Large Capital Source. Twin Cities Angels has over 30 members who have been screened for financial means and investment/business experience. Each member brings the ability and willingness to invest in promising private companies, while understanding the inherent risk. By bringing these top local investors together, entrepreneurs are able to save time by going to one group to raise capital for either special situations or for the difficult funding gap between founders/friends/family start-up capital and venture capital.

Broad Pool of Knowledge & Contacts. Each member of the Twin Cities Angels has extensive investment and/or operational business experience. This experience spans a number of industries. Entrepreneurs looking to avoid the mistakes of others and gain access to key decision-makers and suppliers, customers, or partners are able to tap the knowledge and contacts of all members. This resource helps entrepreneurs accelerate the growth of their companies.

Efficient Process. The Twin Cities Angels have established an efficient process for entrepreneurs to raise capital from this large and diverse group of investors. One member of our team takes point on the due diligence team. This team becomes the entrepreneur's main point of contact for the rest of the process, including company evaluation, performing due diligence, negotiation of valuation and terms, organizing investor meetings, managing the closing process, representing the Twin Cities Angels members on the company's board, and relaying company reports to the members.

Clean Structure. Managing a high-growth business requires management to be nimble. However, a long shareholder list of busy (travel, other businesses, etc.) individual investors often does not permit swift action at critical moments such as closing a venture capital round or responding to an acquisition offer. The TCAngels thus encourages and helps facilitate receiving the entire Angel investment round from a single source in the form of the TCA LLC where the TCA invests in the LLC with any additional funds via the “side-by-side” from members, and the LLC invests in the company and then the TCA’s respresentative to the company votes all shares held by the LLC. For an entrepreneur, this structure maximizes the benefits (able to tap the knowledge and contacts of a large group of experienced investors) and minimizes the hassles (provides a single point of contact for interacting with large group of busy shareholders) of working with angel investors.

Capital Connections. The Twin Cities Angels are constantly expanding our network of investor institutions and groups. By co-investing with regional, early-stage VC funds, incubators and other angel groups, Twin Cities Angels help entrepreneurs raise sufficient capital to demonstrate proof-of-concept. As the company achieves its milestones, the Twin Cities Angels help provide introductions to later stage VC funds, corporate investors, and strategic partners to raise the next round of capital or attract an acquisition offer.

The difference is primarily in the people. The Twin Cities Angels is made up of successful business people available to assist companies develop from startup to IPO. These experiences enable our portfolio to quickly and successfully build their companies from the ground up.

Value of the Twin Cities Angels. Members of the group are one phone call away from anyone important to a young company. The network effect of the Twin Cities Angels is both vast and indescribable. Many deals that may not succeed in raising funds from the Twin Cities Angels nevertheless may be able to garner important business development opportunities, referrals for excellent employees, and valuable advisors or board members. Additionally, companies that get to the dinner will have been put through a diligence and review process that includes speech and presentation coaching and feedback from experienced venture investors-the net result is some valuable contribution from a professional process that should be of meaningful value to a young startup.

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