Chicago Angel Investing Panel - Observations.

About a month ago I was at a private equity event at Perkins Coie given by some group to showcase about 10 companies that needed angel money or venture capital.    There weren't any concepts that I was interested in as I do try and stick to simple businesses where I can see where the money is going to be made.  Maybe I'm a part of a rare breed that thinks that there should be some kind of return associated with an investment, not dreams.  Remember, hope isn't an investment strategy.

I had a few obersavations about the hard money investors and a  few about the small business startups that I met in the audience.

1)  Ron May is an interesting guy.  I still don't know what he's all about, but at least he's interesting.
2)  There was a concept from the panel that said if you are looking for money, figure out if you need help or money.  If you need money, ask for money, if you need help ask for help.  An example is if you are asking for a commercial investment and you don't really need financing but you really need help with sales and marketing, ask for help with sales and marketing.  If you ask for business capital you are going to get it but then you won't get any help with your other problems.  No matter what you ask for, you are going to get it, a lot of it, so be careful and honest with yourself.
3)  An old concept of mine, fail fast if you are an entrepreneur.  Fail today, not tomorrow or next week.  It's better to start a new idea than to hang on and torture yourself with an idea that's not generating cash and has no hope.  How can you tell if you are generating cash?  If you can pay all of your bills at home, your payroll and other expenses.  If you are deeper than 3 months into your business and none of this is happening, well you might want to start reconsidering picking back up your day job.
4)  Starting a business isn't for everyone, sometimes people want to invest in ideas that are already mature vs. start ups.  Some people would rather purchase a new gas station over funding a new energy drink idea.  And that's OK.