Growth of an angel investing opportunity to a movement: SDAC

To grow an angel network, the most valuable currency is TRUST. What better way than to conduct 6-7 due diligence in parallel when working through a "learn-by-doing" model like The San Diego Angel Conference. The first time around, we were a bit rough, with limited processes, just plowing through different rounds of votings, working as teams to do due diligence reports, and all along, creating a culture of reciprocity and genuine support of our startup ecosystem in San Diego. What came out was a very dedicated group of fund managers who have transformed the way, the process, and the dynamic of a fledgling idea of an investment opportunity to a movement of action and check righting by aspiring angel investors and existing angel investors. SDAC Fund II has bee co=lead by a group of 8 fund managers who have been dedicating hours and hours of their time, volunteering to lead the second year of the SDAC.

A group of advocates and visionaries evolved who have lead the SDAC Fund II to new heights. I absolutely have loved and admired the way each brings their assets to the table in a way that highlights their professional credentials and equally, their personal attributes to bring life and energy to the process. A more rigorous process of due diligence has emerged; a voting process that allows for over 30 investors to seamlessly vote and feel like their voices are heard; drawing on expertise of the entire group and the executing team to problem solve ways to bring everyone together in meaningful ways; restructuring the fund so that the opportunity of numbers of units to a much larger fund than Fund I could be raised; and marketing and communicating the investing movement we are all collectively working on.

THE CALM LEADER.

Benton Moore. Benton Moore has been a calm leader of this group of fund managers by nature and nurture, as he navigates the opportunities to grow the structure and momentum of the conference to a larger stage, this larger impact with the calm assurance he innately has in his growing group of "baby" angels & experienced angels.

Benton Moore is CEO of Sea Dragon Capital, a fund for early-stage investments. His most recent clean tech startup was acquired by private equity firm Oaktree Capital. Benton brings to the team the perspectives of entrepreneur, attorney, and investor and the passion for scaling startups in diverse industries. Benton earned his JD and MBA (New Venture Management) from University of San Diego as well as specialties in International Law from Trinity College, Dublin and Strategic Management from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In an adventurous change-making career of over $100M in deals, Benton’s proudest accomplishment is coaching his daughter’s undefeated soccer team.

THE GRAND COMMUNICATOR.

Amy Duncan. Amy excels at communicating and "translating" complex startup ideas and solution to our group of angels who thrive on understanding the technology we are evalating and combining it with the investment opportunity in each startup. Amy is also spectacular leader of communicating the essence of the conference.

Amy Duncan is a business owner, consultant, and investor with over 20 years’ experience working in the high growth life sciences industry. As a seasoned marketing strategist, she led product management, managed corporate branding, and developed sales and marketing programs at Life Technologies (Thermo) and directed marketing initiatives at an entrepreneurial start up. Through her business, Goldfish Consulting, Amy assists companies at all stages with strategy, execution, and commercialization. She currently serves as chair of the communications committee for the San Diego Entrepreneurs Exchange (SDEE) and co-fund manager for the San Diego Angel Conference (SDAC). Amy earned her BS in biochemistry from UC Davis and an MBA from San Diego State University.

THE BIOTECH WHISPERER / GURU / STRATEGIST.

Jason Scharf. Jason is a force who advocates for hard life science opportunities & the founders who valiantly pursue this long and hard startup journey. Jason leads with data, assurance from his professional expertise of the lifesci ecosystem, and can really persuade other investors to see the brilliance of a particular startup in a hard to understand industry.

Jason over the past 15+ years has specialized in driving strategy and innovation across biopharma, medtech, and diagnostics companies. At Illumina, he leads the delivery of the commercial strategic and operating plans and the pursuit of new growth opportunities. Prior to Illumina, Jason was responsible for strategy, business development, and market intelligence at Becton Dickinson, Amgen, CareDx, and other life sciences companies. In addition to his role as as a co-fund manager of the San Diego Angel Conference, he is an investor with Tech Coast Angels and a mentor with the NexCubed Digital Health Accelerator.

