conference

I got an e-mail about this one overnight:

Return of the Angels: How Angel Investment is Changing

It’s a $40 evening affair in San Francisco, with a panel of three good speakers and a very interesting agenda. If I were in the San Francisco Bay area working on any kind of a startup, or even thinking about it, I’d probably attend.

Here’s the summary:

Angel investors are the new black. In a down market, with venture activity slowing, many entrepreneurs are looking to angels for salvation.
But they may be in for a rude awakening–angels are not exempt from economic pressures, and their outlook, strategies and requirements are changing.

If you’re not in the Bay area, it’s still a good reminder that things have changed. Angel investment is more organized than it was, and with the changing financial landscape . . . well, if nothing else, start doing Web searches for angel investors and see what comes up.

If you do that Web search, be careful with the paid or sponsored results. Here are a couple of tips:

• Buying lists of investors is a bad idea. You need to target your investors carefully, not send out mass missives. Investors you can’t find by a combination of asking locally and searching the Web are not good targets. Here’s some background on that.
• Buying ready-made business plans is another bad idea. You make your own plan; you don’t buy one from a consultant. If you have the budget to work with a consultant, check references first, and make sure that consultant helps you do your plan, rather than doing a plan for you. Here’s some background on that one.

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