Growing new investors in new ecosystem
Mossy Ventures LLC supports Angel Conferences like Seattle Angel Conference and the Apis Health Angel Conference.
An Angel Conference is a program that teaches Angel Investing by doing an Angel Investment. It is the "See One, Do One, Teach One" model. Angel Conferences have been running since 2002. They were started in Portland by the Oregon Entrepreneur Network. The model has expanded since then to other states and other countries.
An Angel Investor is someone who invests their own money into an un-registered startup. This is allowed through an SEC exemption for "Accredited Investors" in Reg D 506(b). To be Accredited, you need to have an Income of $200K or $300K with your spouse , or you need to have a networth of more than $1M (not including house).
To be a "good" Angel Investor, you need to understand about the structure of companies, how the team works, how the financials are being managed and many of the details of the business. You need to also understand how a portfolio of 20+ companies can be created that makes up for the risk associated with early companies that are just starting out.
A good place to start is to read the book by David Rose called "Angel Investing"
If you are not "Accredited" (yet), then you might look at Equity Crowdfunding as a pathway.
Angel Conferences look for companies that are very early. However, we want them to be more than just an idea. We want to see evidence that the team can work together on a business and that the market cares about the result. This traction for the team often looks like revenue and growth in revenue.
Angel Conferences have no sector bias, so it is not just for tech companies. However, they need to be growth companies that have a pathway to making a significant change in valuation and a pathway to paying back the investment.
Becuase the types of companies are so very different, the terms are different as well. We are looking at early companies that have typically not taken outside investment before. If the company is solid, has good growth in revenue and has a round less than $1M, it is likely we will find a priced round. We like simple agreements like the https://www.seriesseed.com/ agreement. About half of the time, we use a simple convertable note agreement. We are not particularly fond of any of the SAFE agreements.
Yes. We want the community to understand how Angel Investing works. Both for those who are Accreditted to evaluate engaging in the asset class, and for startups that are considering taking outside money to understand how the process works. The final event is done in public.