Written on
June 16, 2010 by
Steve
TechFlash, a Seattle blog which covers tech startups, held an event which featured Mike Arrington

This lively panel discussion featured Bill Bryant from Draper Fisher, Hillel Cooperman from Jackson Fish Market, Serena Glover of Twango, Andy Sack of Founder’s Co-Op and the founding director of TechStars Seattle,
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Written on
June 15, 2010 by
Steve
The War on Reg D – Redux

Chris Dodd, an outgoing US Senator due to taking loans from Mortgage firms he helped, is pushing a bill which will strangle startups
There’s been a LOT of complaining recently about the terms which negatively impact the $26B annual world of “Angel” investing, which have been slipped into Senator Chris Dodd’s Financial Reform bill (“FINREG”). The Wall Street Journal railed about it under the banner “Angels Out of America“:
- Regulation D, also known as “Reg D” among securities types (along with Rules 504, and 505, and 506) is an area of US Securities law in which the SEC exempts certain qualified securities offerings – those made into very small start-up companies by private investors – from the requirements of “registration” for public offerings, with State and Federal Securities regulators.
- Under Reg D and the associated Rules, a start-up company can take investments from individuals without involving the investment banks, filing for an initial public offering (IPO). and complying with Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) requirements – among other horrors.
- A key aspect of these Federal legal codes, is the concept of an “Accredited investor” being involved in these “exempt” (from public registration) investments. Accredited investors have to date been able to factor in their primary residence into the net worth calculation, a central tenant of Reg D.
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Written on
June 11, 2010 by
Steve
How many U.S. Angel investing groups are there? How are they organized? How do they conduct due diligence?
In this 4 minute “part 2″ video segment from our educational interview series with Prof Rob Wiltbank of Willamette University, we explore how U.S. Angel investing groups are formed,
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Written on
June 6, 2010 by
Steve

Rob has been studying, analyzing, publishing papers, and speaking about Angel investments, focusing on investment outcomes, for the past ten years.
In addition to teaching entrepreneurship, Rob is a Venture Partner with Seattle venture capital firm Montlake Capital. He has recently raised a $300k Angel investment fund which his business school students are in the process of
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Written on
May 30, 2010 by
Steve

In this 3-minute video interview we get the story on Web 2.0 startup GoMiles from co-founder Michael Komarnitsky.
GoMiles was formed seven month ago, and is an applicant to the new “Seattle TechStars“ program for early-stage startups. GoMiles has a slick, automated solution to ease the pain of tracking those pesky, vexing travel mileage program accounts.
There are a number of nifty, surprise benefits which flow from using this “Mint.com” like site for tracking travel reward mileage accounts.
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Written on
November 19, 2009 by
Steve
While in Portland, Oregon this week Startup Trek TV interviewed Professor Rob Wiltbank, one of the top authorities in the US on the subject of Angel investing. In addition to teaching Entrepreneurship at Willamette University in Salem OR, Rob is a partner at a Seattle venture capital firm. He has recently raised a $300k Angel investment funds which his entrepreneurship students at Willamette Univ. are in the process of beginning to invest, in $50k chunks. Rob plans to scale this innovative, first-of-type student-managed Angel fund to $5M.
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Written on
October 25, 2009 by
Steve
Startup Trek Television, Inc. announced and completed another (November 10 > Dec 8, 2009) “Innovation in the Western USA” Tour:
We video interviewed startups in each city. This was our schedule:
- November 12 & 13: interview ten tech startups in Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue.
- November 14-15: (weekend) interview six tech startups in Portland, OR
- November 15: Salem, OR meet with #1 USA Angel Capital investment expert & researcher Rob Wiltbank
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Written on
September 30, 2009 by
Steve
Business School Seniors in the School of Business at California Polytechnic University (San Luis Obispo CA; “Cal Poly”) enrolled in “Business 454″ are tackling the pre-launch planning for a new digital media production firm which will launch in January 2010 as “StartupTrek.TV”
The 36 business school seniors in the Orfalea School of business will gain hands-on experience working in a tech startup company, as it plans a high-profile launch on the web, in advance of developing cable and broadcast television content relationships.
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Written on
July 30, 2009 by
Steve
This panel about the merits of Angel versus Venture capital investment was moderated by Sam Angus, Partner at Fenwick and West. The panelists were:
- Ron Conway, Founder Angel Investors LP
- Rob Hayes, Partner, First Round Capital
- Joyce Chung, Managing Director, Garage Technology Ventures
- Aydin Senkut, Founder & President, Felicis Ventures
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