Here’s another sign that angel clubs are again picking up momentum: Meet Georgetown Alumni Angels, founded by Joshua Siegel and Andrew Romans.
The two met more than a dozen years ago as MBA students at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business.
We’ve spilled a good deal of ink/pixels on the potential pitfalls of solo angel investing, at least, for those who aren’t professionals. One natural remedy is the angel network – not a fund, mind you – but a group of like-minded high-net-worth individuals who source and review deals as a group.
These coalitions often have some sort of theme linking their members together – NextGen Angels is for the under 40 crowd, etc. For, Georgetown Alumni Angels, funders are linked by some connection to the school.
Siegel and Romans are still building out the group’s membership, which Siegel said runs from successful entrepreneurs to those who thrived in the traditional corporate world. All must be accredited investors (and hence have free cash to put into high-risk startups). They plan to make investments in the typical angel range – from $250,000 to $750,000. While “we like to see some kind of Georgetown involvement,” a connection to the university is not absolutely necessary to win capital from the group, according to Siegel.
While geography and sector agnostic, the new network adds another potential early-stage funder into the D.C. startup ecosystem. The end result is more money that might otherwise sit on the sidelines enters the local angel market. Of course, whether those companies can go on to win institutional funding is another story. See: Series A crunch.
“We’re trying to represent the intelligent capital that can be deployed for early-stage and startup companies,” Siegel said.
Siegel, senior partner at Fantasia Partners LLC, is based out of New York. Romans, founder and general partner of The Founders Club, operates out of the San Francisco Bay area.
