LOCAL BUSINESS GROUPS RELEASE ANGEL INVESTOR SURVEY
A group of local volunteers, led by Economic Development for Central Oregon (EDCO) and Oregon Entrepreneurs Forum (OEF), have developed and released an online survey to determine if there are a sufficient number of accredited investors in the region to establish an organization that supports seed and early stage investments in promising new companies.
For the past several years, EDCO has increasingly focused its efforts on the cultivation of a strong, dynamic entrepreneurial community here in the region. The overwhelming popularity of our local PubTalk events, our ongoing partnership with OEF, and the success of last year’s Bend Venture Conference (BVC) are all indicators of an entrepreneurial community that is rapidly establishing itself and its identity.
In many communities, active angel investors organize into informal and formal networks to share deal flow; collaborate on deal screening, due diligence, portfolio management; and to share best practices and lessons learned. Over 200 formal angel investor groups have formed in the U.S. and four groups are operating in Oregon: Portland Angel Network, Women’s Investment Network, Portland Venture Group, and Willamette Investors Network.
Survey participants are limited to investors who can be accredited under Rule 501(a) of Regulation D of the Securities Act (net worth > $1MM or individual/joint income >$200K/$300K). The survey can be found at:
http://www.surveywave.com/script/en-us/takesurvey.asp?guid=7246ED9D
This survey takes less than 5 minutes to complete, is absolutely confidential (no contact information is required in order to complete the survey), and will be made available in summarized form only (no individual data will be captured).
The deadline for survey participation is Friday, May 27th.
The purpose of the survey is to:
• Gather feedback on the level of interest in making seed and early stage investments among Central Oregon angel investors
• Measure their level of experience in making such investments
• Determine which organized approach to seeing investment proposals they’d prefer
• Determine their preferred level of involvement in companies they would invest in
• Assess their willingness to support a formal organization
The results of the survey will be made available to survey participants and the local business press. Assuming a strong level of interest, EDCO and OEF will then sponsor a meeting for potential angel investors to review the results of the survey, to discuss the pros and cons of alternative organizational approaches, and to facilitate discussions on topics of interest to those investors.
Economic Development for Central Oregon (EDCO) is a private, non-profit membership organization dedicated to building a strong and secure economic future for Central Oregon. To learn more about EDCO visit www.edforco.org.
The Oregon Entrepreneurs Forum (OEF) (www.oef.org) is a nonprofit organization that helps entrepreneurs from across Oregon and southwest Washington launch and manage early-stage ventures with high growth potential from any industry.
Bend Working Group included:
• Bill Briggs, President, Net Worth Strategies, Inc.( bbriggs@networthstrategies.com)
• Drew Child, President, Alpine Internet Solutions (dchild@alpineinternet.com)
• Karen Fast, Management Consultant, (Kfast01@aol.com)
• Dan Hobin, Managing Partner, Bend Capital Partners LLC (dan.hobin@bendcapital.com)
• Mike Osborn, Management Consultant (mike@mikeosborn.net)
