Sacramento Angels » Blog/News

SacAngel Mentoring and Networking Pays Off For Founder in Electro Scan

aAngel — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 14:30:42 +0000

On this website we often mention the work we do in the community helping entrepreneurs and startups in ways other than purely putting up hard dollars – e.g., our Angels on Campus and Angel In Action programs, and being advisors in the VentureStart program. Most of that “community” work is done in the background and seldom are the results obvious or transparent – usually we’re just one of many helping hands contributing to any one success.

However, Bob Shallit of the Sacramento Bee wrote about Electro Scan this week and that struck a cord with us about the background story which he did not cover. In April 2011, a local Rescue, CA entrepreneur, Rob Harris, with a company and technology for finding leaks in .... Read More »»

Portfolio Company Aperia Technologies Emerges at the Wall Street Journal ECO:nomics conference

aAngel — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 17:02:10 +0000

SacAngels members invested in Aperia Technologies as part of a deal led by the Sierra Angels with significant participation from the Band of Angels. According to the SEC Form D, the total raise was almost $700K.

Aperia have kept a pretty low profile since their funding while the product was developed and market development was initiated. Recently, more information about the company has emerged as the company CEO, Josh Carter, was invited to speak at the Wall Street Journal ECO:nomics conference in Santa Barbara (take a look at the program; it has some pretty impressive speakers).

Aperia (ATI) provide automatic tire inflation technology. .... Read More »»

Portfolio Company Glue Networks to unveil Cisco Virtual Office-as-a-Service

aAngel — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 20:13:21 +0000

Today we saw this press release about our Portfolio company, Glue Networks, new product, Cisco Virtual Office-as-a-Service (CVOaaS). They are showcasing the product at Geek Day in Washington,US.

The new release automatically builds, maintains, monitors, and manages next-gen networks anywhere in the world, and delivers voice, video and real-time data applications for remote offices and employees with plug-and-play simplicity, error-free set up, military-grade security, and full network lifecycle management for a low monthly fee.

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Presenting to Angel Investors: It is all (about the) business!

Dan Koellen — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 20:15:27 +0000

While recently reading a great piece that every entrepreneur needs to read, I thought about what else should an entrepreneur know before presenting to angel investors? The key element is that investors will focus on the business; not the technology, not the product, not the recent fad or hype.

That is: What problem is your business solving? Why will customers be willing to switch to your business and spend freely? How will your business continue to differentiate from your competition? Why the executive team will be able to execute the plan? And how happy will the investors be when there is an exit?

And a few additional points about PowerPoint presentations that the article did not cover: When developing a slide decide what is the message you want to convey then articulate it succinctly. Don’t waste the title .... Read More »»

Portfolio Companies Welldog and Cloudcruiser in the News

aAngel — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 00:18:19 +0000

We invested Welldog about a year ago and they are now growing rapidly. See this recent press release about a A$4MM (about the same in US$) order for their services in Australia. Welldog provide data service to the coal mining and coalbed methane discovery industry.

We also invested in Cloud Cruiser almost two years ago and they continue to gain significant recognition in the Cloud computing space — they provide cloud cost intelligence solutions. They were recently selected “As One of 20 Coolest Cloud Software Vendors”. They join the likes of industry heavyweights Google, Oracle, Microsoft, Salesforce, Intuit, and SAP in that top 20 list. See the press release.

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Financing Plans for Startups

aAngel — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 19:23:13 +0000

While most startups do the mandatory business and financial plans, they seldom put much effort in a financing plan. How will the company be funded, what are the milestones for each funding round, how will the capitalization table look after each funding round, and who makes what at the exit? The financing plan is a key part of the whole plan and provides the guiding light as to where the entrepreneur should focus his or her efforts in raising money -- a task that takes enough time and that time should not be wasted chasing inappropriate investors for the stage of the company. In this context we came across a great video from the Kauffman Foundation on startup financing that puts some of the rush to raise money from investors in perspective. All startups should look at this and then think about their own situation. .... Read More »»

Eco Catalytics is a Global Finalist in the Cleantech Open Competition

aAngel — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 02:03:36 +0000

ECO Catalytics, an Angels On Campus mentored company, are winning more awards for their technology and products that originated at UC Davis.

This time they won the Smart Power category prize in the California Cleantech Open Semifinals for the development of a material deposition process that cuts fuel-cell platinum costs by 95%. This prize is awarded to entries dealing with smart grids, and energy control and storage. Previously they won awards in the UC Davis Big Bang Business Plan competition, and gained national recognition in the Walmart Better Living Business Plan Challenge.

This win means they are going to the Global Finals in San Jose in mid November to compete for the $250,000. They are one of the 18 teams .... Read More »»

Portfolio Company WellDog Closed $5,000,000 to Support Expansion

aAngel — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 16:50:20 +0000

International mix of angel and strategic investors provide debt and equity capital

Below is the press release from Welldog mentioning our recent investment. There is also a short note in the Sacramento Bee.

Laramie, Wyoming (8 June 2011) – WellDog announced today that it has closed on $5,000,000 in new debt and equity financing to support its continued expansion. The round was led by Simon Ashton and his strategic investment company, ProX Pty Ltd, and included participation by members of Sacramento Angels, Houston Angels, and some of the successful entrepreneurs behind Pure Energy, as well as expanded investment from the Brisbane Angels.

“WellDog possesses all of the traits of a successful resource service company,” said Ashton. “It’s operating .... Read More »»

Angels On Campus — UC Davis Big Bang! Winners

aAngel — Sat, 21 May 2011 18:10:36 +0000

The Winners

George Cimino, PhD, Paul Henderson, PhD, & Chong-Xian Pan, MD, PhD of Accelerated Medical Diagnostics

Anthony Santamaria, Daniel Misicak, PhD, Tomas Sudnius & John-Paul Farsight of Eco Catalytics

Accelerated Medical Diagnostics (AMD) won first place ($10,000) in the competition and Eco Cataltyics (EC) won second place ($3,000), as well as the People’s Choice award ($2,000).

The Angels on Campus program has again seen positive results from going onto the UC Davis campus to mentor teams taking ideas and research from .... Read More »»

Angels On Campus — Mentored Team Takes Major Award at 2011 Walmart Better Living Business Plan Challenge

aAngel — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 15:15:00 +0000

The Sacramento Angels, together with the UC Davis Center For Entrepreneurship (C4E) have spearheaded the Angels on Campus program at the University. One of the student groups we have advised and mentored, Eco Catalytics, has just won 3rd place (and $5,000) in the Walmart Better Living Business Plan Challenge. Team members were: John-Paul Farsight (MBA student), Daniel Misicak (Electrochemistry Post Doc), Anthony Santamaria (Ph.D. mechanical engineering candidate, PEM fuel cells), and Tomas Sudnius (MBA student).

The Team: Anthony Santamaria, John-Paul Farsight, Tomas Sudnius, and Daniel Misicak

This is national competition for students to showcase their best ideas .... Read More »»