We thought today for our interview, that we'd get an update on the angel investment environment here in Southern California from Scott Sangster , the incoming President of the Los Angeles Chapter of the Tech Coast Angels , the biggest angel investment group in Southern California. Scott sat down with us last week and gave us some hints and tips about finding angel investment nowadays, and how the economy has affected local angel investors. It It seems that the economy hit angel investors pretty badly over the last couple of years, along

Last night I attended a DealMaker Media (whom I love because they always host such great discussions) panel on raising angel money moderated by Dan Gould and with panelists Rob Hayes (First Round Capital, more seed or A round than angel), Scot Sangster (with OrganicStartup and the best spokesperson for Tech Coast Angels that I have met to date), Tom McInerney (TGM) and Jarl Mohn (who invests on his own “account” and whose track record is truly humbling). recently wrote a post on angel financing covering the topic of convertible notes but

The Orange County Chapter of the Tech Coast Angels is promoting a program to help jumpstart small companies, O.C. Tech Coast Angels, the new program will provide seed funding, strategic planning, and execution of day-to-day functions of startups. TCA said it would invest no more than $100,000 in companies applying to the program, which it said it just launched. SeedTrack, building off of earlier efforts by the group's San Diego and other chapters. According to the O.C.

Last month we Launched Los Angeles Tech and in the announcement we provide the Hot List for the first half of January 2009. When I drill down on that term, you can see why with posts like: Hollis-Eden Pharmaceuticals Lops A Third Of Company THQ Lays Off 100 Employees, Closes San Diego Office Citrix Cuts 10 Percent; Santa Barbara Hit And it's also interesting to see what geographies are being associated with "Layoffs" more often than others: Layoffs Woodland Hills Layoffs San Diego Layoffs Santa Monica Layoffs Los Angeles I guess this is a sign

The Tech Coast Angels said today that the angel group invested in seven new deals, and seventeen follow-on deals in 2009, a total of $4.7M The group said that as part of those deals, its portfolio companies raised an additional $57M in funding from venture capital groups and other angel investors. The group--the largest angel group in Southern California, and one of the largest nationwide--said in investments. Last year, the TCA said it invested in 15 first-time fundings in firms, and 16 follow-on funding rounds.

Last night I attended the inaugural Open Angel Forum event started by Jason Calacanis , a fellow LA resident.  Jason started the Open Angel Forum in response to his frustration that entrepreneurs were being charged by some angel organizations to present at their events.  Asking young companies with limited capital to pay to present to a group of potential investors is insane.  He wrote an excellent blog post on this topic . As a former entrepreneur, I’m a big supporter of Jason’s goals. 

He’s done several startups and is a board member of the Technology Council of Southern California (which is where I met him originally). A great opportunity for more visible networking . I roughly know about MakeItWork, but tell me a bit about where you spend your time day-to-day. A typical day starts with email, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Yammer checks/updates. In between it all, I'm dropping off/picking up my son, I’ve recently had a chance to reconnect with Eric David Greenspan ( LinkedIn , Twitter ) He’s the CEO of Make It Work a high quality, personal, high touch technology service provider for homes and small businesses.

On the third Wednesday of every month I co-chair a meeting called the SoCal VCA (venture capital alliance), which represents participants from all of the top venture capital firms in Southern California as well as prominent members of the Tech Coast Angels (TCA).  This morning we heard from Jamie Montgomery, CEO of the venerable Montgomery & Co investment bank who is at the heart of what is going on in M&A for venture backed companies.  They Montgomery & Co Projects Deal Volume to Grow by 167% in Just 2 Years with No End to Growth in Sight We meet

Catch up on the latest news, see our upcoming event schedule, or visit the Website of the sponsors that make this all possible. Top Valuing Your Company For Success by Doug Hayes, executive committee, Tech Coast Angels Winning Check out the newly released August edition of the SCribe Newsletter.  Top articles include: Valuing

For this morning's interview, we thought we'd try something different, and put together a virtual panel of venture capitalists to give us a few tips on pitching your company. We brought together Peter Cowen of Groundwork Equity , Mark Suster of GRP Partners , Rick Smith of Crosscut Ventures , and Richard Yen of Saban Ventures -- all of who will be on the judging panel for the Tech Coast Angel's Fast Pitch on February 24th, to give us a their hints and tips about pitching to venture capitalists. They also talked about their outlook on the venture capital market, and how likely they are to be investing this year, given the worried economy. Hi