31 Angel Investor Groups in California

Many of our clients are seeking early-stage capital from angel investors.  The process can be frustrating if you think there's a secret to it, but there isn't.  It's about exactly the things you'd expect: your idea, your target market, your traction, your team, your track record, your commitment to keeping at your business and staying in conversation with prospective investors until you find the ones who say yes.

Angel groups can play a part in the process, but they don't change the fundamentals.  They just facilitate conversations with more potential investors.  Which is important, because each time you pitch, you will learn and improve (ideally not just your pitch, but your business as well).  

As a resource for clients and entrepreneurs, we've taken a little time to compile what I think is a fairly comprehensive list of angel groups in California.   If we've missed a group, let us know and we'll be sure to update this post.

1) Investors’ Circle, San Francisco, CA

Website: http://www.investorscircle.net/

Who it helps: Uses private capital to promote businesses that address social and environmental issues. 

2) Band of Angels, Menlo Park, CA

Website: http://www.bandangels.com/

Who it helps: Group of former and current high-tech executives that has invested almost $200 million in early-stage technology companies.

3) Pasadena Angels, Altadena CA

Website: http://pasadenaangels.com/

Who it helps: Provides up to $750,000 in early-stage and seed financing to startups in southern California.

4) Tech Coast Angels, CA

Website: https://www.techcoastangels.com/

Who it helps: Provides connections, knowledge, mentoring and operational assistance to early-stage entrepreneurs in the tech, biotech, consumer products, Internet, information technology, life sciences, media, software and environmental markets.

5) Maverick Angels, Agoura Hills CA

Website: http://www.maverickangels.com/

 Who it helps Find, qualify and invest in early-stage companies and provides coaching, training, relationships and other resources.

6) SF Angels Group, San Francisco, CA

Website: http://www.sfangelsgroup.com/

Who it helps: A group of successful 25+ global accredited investors that help start-ups with mentorship, capital, connections and more. 

7) Angel Vision Investors, Los Angeles, CA

Website: http://www.angelvisioninvestors.com/

Who it helps: A collective of entrepreneurs who invest in and cultivate new companies within the realm of entertainment, marketing, and new media.

8) SLO Seed Ventures, San Luis Obispo, CA

Website: http://www.sloseedventures.com/

Who it helps: A group of accredited investors with a variety of backgrounds and business experiences providing resources for early-stage start-ups, in exchange for convertible debt or ownership equity.

9) TiE Angels Silicon Valley, Santa Clara, CA

Website: https://sv.tie.org/

Who it helps: Support emerging companies with early stage investment and support. TiE seeks to cultivate and nurture the ecosystem of entrepreneurship and free-market economies everywhere, as it sees this to be the single most powerful instrument of prosperity.

10) Sacramento Angels, LA, CA

Website: http://www.sacangels.com/

Who it helps: Believe in the journey of the entrepreneur and startups; the journey to make the world a better place, to create jobs and to keep America strong, competitive and at the forefront of innovation.

11) The Arcview Group, SF, CA

Website: http://arcviewgroup.com/

Who it helps:  Focus on cannabis-related businesses and the development of a responsible, profitable, and politically-engaged legal cannabis industry.  

12) Acorn Angels, Santa Clara, CA

Website: http://acornangels.com/

Who it helps: Acorn Angels is a group of Silicon Valley Angel Investors who provide early stage investment capital for hi-tech companies.

13) European American Angel Club, San Francisco, CA

Website: http://euroamericanangels.weebly.com/

Who it helps: A group of angel investors and entrepreneurs whose primary goal is to support early-stage companies from the European community in Silicon Valley.

14) Golden Gate Angels, San Francisco, CA

Website: http://www.goldengateangels.com/

Who it helps: Provides seed investment and professional mentoring to start-up companies with huge market potential and business growth.

15) Imporium Angels, San Diego, CA

Website: http://www.imporiumangels.com/

Who it helps: Focuses on new technological industries such as telephony, biotechnology, radio frequency identification (RFID), information technology, software applications, medical equipment, and semiconductors.

16) Life Science Angels, Inc., Palo Alto, CA

Website: http://lifescienceangels.com/

Who it helps: Provides seed capital to early stage companies that focus on medical devices and biotechnology industries. 

17) The North Bay Angels, Healdsburg, CA

Website: http://www.northbayangels.com/

Who it helps: Invest primarily in early stage equity and venture debt, where participation will have an impact on the success of the company.

