IS YOUR BUSINESS READY TO GROW?
The Keiretsu Forum Mid-Atlantic, South-East, & Texas Regions are unique in the K4 chapter family. Just like the rest of the K4 chapters, they offer robust angel funding, private equity investors and business acceleration guidance to A & B round companies. But the Philadelphia, New York, North Jersey, Metro Washington, D.C., Pittsburgh, South Florida (Palm Beach), North Florida, Atlanta, New Orleans, and North Texas chapters go a step further, offering their services to startup entities that are ready to engage outside mentors, supporters, and angel investors.
The private equity landscape of the K4-MA-SE-TX Regions are heavily populated with early stage and startup companies. Our chapters make it a point to seek out partners who specialize in early stage deals - ensuring that our members have access to an exceptional mix of early stage investment opportunities from presenting companies.
“The Angel Capital Expo provided INDIGO with a national forum to present the value of the Company. As the 2017 Stephen M. Goodman Most Valued Company Award recipient, INDIGO secured over $600,000 in investments from Keiretsu Mid-Atlantic and other angels which attended the event. The Company surpassed its capital fundraise target because of the Angel Capital Expo!” Fred Marroni, CEO INDIGO Biosciences
Who are we looking for to join our impressive and innovative team of entrepreneurs?
SERIOUS, COACHABLE ENTREPRENEURS WITH SERIOUS PLANS
We are hands-on investors looking to help our portfolio companies succeed. Often referred to as "Smart Money," we take active roles as board members, advisors, and referrers of new business opportunities. We also provide significant business experience and expertise and will often advise entrepreneurs on how they should structure their legal entity, where and why it should be created and maintained, and introduce you to highly qualified and motivated professional services professionals who understand the emerging growth stages of startups and engage accordingly.
Our preference is to invest in Delaware LLC structured entities. According to the Angel Capital Association (ACA), many active angel groups prefer investing in LLC entities vs C Corps early on and K4-MA-SE-TX has supported this position since its inception 13 years ago. We are not alone in this preference. At the 2019 ACA Leadership Conference in Houston a presentation on LLC vs C Corps was presented by CTAN, the Central Texas Angel Network. CTAN is, according to the HALO Report, the worlds largest single location angel group. Keiretsu Forum is, according to the same report, the worlds largest multi-location angel group. It is not a coincidence that the two largest and most successful angel investment groups prefer to invest in LLC entities and you should take the time to understand why this is important. To that end we have provided a link below to a recent paper on the subject by our area president, Howard Lubert. At the end of his article is a link to 8 other articles on the subject. Later stage companies looking for A & B Rounds that have already created their legal entity and established nexus are, as always, welcome to apply to bring their investment opportunities to us, and we will treat them accordingly.
We are not looking for business plans scribbled on napkins, nor are we interested in engaging with an individual who is barely out of the idea phase. To clarify what we’re looking for, we like to reference a fundamental concept developed by Mr. Lubert while working at Safeguard Scientifics, the first publicly traded venture capital fund. Based on more than 25 years of technical due diligence on thousands of business plans and companies looking for funding, Mr. Lubert, Regional President of the Mid-Atlantic, South-East, & Texas Regions, developed a simple analogy to support the investability of a potential company in due diligence. It provides a high level view of what investors are looking for in a potential investment.
The analogy relates your business concept and plan with a three-legged stool. The three legs of the stool, in order of importance, are People, Plan and Technology. These legs need not be the same length or girth, but they do need to be individually strong enough to hold up the stool. The only way this is possible is if the legs are joined and supported by the seat on top, which represents the Marketplace.
It is impossible for a business venture to succeed if all of these areas are not addressed. Is your concept bolstered by strong people, a strong plan and strong technology? Is it supported by the current marketplace? If so, you’re the type of entrepreneur we welcome into our angel investment network. Please consider applying to present your business concept to Keiretsu Forum Mid-Atlantic!
ADDITIONAL DETAILS
Keiretsu members understand that searching for funding can be a daunting process to even the most experienced entrepreneur. To get a better understanding of the process, we encourage companies interested in presenting to attend a Forum Meeting at a local chapter prior to applying.
Companies that apply to Keiretsu Forum are typically looking for their A or B rounds in the $750k – $5m range, usually with $500k to $1.5m friends’ and family investments already in place.
Forum members invest in high-quality, diverse investment opportunities in a wealth of industries, including automation & instrumentation, consumer products, energy, financing, food & beverage, health care/life sciences, Internet-related, real estate, services, social ventures, software, telecommunications and any segment with high growth potential.