Once the dinner has concluded our members will indicate their level on interest in your company. If a core group of members are interested in moving forward with the deal, Band of Angels will schedule a follow up meeting for you and those specific angels. At this stage you should be ready to provide our members with their requested materials and references.

Every deal is unique and a simple answer on term expectations is not possible. The guiding principle on terms is that incentives of everyone be aligned. If a Venture Fund makes 10 investments and 9 of them fail and one gets a 10x, the Fund has just broken even. Entrepreneurs must be motivated to make a hefty return for their investors. Likewise, the investors must ensure that entrepreneurs are consistently and substantially rewarded for their ongoing contributions and the risks that they undertake. With this guiding philosophy, the Band negotiates in the best possible faith to get to terms that proportionally and appropriate incentivize all parties.

Companies typically like to pitch to the Band as much to interest one of our members to join the board as to acquire seed capital. Most companies that receive funding from the Band also receive at least one Band members as a board member.

The Band likes high technology companies with strong teams, promising technology, big potential markets, solid barriers to entry, and IPO prospects. Since we like to be the first money into the deal we recognize that for seed stage companies being certain that a company is all of these things is impossible—that is what makes investing at this stage risky. However, the more a company is like this, the more likely it will succeed in raising money from the Band. Because we do invest very early, preferably the first money into the deal, valuation expectations are very low. 

Our preference is to invest in companies where we can be active contributors throughout the early stages of development. Initially, the Band’s focus was to invest in Silicon Valley based startups. The Band has invested in exceptional startups located outside Silicon Valley where a Band member (who will be the deal sponsor) is an investor, advisor, and/or a Board member and is deeply familiar with the company and the team. During the Covid-19 pandemic, the Band met virtually and invested in startups throughout the U.S. This trend continues post-pandemic.

Your materials need to offer us enough information to determine the strength of your team, market and technology. Beyond that we need to understand your business model and financial projections, as well as your capital requirements and the milestones you will reach with this investment. Your executive summary should also include specific information on your customers and competition. However, it must do all this in an incredibly concise way. If selected to attend the Deal Screening committee your company will be required to write an executive summary that includes all this information in one page. Here is the Band of Angels one page template. Companies that can accurately convey themselves within a one page narrative are much more likely to score well in the pre-screening process.

Since we receive so many plans our policy is not to sign NDAs (non-disclosure agreements) or confidentiality agreements. The Band prides itself on our practice of the highest respect and care of the confidentiality of all information received; aiming to treat you as we ourselves wish to be treated. However, you should not, under any circumstance, forward confidential or proprietary information to us.