18) Sand Hill Angels, Menlo Park, CA

Website: http://www.sandhillangels.com/

Who it helps: Skilled entrepreneurs and successful investors driven to support technology-based industries such as Information Technology, Life Sciences, and the Internet.

19) The Angels’ Forum, Palo Alto, CA

Website: http://www.angelsforum.com/

Who it helps: An exclusive group of 25 private investors, focuses on consumer, health care, and technology-based industries. Provides seed capital funds to early-stage companies as well as second-round and third-round investment to their portfolio companies.

20) Astia Angels, San Francisco, CA

Website: http://astia.org/

Who it helps: Astia is a community of experts committed to building women leaders and accelerating the funding and growth of high-potential, high-growth, women-led startups.

21) Golden Seeds, San Francisco, CA (and NY)

Website: http://www.goldenseeds.com/

Who it helps: A discerning group of investors, seeking and funding high-potential, women-led businesses.

22) HealthTech Capital, Los Altos Hills, CA

Website: http://www.healthtechcapital.com/

Who it helps: HealthTech Capital is a group of private investors dedicated to funding and mentoring new "HealthTech" start ups at the intersection of healthcare with the computer and mobility worlds.

23) Keiretsu Forum, Costa Mesa, CA

Website: http://www.keiretsuforum.com/

Who it helps: Worldwide network of capital, resources and deal flow with 27 chapters on 3 continents. Keiretsu Forum members invest in high-quality, diverse investment opportunities. 

24) San Joaquin Angels, Stockton, CA

Website: http://www.sanjoaquinangels.com/

Who it helps: Finance and support local businesses.

25) The Stanislaus-Merced Angels, Modesto, CA

Website: https://gust.com/organizations/stanislaus-merced-angels

Who it helps: Invest in start-up and early stage businesses in a wide range of industries, with preference for businesses in Northern California/Central Valley.

26) Angel Capital Network, Sausalito, CA

Website: http://www.angelcapitalnetwork.com/

Who it helps: Identify, fund and develop new investment opportunities in high growth private companies.  Invest in entrepreneurs and companies in a variety of industries and stages of development.

27) Tribe of Angels, Silicon Valley, CA

Website: http://www.tribeofangels.com/

Who it helps: Tribe of Angels (TOA) is the oldest and largest private network of Jewish investors, entrepreneurs, executives, and researchers. 

28) 12 Angels, Los Angeles, CA

Website: http://12angels.org

Who it helps: Provide investment capital, consultation and mentorship to support sustainable businesses that hire recovering addicts, giving them a chance to enjoy productive and healthy lives.

29) Angels Corner, Silicon Valley, CA

Website: http://www.angelscorner.com/

Who it helps: Focused on investing in private companies with strong teams, proprietary solutions, and high potentials.

30) Silicom Ventures, Los Altos, CA

Website: http://www.silicomventures.com/

Who it helps:  Platform for investing in emerging technologies and producing large-scale, global conferences.

31) VoiVoda Ventures, Glendale, CA

Website: http://www.voivoda.com/

Who it helps: VoiVoda is a technology acceleration fund focused on B2B startup companies. Their unique approach to early stage investing involves working closely with companies based outside of the traditional US technology markets. They combine the resources of their own fund with those of a broad network of angel investors to assist companies in raising their first institutional round.

5 Awesome Business and Psychology Books From 2013

Those close to me know I am a voracious reader with a nasty habit of buying more books than I'll ever have time to read (Amazon Prime + One Click = Devilish.  Hats off, Jeff Bezos).   Most of what I read falls into my core areas of interest:  leadership, business, entrepreneurship and psychology.  I thought I'd highlight a few of my reads from 2013 that stand out as especially unique or valuable or important.  I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.  (Note: These weren't necessarily published in 2013 - I just happened to read them this year).  

