Shark Tank (Dragons Den) ignites wave of interest in Angel Investing

Running angel forums in Kelowna BC and Phoenix Arizona, I'm always looking for new potential members.  I'm asked by members who want to invite guests how to identify potential angel investors.  In fact, many people who would make great angel investors (or who already are doing angel investment) aren't even familiar with the term "angel investor".  They do know what Shark Tank is (or Dragons Den as it is called in Canada.)

When I went to my first Venture Alberta Forum (now known as VA Angels) in 2004, I didn't know what an "angel investor" was, even though I was one and had made my first "angel investment" 25 years earlier when I was 23 years old.  I had helped a fellow police officer start a security guard company on the side.  Yes, I invested money in the venture, but I also mentored this fellow officer (who was actually a few years older than me) because I had previous experience in business.  I'd had my first "exit", another angel investor term that I hadn't heard of when I sold my first business for a "10X" multiple on my initial investment (again, I wouldn't have understood that term at the time).  So, I was an angel investor, but didn't know it.

Shark Tank is a very popular television show (Dragon's Den in Canada has been one of the CBC's top shows in prime-time for several years).  Perhaps you know someone who has done well in business, or their profession, and identifies with the "Sharks" on Shark Tank.  If so, he or she may already be investing in early stage companies and/or helping younger or less experienced entrepreneurs with their businesses.  Or, perhaps they'd like to.

Formal angel investment groups such as the VA Angels provide a wonderful forum for learning more about the ins and outs of early stage, private company investment.  Research shows that those who do angel investing as part of an organized group on average earn a 44% higher return on their investments than those who invest on their own.

I'll be talking about this today at 2pm PT with host Mike Weinstein on a top Phoenix talk radio station KTAR NEWS 92.3  The show is called "It's Business Time".  Hope you can tune in on the air in Phoenix or on line anywhere in the world.  (We didn't have interweb thingy that when I used to do talk radio in Vancouver in the 90's)

If you'd like to learn more about angel investing, contact me.