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 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

Andy Liu is the guy that past Mixergy guests recommended I interview because he helped them build their businesses. When I interviewed Ben Huh , he said that Andy recommended that he buy ICanHazCheeseBurger.com, and that Andy both invested in the business and helped him strategize. Neil Patel told me that Andy isn't just his business advisor, but a life mentor too. In this interview, you'll see why they rave about Andy. ...Tags: Tags: Entrepreneur Entrepreneurship Intervie

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

While it may be plausible, let me come at the valuation question from a typical Angel perspective - - we generally invest in deals that have a realistic chance of a 10x return in 5 years (or a 5x return in 3 years).  Question: My partner and I are trying to agree on an initial valuation to establish an equity share percentage for a seed stage company that is not yet operating. I

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. The bulk of venture capital investment comes from the West coast - principally Silicon Valley. In 1999 there were 1000 VC firms which invested $100 Billion. 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.

Two of the unique values of our culture at the Rubicon Project are transparency and active communication. Communication takes effort, but we make it a priority. Transparency is a big commitment but it's also a discipline that, while difficult at times, is incredibly beneficial. A A

Tags: Investing advertising monetization bootstrapping publishin I continue to hear the same excuses over and over from start-up online video publishers about their failure to generate sufficient CPMs (Avg. $.25 25 cents to $1) to survive as a profitable business.

Often, particularly with new entrepreneurs, the would-be entrepreneur is completely dominating the conversation trying to sell an investor on their company–without bothering to ask what kinds of investments an investor makes, getting to know the investor better, etc. The more successful (and funded) entrepreneurs I know spend much more time getting to know an investor, their investments, their interests, etc. Sid Mohasseb, one of the Tech Coast Angels, just emailed out about a new “entrepreneur happy hour” the group is running in Orange County, which got me thinking about how entrepreneurs should (or shouldn’t) approach angel and venture investors.

Tags: mobile phones Investing advertising monetization Crowdsourcing publishin Crowdsourcing has become a hot VC entrepreneur topic lately based on new companies forming and demonstrations I have seen at TechCrunch50 and Demo. This has inspired me to begin building a fluid list (last updated 9/28/09) of my favorite web sites that have become well established in the search engines over the years and already have a constituency of users.