1. The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else by Patrick Lencioni.   I've been curious about Lencioni's work for many years.  A few months ago, I finally got around to reading his well-known classic, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, and was so impressed I started working my way through his catalog.  I have not been disappointed.  This book - his most recent - encapsulates a tremendous amount of wisdom around effective organizational leadership, culture-building, and management.  I have used his concise strategic planning framework with my own firm and with a couple of clients, and in all cases have found his insights both intuitive and impactful.
2. Time to Think: Listening to Ignite the Human Mind by Nancy Kline.  This is a unique and important book about accessing our natural capacity for fresh and innovative thought.  Kline's background is in childhood education.  From an early age, she became fascinated with a single question:  Under what conditions do human beings think at their best?  Her answer is an environment characterized by ten basic supportive qualities -- qualities we can each learn to embody for each other.  A powerful reminder of the potential (and responsibility) we all have as leaders, managers, and friends to awaken and encourage the genius in our fellow human beings.
3. The Relationship Handbook by Dr. George Pransky.   One of my all time favorites, I re-read this book this year just to remind myself of its core message, which is focused on cultivating warmth and positive feelings in relationships -- rather than on solving problems and resolving differences.  Pransky has co-founded an approach to psychology known as The Three Principles, which I believe will revolutionize the field of mental health over the coming decades.  His audio programs, available at www.pranskyandassociates.om are equally brilliant and worth your time.
4. Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck, Ph.D.  One of the core messages in public speaking and writing revolves around the extraordinary (yet under-appreciated) capacity of the human mind to absorb and digest information and produce insights, learning and innovation in response to our sustained focus and attention on a given subject.  For me, this book was a striking vindication of the power of embracing this innate capacity.  Dweck contrasts people who adopt a "growth" mindset, which embraces the capacity to learn, grow, improve and expand, with those more inclined towards a "fixed" mindsets, which tend to focus on uncontrollables like genetics or talent.  Along virtually every metric that counts, folks who adopt growth mindsets succeed more and do more and enjoy more of life -- an insight with important implications for educators, parents, managers and just about anyone else I can think of.
5. The Startup Owner's Manual : The Step-by-Step Guide for Building a Great Company by Steve Blank and Bob Dorf.  Originator of the agile development and the lean startups methodology, Blank's theories have been massively influential in Silicon Valley and beyond. Not exactly a page turner, this is more like a rigorous reference manual for those engaged in the thrilling process of discovering and validating a scalable business model.  An MBA in 500 priceless pages.

How about you?  Any good reads you've enjoyed recently?   Would love to hear about them in the comments.  

Why LLC Managers and Investors Should Care About California's New LLC Law

This blog post is directed to owners and investors in California limited liability companies.

Effective as of January 1, 2014, California has enacted a new statute governing California LLCs -- dubbed the “California Revised Uniform Limited Liability Company Act” -- that contains a few key provisions that we think should be of concern to managers of, and investors in, California LLCs. 

The most important of the Act's provisions concerns voting rights and the authority of managers and/or officers running the LLC.  The Act expands the default voting rights of LLC members to require member consent to a range of corporate actions, including all actions “outside of the ordinary course of business,” unless the LLC’s operating agreement explicitly modifies or limits those voting rights. 

Member voting rights are typically among the most heavily negotiated provisions in an LLC's Operating Agreement.  Voting rights determine how the Company is managed and operated and can seriously impact the ability and discretion of company management to execute on strategic transactions in a timely and flexible way. This is especially the case when there is a divergence of views and personalities among the ownership base.  

Depending on the current language in an Operating Agreement, LLC managers or officers who previously may have operated with broad (or full) discretion may now be required to obtain the consent of investors/members before engaging in certain transactions.  The phrase “outside the ordinary course of business,” while common in business agreements, nevertheless invites further uncertainty over the scope of the Act's new voting requirements.

The new law also expands upon the impact of member "disassociation" (or withdrawal) events, the occurrence of which may result in a member losing membership rights and instead holding only the limited economic rights of an assignee. Dissociation events include the death, insolvency or incompetence of individual members.   These new provisions are likely to impact both voting and corporate governance matters within the LLC, as well as members’ estate and succession planning matters.

Other provisions in the new law impact, among other things, the scope of fiduciary duties of members and managers, an LLC’s obligations to indemnify members and managers, and the rights of transferees of LLC interests (i.e., people who purchase LLC interests from existing shareholders).

Bottom Line: Managers and investors in California LLCs (and those considering such investments) should have legal counsel review the current LLC Operating Agreements to determine the impact of the Act on corporate governance matters and the economic and non-economic rights of LLC members.  

Barbera Corporate Law helps visionaries build thriving companies.  We provides specialized corporate transactional legal counsel, with predictable flat-fee rate structures, to emerging technology and online businesses throughout California.     

Preparing Your Business For Strategic Acquisition Part II

In my previous post, I listed key legal steps that businesses can take to prepare themselves for strategic acquisition.  This time around, I thought it would be helpful to enlist a investment banking colleague with expertise in selling businesses for a more comprehensive discussion on preparing a business for exit.   

Shawn Thomson heads up the West Coast M&A practice at BCMS Corporate, a global investment bank specializing in lower middle market companies.  In this interview, Shawn and I discuss his list of the top 7 things business owners and executive teams can do today to prepare their business for sale.  

