel and what she looks for in the businesses she invests in.

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How to become a successful business angel

You’re wealthy and you’re ready to invest large sums of money to make a decent return –
so where do you invest your cash in 2010? Should you invest in a start-up business? Is angel investing right for you?

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If personality is no guide to start-up success – what is?

Business angels will already know this in their gut, but a recent survey of entrepreneurial literature has told us, here at iBusinessAngel, that personality is no guide to success.

Various firms have been developing psychometric tests to identify the personality traits of a successful entrepreneur and it turns out, that there is no agreement on whether any of these work. So what can research tell us?

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Cuts will increase the importance of business angels

Chancellor George Osborne’s announcement that the Business Department will bear the brunt of £6 billion cuts, could well signal difficult times to come for those businesses seeking regional development aid…

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Business angels – How do you know when the price is right?

Most start-ups can only dream of achieving rapid growth of this scale and generating profits of this magnitude for their business angel backers. The reality is that most start-ups will fall at either the first or second hurdle and the angel investors who backed them will be on the receiving end of an 80% failure rate when you look deeper into the stats.

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Start-ups With X Factor To Compete In Barcelona

With the auditions for this year’s X Factor now underway, the search is also on to find a start-up business with enough potential to scoop a generous cash prize. Start-up and entrepreneur portal f3fundit have organised the event to give those entering their business the opportunity to turn €120 into a €25,000 prize.

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How do you defend your business angel investment’s idea?

If your business angel investment has ideas or new products and services, then it will create value around that knowledge or Intellectual Property (IP) which you will want to defend from copying, stealing or mimicking – as far as the law will allow you.

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The 10-Minute Interview – Business Angel Stefan Glaenzer

Stefan is London-based entrepreneur and angel investor from Germany. He is the co-founder of companions.de, companionsTV, ricardo.de and myblog.de. He is also the founding investor and executive Chairman of Mendeley.com and RjDj.me and has been in the same role at Last.fm.

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Budget Could Swell Ranks of Business Angels

The latest Budget could well have helped create the conditions for the growth of business angel investing

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Where Business Angel Investors Fear to Tread

Investors in early stage and start-up businesses are known as angel investors. The tag ‘angel’ coming from their tendency to operate in the margins where venture capitalists, banks and other backers choose not to go.

They also help plug a major funding gap to get such ventures off the ground and they happen to be the kind of investors who are prepared to take a risk, rely on their instincts and invest large sums without too many hard questions asked.

At least this is the accepted view.

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Angel Investors and Entrepreneurs – A Match Made in Heaven?

More than half of business angel investments fail, but why? How much of this can be put down to the innate vulnerability of start-up businesses?

Surely having an enthusiastic angel investor on board, eager to provide a timely injection of funding to ensure success should mean failure rates i.e. those leaving the business angel out of pocket come exit time should statistically be on the better side of half.

Yet this clearly isn’t the case.

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Business Angels Find Safety in Numbers

We have already established that angel investing is a risky business but one with potentially high rewards. So is it better to go it alone? Or seek the company of others?

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Business Angels – What Would Warren Do?

Have you ever asked yourself what would Warren Buffett do if he were a Business Angel?   Well, it might be a bit hard to ask Mr Buffett along to attend our investments seminars, so instead we have attempted to summarise the rules Warren Buffett applies to his investments to see if we can apply [...]

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How to Beat the Odds on Business Angel Investments

We are living in risk-averse times and “Cash combined with courage in a crisis is priceless” according to Warren Buffet. But when does courage cross the line into gambling territory? Or to put it another way what if you had say, £50,000 to invest, and someone said you have a 20% chance of a return [...]

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Getting more out of your Board of Directors

By Dr. Earl R. Smith II DrSmith@Dr-Smith.com www.Dr-Smith.com With many companies – particularly early-stage ones – the Board of Directors is seen as little more than a legal necessity. But it can be so much more including an important force for growth and a gyroscope that keeps things on course and sure-footed. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I work [...]

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What are Business Angels really like?

Business Angels come in different shapes and sizes. But are they really like? Crazy? Successful? Generous or in it for the money? That is a question that not only entrepreneurs ask themselves, but also the Business Angels too. Why? Most investments that gain Angel investment will have not one single investors but a small team [...]

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Green Business Equals Danger for Greenhorns?

I am not suggesting for a moment that all Green businesses are bad investments, but I am suggesting that whenever a bubble appears or to there is much enthusiasm for an idea, that a number of the businesses ideas sold to unquestioning investors will turn out to serve the middle men far more than the money men. [...]

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