THE GREAT CONNECTOR.

Stacy Pena. Stacy has bold operational & execution expertise coupled with an insatiable curisoity of how to analyze and visualize companies, the process of SDAC and the due diligence experience in new ways. She dives into the hard stuff, learns a ton, and comes out a leader among leaders.

Confessions of a Type A Entrepreneur turned Business and Operations Enthusiast. Details keep me up at night. I eat processes for breakfast. I dream strategy. I sustain my soul by measuring results. I focus on what entrepreneurs don’t want to do so they can focus on what they were born to do. My expertise and business strengths were cultivated during the 90’s while working in wireless, digital telecommunication start-up companies. Wearing many hats, having a “devil in the details’ foresight and gaining extensive experience in business development, operations, marketing and sales all paved the way for Six Dragonflies, LLC.  As a founder of Communications Squared and Business Development Officer for Printing & Marketing, Inc., one the Bay Area’s most established marketing services companies for 13 years, I know what it takes to identify a qualified founder/team, a winning business model, the market size potential, and position for scale and acquisition. 

THE TECH STRATEGIST.

Sumner Webster. Sumner cuts to the chase, tackles the hard stuff, and has seen so many tech and software deals and ben intricately involved in so many startups, that he has "seen it all". He leads with this assurance but tactfully explains his position in a way to garner utmost respect.

Sumner Webster was born and raised outside Boston, Massachusetts. He attended Harvard University where he played football and earned a B.A in Economics. Before earning his MBA from Johns Hopkins University Sumner worked in consulting, venture capital and startups. Today Sumner is the CEO of Iron Forge Development, one of the nation’s premier software development firms.

THE ATTORNEY.

Michael Kimball. Mike is a diamond in the rough, a genuine hard working and astute attorney with extreme expertise but with a kindness through advocacy due to his strong moral values. When you work in tech, you want an attorney who gets tech.

For the past 20+ years, Mike Kimball worked on deals and legal issues for companies of all sizes—from start-ups to multi-nationals. Mike is well versed in the tech space, from software, med-tech and “big data” to social media and IoT. Before that, Mike was a senior member of the Yahoo! legal team, negotiating many of the company’s technology deals and partner alliances. He’s been the chief legal counsel for start-ups like Krux Digital (acquired by Salesforce), an attorney at Commerce One (back in the day), and have supported multi-national transactions with the likes of Eurostar, Red Bull, Major League Baseball, NASDAQ, Goldman Sachs, Liveramp, AppNexus, Amazon and NASCAR. He also managed a specialty gas and chemical plant supplying gases and chemicals to the wafer fab industry in Silicon Valley. Before all that, Mike was a naval officer on the nuclear attack submarine USS William H. Bates (SSN-680) where they conducted oceanographic research and training missions, and then a staff instructor at the Naval Nuclear Prototype & Training Unit in Idaho Falls, ID. Outside of work, he flies, skies, cycles, restores an Alfa Romeo and dines with his wife Dawn, their three grown children and yellow labs, Ollie & Maggie.

THE GREAT DESIGNER

Jad Duncan. Jad can see the good in most things, can strategize on how to design a better mouse trap, all with a radiant smile and genuine interest in wanting to give back. He is an astute stock broker, contracts guru, economist, and designer - a jack of all trades with passion for growing our local San Diego startup ecosystem.

Originally a stock broker and investment banker, Jad spent 10 years at General Atomics managing government contracts and purchasing. In 2000, he co-founded a software engineering government contracting business, growing the company to over 50 employees and $15M in annual revenue in under seven years. In 2008, Jad co-founded Goldfish Consulting having completed his web design certification at UCSD. Jad has a BA in mathematical economics from UC Berkeley, an MBA from San Diego State University, and is a graduate of the UC San Diego Digital Arts Center (DAC).