Shawn's list addresses the more common seller-side snafus he encounters in the M&A process, including the following:  

1. ​Maintaining quality financials
2. Installing second line management
3. Establishing good working capital practices
4. ​Clarifying exit strategy and seller goals
5. Consider market factors and timing
6. Clear up disputes and uncertainies
7. Early tax and estate planning

In our 50 minute interview, I ask Shawn to dive into each of these in more detail with the goal of helping owners and executive teams put sound business practices in place today to maximize the likelihood and value of their future exit.    

Click below to download or listen.  We hope you find the interview helpful. ​​​

Preparing Your Business For Strategic Acquisition

Key Legal Strategies For Maximizing The Likelihood and Value Of A Future Business Sale

This article lists key legal strategies and practices for business owners considering a company sale as a potential short- or long-term exit strategy.  These practices are intended to minimize red flags that may derail or adversely impact a company sale.   Whether or not a sale is achieved, these practices will create a strong legal foundation for sustainable business growth.

• Incorporate Properly.   When handled properly, incorporation of the business protects owners from uncertainty and potential disputes about basic matters such as ownership of the business, company management and decision-making, the transferability of stock, and buy-sell arrangements in the event of intractable shareholder disputes.  Effective incorporation also helps ensure that assets and other contributions of the company's founders are effectively vested in the company.  Finally, incorporation may help owners realize more favorable tax treatment in an eventual company sale.
• Exercise Caution When Raising Capital.  Outside investment introduces substantial risk and complexity into a business.  Matters such as the economic and governance rights of the investors need to be carefully considered.  Failure to comply with securities laws creates substantial legal risks that raise red flags for potential buyers.   Companies raising capital, whether from friends and family or professional investors, should ensure the offering is handled properly and in compliance with applicable federal and state securities laws.     
• Perfect Title In Key Assets.  Buyers want to know they are getting good title to a seller's business assets.  Companies should take care to clear up uncertainty in chain-of-title and liens or other encumbrances on company assets, including real properties, proprietary software or other intellectual property, and other tangible assets.  The presence of such factors erodes confidence. 
• Protect Your Intellectual Property.   If a company's value is tied to its intellectual property, owners should take steps early on to establish sound IP portfolio practices.  Valuable IP may include a recognizable brand or trademark, patentable inventions, copyrighted content, or proprietary formulas, business methods or customer or supplier lists.   In each of these cases, a company should establish clear ownership to (or rights in) all core IP assets and maintain the value of those assets through appropriate monitoring and enforcement activities.
• Establish Reliable Finance, Accounting and Reporting Systems.  Apart from their value to business decision-making, reliable metrics facilitate the due diligence process and often enhance the sale price of the business.  Verification of financial data is a principal buyer concern, and reliable metrics help greatly with that.
• Establish Standard Agreements That Protect Your Company.   Recurring contracts in a business, such as standard customer agreements, represent an opportunity to enhance value and minimize risk.  Provisions addressing express or implied warranties, term and termination, changes to the agreement, damage limitations or dispute resolution processes, all can minimize liability exposure and impact a company's risk profile and bottom line.  
• Use Well-Drafted Employment and Consultant Agreements.  Proper employment and consulting agreements used organization-wide help protect the company’s intellectual property and business secrets, secure the company’s clients against improper solicitation, and create valuable certainty around the scope and duration of employment and consulting arrangements.  
• Maintain Good Employment and HR Practices.  Given the prevalence of wage and hour and other class actions in today’s business climate, it is important that growing businesses introduce sound employment policies and practices to ensure compliance with basic legal requirements.  
• Maintain Adequate Insurance Coverage.  A clear track record of appropriate coverage against risk is good business and reassuring to buyers. 
• Keep Up With Compliance and Regulatory Matters.  Maintain corporate books and records and required business licenses and permits.  Keep up with regulatory and compliance issues.  Don't let the small stuff accumulate through neglect.  
• Long-Term Contracts.  Long-term business arrangements should be drafted with a possible company sale in mind.  Such agreements will ideally give owners flexibility to pursue a sale without triggering additional legal or consent requirements or other adverse consequences.

This list is by no means exclusive but it represents a basic set of sound legal practices that, if implemented consistently, will help owners build sustainable organizations well-positioned for strategic exit.

Barbera Corporate Law advises family-owned and lower middle market business on these matters.  We also help new companies launch themselves on proper legal footing.  If you have questions, please contact us.