etc. They believe they contribute more than money to the companies they fund and welcome the opportunity to work with entrepreneurs open to take advice, yet having the smarts and determination to make the company successful.

Their focus is on early stage companies usually looking to raise $250K to $1.5M, where they can fund a portion of the round and syndicate the deal with other angel groups or early stage venture funds. The stage of the company should be close to commercialization, while the company should have a clear and defensible competitive advantage. They are looking for capital efficient businesses, which can reach profitability with less than $5M of equity investment and provide at least 10X return on the investment within 5 years.

They do not invest as a fund - each of their members makes his or her individual investment decision but they collaborate in Due Diligence. They have a deep expertise in the life sciences field where they usually take the position of a lead investor, but are open to any opportunities that can make a strong business case. In some cases they prefer to be the follow on investor if they cannot identify a person with strong expertise within their group.

The group’s strategy is directed by an executive committee which consists of 8 people elected by the group: Wayne Griffith (chairman), Bill McPhee, Henry Kay, Jay Schwartz (membership director), Steve Andress, Peter Miller, Don Freeman and Mic Williams (president and founder). The group’s day-to-day operations are managed by Boris Batchvarov (managing director).

They receive 20-30 business summaries each month, out of which they select 8 companies to make a personal presentation to their screening committee. The screening committee consists of volunteers from the group. The presentations are 10 min long followed by 10 min Q&A. 4 of the companies are invited to present to the whole group, with the idea to get the people interested and decide to perform a Due Diligence with the companies before making an investment.