He loves spending time with his family, races cars and teaches racing with the Porsche Club, travels and has started doing triathlons with his son. 

TRUST:

Tremendous

Reciprocity

between U and Us

w/ Sincerity &

Transparency

A note before going onto me as part of this amazing team - I have had to step away a bit over the last 6 months, but they displayed GRACE, embracing my limited time and embraces what I could give and still listed me as a fund manager. As a business leader, I so appreciate and honor this empathetic effort by this fantastic group of rockstars. So, I include myself here, but as a humble servant of Fund I and proud to be part of this dynamic team.

THE ADVOCATE.

Dr. Silvia Mah. Silvia Mah is entrenched in the San Diego startup scene as a founding partner at Ad Astra Ventures, which aims to “get to even” for high achieving women and a huge advocate for the innovation & entrepreneurial endeavors at USD, as the Director of the Center for Peace and Commerce at the University of San Diego. She is the former President & COO of Connect w/ San Diego Venture Group, growing life science and tech startups, & Dr. Mah is also the founder & CEO of the “She Invests!” podcast, investor circles & books that highlights the impact of female angel investors.

This article was about highlighting the fund managers and the growth of this group of advocates, investors, and builders, but we are just a group without the execution POWER of The Brink team, Signal Rock Capital, and Mintz Levin, so here is the quick list of these AMAZING people and orgs.

THE EXECUTION TEAM.

To execute the SDAC, a substantial team has been assembled, from legal to events, to due diligence support. It really takes a village!

THE FEARLESS LEADER. The fantastic founder of the SDAC, Mysty Rusk.

THE GRAND COORDINATOR. The amazing coordinator of all things magical & tactful, Noemi Pena.

THE EPICENTER. The Brink, an SBDC site, that trains entrepreneurs to enter this SDAC journey & has advisors walking alongside them during the entire 6 month process.

THE ANCHOR. Will Fowler & Signal Rock Capital are the anchors in getting all of our investors set up with PPMs, fund documents and managing the fund. Will is another kind, knowledgeable, warm soul who wants to give back to the startup ecosystem by empowering the early stage investor. Impact is what drives him.

THE LEGAL POWERHOUSE. Sebastian Lucier from Mintz Levin has been a powerhouse of support and advocacy for the entrepreneurs involved in the process and the investors who want to create meaningful impact when activating their capital with a legal team in place. Sebastian is a highly technical attorney who fully understands legal nuances and how to use the law to advance a company’s strategic plan. He has deep ties to San Diego’s start-up community and significant experience relating to financing, corporate formation and governance, and mergers and acquisitions. Sebastian is very active at his alma mater, the University of San Diego School of Law, where he teaches young lawyers to support entrepreneurs and the start-up community as an adjunct professor. Sebastian is also actively involved in the MintzEdge website, an online resource for entrepreneurs. 

THE TEAM OF ANALYSTS. As a significant partner in bringing value to the due diligence teams of a group of the SDAC angels, is the University Growth Fund, where undergrads and grad students come together and help in the market analysis of the startups going through this process.

Now you know the team, you know our philosophies and how we have grown form last year to this year, so join us, connect with us, and help us continue to grow the startup ecosystem one angel at a time, one entrepreneur at a time.

STAY SAFE. STAY CONNECTED.

The San Diego Angel Conference will *still* take place March 28, 2020. At this conference at least one company will be selected as the winner of a pitch contest to receive angel funding from a fund capped at $1,000,000.

ATTEND THE VIRTUAL CONFERENCE!

UPDATE REGARDING COVID-19: After closely monitoring the situation and with careful consideration, the 2020 #SDAngelCon will continue as an interactive, online program in order to minimize risks to health and safety. We’re adjusting prices accordingly and condensing the program, putting together a digital experience that will be just as insightful and inspiring. Times like these require innovation and out-of-the-box thinking. With over $320,000 already committed to the fund, we remain determined to power innovation and economic impact in our region.