When I think angels- I see wings and halos. Fault me if you wish, but I was raised in small New England town- that’s simply who they were. My impression changed a little after movies like Dogma and City of Angels but still there were wings and they were heavenly. News flash- there is a whole new kind of angel.

Angel investors are now the number one source of capital, outside of friends and family, for budding entrepreneurs. These angels don’t have wings and I’m pretty sure they don’t wear halos- yet, the come baring money and for a struggling start-up there are probably few things better.

The National Governor’s Association just released a report which discussed the role of angel investors in the US. They noted that “angels are responsible for up to 90 percent of early-stage equity… In 2006, this investment was $25.6 billion across 51,000 ventures with an average of four to five investors per deal, according to the Center for Venture Research.”

Angels now play a large role in the survival of companies by allowing them to prosper to a size where venture capital firms will give large sums. These individual angels’ investments range from $5,000 to $250,000; the angels are forming networks in states all around the country. As a group angel investors are able to do more whether its give more funding or create a more diverse portfolio.

Wisconsin, Washington, Pennsylvania and North Carolina have organizations, seeded with state funds, for angels so as to diversify their funding opportunities and increase available funds. These organizations are soon to, hopefully, become self-funded and self-sustaining. As such, they are great resources for entrepreneurs who don’t have the connections to find angel investors on their own.

At Global Entrepreneurship Week we are all about having your business venture succeed and angel investing is a good way to help with the opening costs. If you don’t have an organization in your state that is organizing angel investors, I suggest you talk to people about starting one up. Also, try to dip into social networking sites like LinkedIn (we have a group there) to connect with people who may be willing to be angels for those who can present an intriguing idea.

So go out there, find the state organizations and groups who can help you start up your start-up. Besides, as your business is struggling to take form wouldn’t you rather see cash flow downward than an angel trying to take you away?

**Let us know what you think about state run angel programs and angel investing in particular!

Tags: , angel investing, angel investors, angels, Global Entrepreneurship Week, linkedin, National Governors Association, NGA, North Carolina, Washington, Wisconsin

This entry was posted on Monday, March 3rd, 2008 at 4:45 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.