Last week's angel investment report by the Angel Capital Association reported that investments by angel investors dropped nine percent in 2008, with a hefty percentage of angel investors--40 percent--expecting this year will be a down year. However, a quick check of local, Southern California angel investors finds that although angel investment is down, investors are still investing--albeit much more selectively. "Capital Capital efficient companies offering very competitive terms are still getting funded," says Al Schneider of the Tech Coast Angels , although it appears the group is much more sensitive about how it is investing in deals.

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). Very few people fund individuals.  I This is part of my ongoing series Pitching a VC . I

few years ago it became fashionable for large VC’s to do seed funding.  8221;  And I think this line of thinking has started to become conventional wisdom as outlined in Chris Dixon’s excellent blog post saying that you need to be careful raising seed money from a large VC fund . But I’m no longer an entrepreneur – I’m a VC at a $200 million fund called GRP Ventures , the largest active fund in Southern California.  This is part of my ongoing series about Raising Venture Capital . This posting was inspired by an email from Rajat Suri

Last week, I was on a panel with other investors discussing the “do’s� and “don’ts� of angel and venture capital investing some one from the audience fired a series of intriguing compounded questions � why are the VC’s so illusive?, � All valid questions and valid statements – the event made me think that entrepreneurs view of the equity investment community is entirely different than that of the inner circle and this mismatch of perceptions is not disruptive and unhealthy. why don’t they have all their information available? Why don’t they disclose how

There’s a great meme developing this morning on the need to simplify funding terms and documents.  The believe that there is a new breed of VC emerging including True Ventures, Founder’s Fund, Union Square Ventures, Foundry Group and several others that have this founder / investor alignment ethos.  I tried to argue my views on vesting to a company I tried to invest in 2 years ago.  It This is part of my ongoing series “ Pitching a VC “. The meme was kicked off by Chris Dixon with this post saying that term sheets need to be simplified and align

Entrepreneurs spend a lot of time researching their market and customers.  But, when it comes to raising money, they tend to approach anyone with a heartbeat!   The problem with this approach is that a large majority of the investors you pitch are simply not appropriate for what you are doing or where you are as a company.  So, any time you spend on them is wasted. 

The bulk of Hedge Fund investment comes from the East coast – principally Connecticut and New York City – which has become the leading location for hedge fund managers. In 1999 there were 500 hedge funds with roughly $500B under management. In 2008 were 12,000 hedge funds with nearly $2.5 The Civil War II has begun but this time it’s not the North versus the South. This Civil War is about money under management in the financial services industry and it’s the West Coast versus the East Coast.

One of the investment themes I’ve been focused on in the past 3 years has been Performance-Based Marketing.  When When I started investing the US advertising market was $300 billion with only 10% of it ($30 billion) of it being online and measurable.  One My firm, GRP Partners, invested in the company that innovated this entire category – Overture (formerly known as GoTo.com).  At One recession later and the US advertising market is about $245 billion – but still only 10-12% is online and measurable. By now we all know that the largest part of the online

It seems that while the larger investment community is finally focused on the problem of mega-funds that they are missing what is perhaps the bigger problem — the lack of early stage funding.   If fees for all funds were reduced it is even less practical to run a small fund! also agree that large funds cause most of the problem and huge Yesterday’s VentureBeat had an article suggesting that the old “2 and 20″ method of compensation should be changed.   Unfortunately, they suggest that perhaps fees should be reset across the

Have you noticed how some entrepreneurs look at getting funding as the ultimate sign of success? Not only is funding not the finish line, but the mistakes you make when you get investors can cost you when you finally do get to the finish line and are ready to sell your company. Brandon has done stints as an operator at all stages of the funding cycle, and at Soros Private Equity, investing over $70M in technology deals. Brandon Watson came to Mixergy to talk about how he raised money for his startup, how he grew it, and why he had to sell it. The two most powerful